We’ve grown our range of video production services by opening a new video production location down in Wokingham, Berkshire.
Still offering exactly the same energised corporate video production services, we are now perfectly placed to compliment our Hertfordshire location by serving a broader geographical region – with perfect access to Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire.
New boundaries, new clients
This includes working with existing and new clients in Maidenhead, Slough, Bracknell, Woking, Farnborough, Staines Upon Thames, Reading, Basingstoke, Guildford, Swindon, Newbury, Oxford, Bristol, Southampton and Portsmouth.
For any corporate video production needs in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Surrey or beyond– contact Energise Media today to see how we deliver energised bespoke corporate video solutions to clients across the UK.
You can see some of our video production clients here.
Got a Project to Discuss?
Give us a call on 0800 6444 024 or drop us an email to info@energisemedia.com - we’re waiting to help you stun audiences with your energised visual content.
All businesses strive for the above via their advertising and PR spend.
Few achieve it on a global scale without astronomical expense. Next to none achieve it with virtually zero cost output.
In the early days of YouTube, the most viewed films were often ‘accidental’ virals never intended for global consumption.
However, there has been a shift over the last few years, resulting in nine out of the top ten list for 2012 views being professionally made – with a single minded aim of achieving viral following.
We take a look at some films that have made the cut for a variety of reasons.
MOST VIEWS
PSY Gangnam Style
140 million views in 2012.
The song that you will have undoubtedly heard, and despite your protests, you may have tried to recreate the dance. Come on, own up!
No matter how hard you try to avoid it, it simply won’t go away. With 35 million Facebook and 2 million Twitter shares in the last year, its easy to see why we can’t hide from it.
MOST VIEWS IN A SINGLE DAY
KONY 2012
Unbelievably this film achieved 30 million viewers in a single day via a very clever social media driven campaign! No wander then that it holds the record for most views in a 24 hour period.
Its rise to global fame led to the creator, Jason Russell having a breakdown, such was the intense pressure and scrutiny. The video footage of Jason walking the streets naked screaming captured by amateurs also creating a viral following of its own.
MOST CONTROVERSIAL
So many to choose from. Where do we start? Well, perhaps with bookmaker Paddy Power’s latest film depicting a North Korean takeover of Sunderland football club.
To put it politely, its not in the best taste. But, hey, it will certainly create publicity and appeal to Paddy Power’s target audience, so perhaps they should be applauded for their bravery? You decide.
Paddy Power – Kim Jong Un & Sunderland FC
But lets not forget Lynx’s effort. Make sure your balls are kept clean!
Lynx – Clean Your Balls
MOST POPULAR OF ALL TIME
Yes, its still there. We know Charlie bit your finger, but please don’t make us watch it, please!
With a massive 522 million views, outperforming Adele’s rolling in the deep by a not to be sniffed at 125 million views.
CLICHÉD, BUT STILL VIRAL
We all know what people enjoy watching don’t we? A combination of the following in no particular order;
Cute, adorable children or animals, dancing, upbeat music, humour.
Cue the Evian babies and the moonwalking pony to name but a few!
ITS ALL IN THE TIMING
Bless you!
We simply had to end with the sneezing panda. The timing is genius and who could ever tire of it?
So there we have it. If you want a viral film, be patient, very patient. And perhaps very lucky too.
If you don’t have patience or a propensity to good luck – then employ a professional advertising agency and video production company and hope for viral status!
When filmmakers choose shots within a scene, there is typically methodology and science to their shot choices.
Whether you are aware of this or not whilst watching a film, the shot choices are purposeful and powerfully build a story, taking you on a journey and allowing you to share the Director’s vision for the motion picture.
Shot choices are vast, have totally different uses and meanings and include the following:
The Extreme Close Up
This shot proves to make a strong visual statement by concentrating the audience’s attention on a small detail of a subject. This often means that the viewer associates the object as playing a crucial role in the scene.
Close Up
Perhaps considered the newcomer to cinema speak, the close up is one of the most powerful shots, connecting the viewer with a subject. When used on a human subject, the smallest signs of emotion and behaviour are magnified. In this type of shot, the depth of field, focus length and composition are all important considerations to ensure the viewer’s focus is purely on the subject.
Medium Close Up
This shot shows off the face and shoulders of a character, whilst also allowing the viewer to take in a pretty good size portion of the background. This shot is ideal for when there is a strong connection between the subject and their surroundings.
Medium Long Shots
This shot typically includes a character from the knees up in a frame; typically wider than medium shots, but tighter in than long shots. Sometimes labelled as ‘American Shots’ due to their introduction into American western films.
These shots are great for simultaneously showing facial expressions, body language and the surrounding areas.
Long Shot
This shot is very popular as an establishing shot to allow the viewer to see the setting of the shot and put it in context. The long shot frames characters in their entirety, along with a large area of the background.
The Extreme Long Shot
This shot choice is great for emphasising the scale of a shot by placing a human into the shot, who typically occupy a very small area in the shot. When this shot does not include a character, it is often used as an establishing shot to set the scene for the audience.
Over the Shoulder Shot
This shot is often used for exchanges between two or more characters in a scene. As you’d expect, the name refers to the placement of the camera directly behind the subjects shoulder.
The inclusion of a character’s back to the camera helps add depth to the frame. In this shot you will see the camera placed according to the 180° rule.
Establishing Shot
This shot is typically an exterior view, showcasing a location where the action is about to unfold. As well as being used at the start of a scene, this shot is often used as a concluding part of a scene, as a form of conclusion.
The Subjective Shot
Pretty unique in its style, the subjective shot allows the audience to experience the action through the eyes of a character.
In this way a character interacts with the camera as if it was an individual.
Two Shot
The two shot includes two characters in the same composition. The two shot is usually achieved by using medium long, medium and medium close ups, although any shot featuring two characters can be called a two shot.
Group Shots
The group shot includes three or more characters in the frame. This shot is usually created with medium shots, medium long shots or long shots, since these are the shots that are best suited to the width required to contain multiple characters.
Canted Shot
The canted shot is a powerful shot introduced in the 1930s. With this method, the camera is tilted laterally, so that the horizon is not level and the vertical lines run diagonally across the frame.
The resultant impact can create disorientation, which helps convey a sense of dramatic tension, confusion, psychological instability or even madness.
High Angle Shot
The shot looking up at a subject from someone else’s perspective is said to give that person power and authority over the other character and infers superiority and control. The shot can be created looking down from the other perspective highlighting the other characters inferiority.
Emblematic shot
The emblematic shot can communicate abstract, complex and associative ideas with compositions that reveal special connections between visual elements within the frame.
This is not an easy shot to pull off, but can be very effective at communicating complex, non-verbal or associative information.
Abstract Shot
Introduced in the 1920s, these shots empahsise colours, textures, patterns, lines and composition over their literal content. The audience may not always recognise the origin of the content, but often extract meaning from the shot, meaning it can be a powerful choice.
Zoom Shot
Introduced to films in the late 1950s, the zoom lens allowed for a change of the focal length while a shot is taken, letting filmmakers have a dynamic field of view without the need to move the camera or switch lenses.
Although the zoom shot can resemble a dolly shot, they differ in the way they depict space and movement.
Pan Shot
Short for Panoramic, the pan shot allows the camera to scan space horizontally pivoting left or right, while remaining stationary, mounted on a tripod or possibly handheld.
This shot is often used to follow a subject as it moves across a location.
Tilt Shot
The tilt shot pivots the camera up or down while it remains stationary, typically mounted on a tripod or handheld. This movement shifts the audience’s attention from one area to another, vertically extending the range of the visual scope of the shot.
This shot often works well as an establishing shot, introducing a location and a character, as they are seen arriving or leaving it.
Dolly Shot
The dolly shot places the camera on a wheeled platform that can be moved smoothly. It is similar to a zoom shot in as much as both create a changing composition along the z axis, but with the dolly shot the camera is constantly moving and giving the audience the impression they are constantly moving.
This shot is often used to ‘dolly in’ – creating an increasingly tighter frame around a characters face to underline a meaningful moment of discovery or reflection.
Dolly Zoom Shot
Also known as a ‘counter zoom’, ‘trombone shot’, ‘contra zoom’ or ‘vertigo effect’, – the dolly zoom shot combines the dolly shot and the zoom shot, working together in tandem so that the camera dollies in towards a subject, whilst the lens is zoomed out, or zoomed in if the camera zooms out.
The resultant effect is that the characters size in the frame is maintained whilst the background perspective is changed drastically – giving an unsettling effect and reserved for times when something meaningful is taking place.
Tracking Shot
Simply put, in a tracking shot , the camera is moved to follow the movement of a subject along side of it, in front of it (also called a reverse tracking shot) or behind it.
This shot can be executed with a dolly, a Steadicam, handheld or placing the camera on a vehicle
Steadicam Shot
The Steadicam shot removes boundaries that force the dolly wheels or tracks to be impractical and give expressive camera movement.
A famous use of this shot was used in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas in 1990 following the characters into a club restaurant as they skip the queues and travel through the kitchen and into their newly created prime seats.
The Steadicam maintains the unity of an actors performance in real time, whilst also reframing to create dramatic emphasis, heightening tension and allowing the audience to connect with a scene.
Crane Shot
The crane shot sees the camera mounted on a support that can be an actual crane, a jib arm, a cherry picker, or any other device that allows the camera to be moved vertically, horizontally or in a combination of both.
The shot adds a dynamic nature to a scene and is heavily used in narratively important locations, such as wildlife documentaries, but also to underline especially poignant moments.
Sequence Shots
Amongst the most complex and difficult shots to pull off – the sequence shot incorporates a sophisticated range of dynamic camera moves over along take. Here, the action from several scenes that would otherwise be covered with a number of separate shots are instead linked.
Sequence shots are often used to showcase a crucial set of events that are pivotal to the understanding of the rest of the film.
That’s a Wrap
Next time you plan your shots and shoot your own films, be sure to consider the implications of the shot types and look at how they can add value to your films.
Film makers are always looking for ways to differentiate their projects and stand them apart in the video production and amateur film making marketplace. To this end, tilt-shift provides an interesting perspective on your footage.
Originally used by photographers with purpose built tilt-shift lenses, tilt-shift has gained in popularity by video production and post-production companies and budding filmmakers alike.
What Does it Do?
Tilt Shift effectively turns normal sized objects and scenes into seemingly miniature scenes, similar to a scaled down model by tricking the eye.
How Does it Work?
The physics of light and the human eye result in certain patterns in our everyday visual perception, meaning most of a typical landscape view appears in focus (large depth of field) – whereas when you focus on an object nearby you find that the background is blurry (shallow depth of field). The brain then uses this as a visual clue to calculate an objects distance.
In this way, tilt shift makes large objects such as trees, vehicles and even people appear miniature. Tilt shift does this by using a very shallow depth of field, i.e. a narrow area that is actually in focus. This helps to make the object we focus on appear miniature.
See it on TV
This effect is used on television – especially by the BBC and makes an ordinary, perhaps uninteresting shot interesting, simply by changing the perspective to make us question the shot and how it was captured.
If you’re a budding filmmaker, but not familiar with this technique, check out the many tutorials out there. The number of tutorials is many – from the good to the bad – but irrespective – pursue this and you’ll learn a great new technique that can be applied not just in your personal work, but also within your corporate filming.
Take it to the Corporate Stage
There is no reason why corporate companies cannot benefit from using this technique within their filming – to show a perspective that will stand them apart in a crowded market place.
Talk to Energise Media
If you’d like to use tilt-shift effects in your corporate films and realise the benefits, then contact Energise Media and see how we can help.
We’re often asked by clients whether producing a video is going to be expensive.
We answer that it depends entirely on the desired content and the amount of time, personnel and skill required to execute the production.
However there is one overriding factor that also impacts the price.
Is the video production company based in London?
If the answer is yes, you may pay more than you need to for your video production services.
Great prices may initially tempt clients to our Hertfordshire based video production company, but its the quality of our films, our passion, creativity and professionalism that turns new clients into long-lasting relationships.
They say you can guarantee few things in life, apart from death and taxes. However we can certainly guarantee our promise here at Energise Media to better London video production prices, whilst maintaining the level of quality offered.
Going the extra mile
Not only that, but we’ll also go the extra mile to offer you great levels of customer service reflected in our high levels of repeat business. Oh, and we make great cups of tea. That’s important too.
There have been many times that we have thought of taking up residence in the big smoke, only to realise that we would have to pass on the extra costs to our clients. And we don’t think that’s fair. Or necessary.
We offer clients all over the country a way that they are able to complete the filming projects, without being told to add an extra zero to the overall price to cover city overheads.
So if you’re looking for quality video production – look beyond the London based video production companies and look for a company that works far harder for your money, a company that will match their quality but significantly better the price, look for Energise Media.
If you want to find out more about Energise Media and our video production services, or simply to chat through a project, gain advice (it’s free you know!), or rack our creative brains, then simply give us a call – we’d love to help you.
You can see here how we’ve helped produce awesome films for our clients across the country – and also see what they think about working with us here:
So don’t write that cheque in the city until you’ve spoken to us. We promise, you won’t regret it!
Contact the Hertfordshire video production specialists today.
Watching a video that uses poor audio is a bit like listening to someone with long nails running them down a classroom blackboard.
It proves an instant turnoff for your audience.
Even if you are delivering a performance to rival Robert De Niro or Al Pacino – they’ll still be heading elsewhere if they can’t hear what you’re saying.
However, there’s a range of basic steps you can follow to ensure the audio used in your production is slick and the engagement of your viewers is maintained.
Types of Microphone
Microphone often fall into four categories:
1 – Handheld ‘stick’ microphones
Most notably used for interviews or by singers & comediansperforming when you’ll often see the microphone placed on a stand.
Pros -These microphones are fairly resilient and inexpensive
Cons – Microphone appears in the frame of your shot
2 – Lavalier ‘clip-on’ microphones
Often used when the subject needs to move around but still gesticulate with both hands versus a handheld mic
Pros – small and extremely discreet meaning it can be positioned to allow the subjectto move around and gesticulate without losing any sound quality. Due to its small nature it also often allows the person to almost forget its there and concentrate instead on their delivery.
Cons – Due to its small size and position on the clothing, the subject can knock the microphone more easily and this is picked up meaning repeating a segment of filming. The price is expensive in relation to the outputted sound quality.
3 – Shotgun microphones
Often recognisable for their fluffy wind breaker coats. Apart from its long and thin body looking slightly gun-like, the name shoutgun refers to the fact that the sound is picked up in whatever direction the microphone is pointing at – shoot and fire style.
Pros – Excellent sound quality pound-for-pound, especially versus Lavalier microphones
Cons – You’ll need a boom pole stand or someone to hold the microphone during the footage. You will also need to frame your shot with care to ensure the microphone does not enter the shot.
4 – Using your camera’s internal microphone
Pros – Not Many. Low cost. Typically included with the camera.
Cons – The quality of the recording is poor, as the microphone is situated on the camera and therefore may be a considerable distance away from your subject.
It is also prone to picking up background noise.
Best Practice
Follow these steps for a perfect production
Internal Microphones
The first rule is very simple. Never rely solely on your internal microphone for audio. Your internal microphone is for home movies only. Not corporate films. The quality is too low to consider using this for your interviews.
Assign Responsibility
Assign someone to manage the audio on the shoot. It should be their responsibility to check audio levels and ensure the output is crisp and clear by using headphones.
Location Scout
Work out your location ahead of your shoot. By identifying where the shoot is taking place, you can deal with any extra noises that may occur, such as filming in a busy street, which would dictate the type of microphone you will need. Even in a seemingly quiet office you will notice hard and soft spaces caused by different materials and surfaces, as well as background interference such as traffic, planes overhead, ringing telephones, doors shutting.
Right mic – right result
Use the right microphone for the right shots.
Shotgun mics are perfect when you require no trace of a microphone, such as short films and interviews when you just want to concentrate on the subject – however in a corporate production where your subject is constantly on the move, lavalier microphones are the preferable option.
So plan out what you’ll be shooting and ensure you make the appropriate choice.
Monitor…at all times
Monitor the audio throughout the shoot. You never know when a battery might die or the audio might drop off – so ensure someone is responsible for checking the audio levels throughout.
Voiceovers
Record any narration or voiceover separately in post production. This allows you to only capture the audio you need with less wastage.
Adjust and Refine
You can make adjustments and refinements to the audio in post-production to fine-tune and this should be a mandatory step for you to ensure the best possible output.
And don’t forget – you can use more than one microphone at any given time – so you are able to simultaneously use a shotgun microphone and a lavalier microphone to pick up a combination of footage.
Never be lost for words.
Use quality audio for your films.
You’ll hear the difference. And so will your clients.
For more information or for a no obligation quotation for your corporate video production, contact the video specialists, Energise Media.
Perhaps considered the newcomer to cinema speak, the close up is one of the most powerful shots, connecting the viewer with a subject. When used on a human subject, the smallest signs of emotion and behaviour are magnified. In this type of shot, the depth of field, focus length and composition are all important considerations to ensure the viewer’s focus is purely on the subject.
This shot typically includes a character from the knees up in a frame; typically wider than medium shots, but tighter in than long shots. Sometimes labelled as ‘American Shots’ due to their introduction into American western films.
This shot choice is great for emphasising the scale of a shot by placing a human into the shot, who typically occupy a very small area in the shot. When this shot does not include a character, it is often used as an establishing shot to set the scene for the audience.
The shot looking up at a subject from someone else’s perspective is said to give that person power and authority over the other character and infers superiority and control. The shot can be created looking down from the other perspective highlighting the other characters inferiority.
Introduced in the 1920s, these shots empahsise colours, textures, patterns, lines and composition over their literal content. The audience may not always recognise the origin of the content, but often extract meaning from the shot, meaning it can be a powerful choice.
The crane shot sees the camera mounted on a support that can be an actual crane, a jib arm, a cherry picker, or any other device that allows the camera to be moved vertically, horizontally or in a combination of both.
