25 Marketing Video Production Tips For Filming, Editing And Animation

Over the last few years, the importance of having a solid marketing video production strategy has become impossible to ignore. In fact, video has quickly become the go-to content audiences want from their favorite businesses, so you must catch up!

However, to develop a video strategy, it’s crucial that you get acquainted with some tips and tricks to produce the best marketing videos. And how can you learn those, you may ask? Well, that’s what I’m here for!

Today at Yum Yum Videos, I’ll teach you 25 tips you should take into account the next time you’re filming videos. Whether live-action or animated, I’m covering the three production stages, so you’ll find everything you need in just one place.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!

Marketing Video Production Tips for Pre-Production

During the pre-production stage, your efforts are focused on preparing for the shoot, determining your budget and timeline, and delimiting your goals. So, here are some of my best guiding principles to start off on a solid base:

1. Begin with a Script

Writing a script is always necessary if your video includes a professional voice-over or people talking to the camera. To make this task easier, take into account that 140-160 words usually correspond to about a minute of video.

2. Make a Storyboard for Easy Visualization

When it comes to creating your storyboard, describing the video shot in words, in addition to including the fragment of the script that will be used for it, can help you measure the length of each individual shot more precisely. Also, remember there are no art skills needed for this step!

3. Don’t Ignore My First Two Tips!

Scripts and storyboards are useful for both live-action and animation pieces, so don’t skip them! Shouting action and hoping for the best without any previous planning won’t get you anywhere. I always say that having a carefully thought-out idea of what you want your video to be is the key to success because you’ll avoid running into any unexpected delays or inconsistencies. So, making both a script and a storyboard will ensure everything’s going according to plan, and you won’t have to improvise.

4. Take Advantage of AI Tools

If you’re just starting out in marketing video production or don’t have a large budget, you can try using AI to generate a script. To do that, just provide the AI with as much relevant information as you can, such as your video’s length and style, your message, and the target audience. Then, tweak and edit the script to ensure it matches your brand identity and voice, and correct any inaccurate facts.

5. Pick a Single Subject

Narrow down the focus of your marketing videos to just one topic, message, or idea. It’s easy to get overly excited and want to cover a lot of ground, but there’s only so much you can do when filming videos that are typically no longer than three minutes. That’s why you should tackle only one point at a time, in order to go over it thoroughly without compromising any important details or overwhelming the viewer with too much information.

6.  Find an Appropiate Filming Location

If you’re going for a live-action piece, scout and secure the locations you have in mind for the video shoot ahead of time. However, if you want your protagonist to be simply talking to the camera, then a well-lit and quiet room you may have available in your workspace is enough. Just make sure you let everyone know not to come in during the shoot!

7. Let Your Protagonist Prepare

If you’re hiring talent for your marketing video production, provide them with the script beforehand and give them time to prepare. However, if you’re making a customer testimonial, you should share with your customer a list of questions to answer or topics you’d like them to cover, but tell them not to rehearse any answers, as everything should sound as authentic as possible.

8. Get Your Gear Ready Beforehand

Make a checklist of the gear you’re going to need before you go to the video shoot location: tripods, cords, spare batteries, any props you might want to use, microphones and microphone stands, and so on. Don’t forget the snacks! You should also check that all devices are fully charged and functioning properly before going out to avoid any delays.

Marketing Video Production Tips for Production

Finally, the fun part! During this stage of marketing video production, it’s time to record your video (for live-action pieces) or to start the illustration and animation process (for animated ones).

9. Pay Attention to Camera Work

Use the rule of thirds whenever you’re filming a video. Think of your shot as being divided into nine equal pieces by two horizontal lines and two vertical ones, like a tic-tac-toe. The intersections of those lines are the main points of interest in the shot (especially the top-left intersection), so that’s where you should position your main character.

10. Perfect Lightning Is Key!

For good lightning, you’ll need three different light sources: a key light, to shine directly on your talent, acting as the main source of illumination; a fill light, to shine on your talent from a side angle, balancing the key light; and a backlight, shining from behind, to separate the person from the background.

11. Take Acoustics Into Account

If you choose to shoot your video at a specific location, check the acoustics of the place before you start recording. Most audio problems can be solved in post-production, but a slight echo or ambient noise can still be the cause of many avoidable headaches.

12. Don’t Skimp on Your Takes

Make sure to film multiple takes of every scene during marketing video production, even if you think that everything went smoothly, so you don’t end up relying on a single shot when it’s time to edit the final cut. You should also record B-roll footage to complement the main scene and patch up any gaps you may find in post-production.

13. Research Animation Tricks

There are some essential animation tricks you could take advantage of to get the best result possible. For example, you should squash and stretch your objects to give the illusion of flexibility, as well as add anticipation and follow-through at the beginning and the end of a movement to make it more realistic. A quick Google search will lead you to many sources that explain the essentials you need to make your animation look more realistic and visually-appealing.

14. Use Appropriate Software

During the illustration stage of the animation process, our team likes to use both Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. This type of software allows you to easily work on separate layers, which is key to manipulating and animating them independently in the next step of the process. Acquiring the appropriate software may seem costly, but consider it an inversion rather than an expense.

15. Try Your Hand at Animation Apps

If you don’t have the budget to partner with an animated explainer video company, you can still get good results by using animation apps. Free, open-source apps can be as good as paid ones, so don’t hesitate to give them a try!

16. Branding Is Crucial!

Whether you’re going for live-action or animated marketing videos, you can incorporate your brand’s characteristic colors to increase brand awareness and recognition. For example, you could use them as part of your animated characters’ art design.

17. Save Your Footage Right Away

Once you’re done filming the raw, unedited footage, immediately upload it to a hard drive or cloud storage service to prevent losing it or deleting it on accident. Better be safe than sorry!

Marketing Video Production Tips for Post-Production

We’re almost there! During the post-production stage of video production marketing, you’ll take your raw footage to a fully polished piece ready to be watched by your audience.

18. Be Organized

If you’re juggling with the post-production process of multiple marketing videos, create a folder for each project and name every individual file using the same convention, such as project name – clip number – date, to prevent any mistakes and inconveniences.

19. Trim Your Footage Before Editing

Most video editing software allows you to clip the beginnings and ends of footage as you import it, so try to delete any false starts or pauses to save time when you actually have to edit the final cut.

20. Incorporate Branded Intros and Outros

If you’re adding an intro and outro, now it’s the time to do so. I highly recommend using them, as they serve as branding elements and make your pieces stand out from the crowd. They’re also an evergreen asset: once you create them, they can be used in all your marketing videos!

21. Create a Custom Thumbnail

While most video hosting platforms will use a random frame as the thumbnail for your piece, it’s a marketing video production best practice to create a dedicated one for each of your projects. More often than not, the thumbnail is what catches the eye of your potential viewer, so it has to be interesting and accurately reflect the content of your piece. Avoid clickbait at all costs!

22. Look into Appropriate Formats

Make sure to check the formats supported by the hosting and distribution platforms you want to use before rendering the final video file. While the most commonly used formats are MP4 and MOV, you should take into account that MP4 can lower the definition of your video, and MOV is only supported by Facebook and YouTube. Moreover, you should also try to export the file at the highest quality possible, which is usually 1080p. 

23. Include Text in Your Piece

Adding blurbs of text or graphics to your video can make it more appealing to your audience. The same goes for highlighting important information that you don’t want them to miss. For example, you can add some text related to your video’s topic right at the beginning, so you can catch the eye of people scrolling through their social media feeds. You can also incorporate your business logo at the end or in a corner of the frame to increase brand awareness.

24. Don’t Forget Sound and Music

Background music and sound effects are a must in marketing video production. In fact, adding sound effects to certain scenes can turn the video into an immersive experience for your viewers, creating an atmosphere that complements and even enhances what’s happening on the screen.

25. Test Mobile Editing Apps

If you’re filming videos on a phone, then a mobile editor app is your best bet to make your piece stand out and get it just right. There are many options out there, both free and paid, so take your time to experiment and find the perfect one for your needs. They’re a fantastic starting point before you commit to buying computer editing software and start filming videos with a more professional setup.

Wrapping Up

Well, that’s it for this article! I hope you found it helpful and informative 😄.

While I’ve gone over 25 marketing video production tips, which might seem like plenty enough, I highly encourage you to keep researching and learning about the production process of marketing videos. You know what they say, knowledge is power!

However, now that you’ve read this piece, you’re more than ready to start brainstorming some ideas for your next video shoot. I’m sure the results will be awesome! And remember, you can always partner up with a video production company to help you with the process and to ensure the best results 😉