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I saw this video, and this is what it is, and I look at it

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and there's literally a helicopter shot

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and pyrotechnics over the Statue of Liberty

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on the 4th of July.

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And they want this video with these elements in February,

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which is six weeks away.

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There's this misperception.

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You turn on a video camera

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and you make a three minute video by just hitting it record

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and then stopping it three minutes later.

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That is not the case. Change of the Reel.

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A podcast with Monique Velasquez and

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Piper Kessler.

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For over 20 years, we've run a video production business

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that has achieved what only 3%

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of women entrepreneurs have done

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Exceed $250,000 in revenue.

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We wanna see business owners that look like us succeed.

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That's why we've started this podcast.

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Change the Reel. We'll drop twice a month.

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We'll release two types of episodes.

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One is with Piper and I kicking it

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and talking about using video and business.

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And the second features, conversations

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with business owners using media

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to drive diverse perspectives.

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This is Change the Reel

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Representation starts here.

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Welcome to Change the Reel.

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Representation starts here. Music dancing interlude.

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Yeah, I love that sound

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For the budget minded.

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Yes. For the budget minded today, Piper

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and I are doing a solo show, and you should, is it

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A solo show or is it a Duo show?

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Oh, okay. We'll call it a duo. A couple,

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Couple show. Okay,

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Couple show.

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I don't know. We're gonna do the show with just you and I.

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You should know that today we're gonna talk about how

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to hire a video crew or videographer

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and not feel like you're being taken advantage of.

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We work with a lot of first time producers, right? Mm-hmm.

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So there are people that we, um, that call us

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that are middle managers or become managers,

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and they have been tasked with creating a video

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or an event that has video to play,

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or they wanna capture video and to, and they don't feel

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Extremely confident, Right?

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I mean, there's a variety of things

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that we get hired to, to do.

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We may just record an event for edit later.

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We may be in the back of the room documenting a lecture for,

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uh, archival purposes.

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Um, we may do a very big gala event

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where we have, uh, moving parts like, um,

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interviews from virtual guests.

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We have Rolands that have been, uh, emailed to us

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with video clips

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And we're streaming it.

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We may even just do a talking head to, to send

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to somebody in, in a video for some other purpose, right?

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It's not, maybe not your company, but your CEO

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or your, uh, content expert

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or, um, needs to, to be included in

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And talking head is, do we need to,

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because that's a term. It

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Is a term. Basically,

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a talking head is a video where

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all you see is something like this, right?

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That is either directly to camera

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or off camera, talking to maybe somebody who's interviewing.

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But, uh, this would be a talking head, right?

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This would be a talking head. And

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Sometimes talking heads are one

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of those very straightforward, uh, hires, right?

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You get one camera, you get three lights,

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you get a microphone,

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and you may have a script, or you may not.

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You may need a teleprompter, you may not.

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So there are lots of moving parts about

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what a talking head might be.

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One of the first things, when you're working with somebody

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who hasn't, uh, done this before, they ask a few questions,

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or they may feel a little shy about

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what it is they don't know.

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And I understand that that's not what you're,

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you've been hired to do.

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You've been hired to take care of projects,

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or maybe you are an engineer,

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or maybe you are a elections expert,

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and you know about all the things about moving parts in a,

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in a machine or the whole process of how to, uh, staff

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and equip, you know, for an election.

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But you don't know anything about making a video. And that's

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Where he's a content expert, Right?

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Meaning that you're the expert in

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what it is your video is gonna be about.

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So we, we do a lot of that.

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What do you feel like are some of the first

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Questions, common questions?

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Well, there's always how much is it gonna cost? That

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Is true. How long

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is it gonna take?

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Um, how many people need to be involved? I I get asked that.

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Or a location, right? Who writes the script? And

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So there's lot, lots of things that we,

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we talk about, right?

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And so today we're gonna talk about how

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we will help the folks that are planners, right?

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You got a plan. You are one of those folks that, you know,

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you have your, your, uh, spreadsheet, you gotta color coded,

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you have your, it's gonna

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Happen a year from now, Six months from now.

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However it's gonna happen in your life.

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And we're also gonna talk to those that are procrastinators

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because you need to have these questions on file

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and ready to go to be able

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to answer questions from somebody who you're gonna talk to.

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And, and, um, hire

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Somebody may go, Hey, uh, Monique, three days from now

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I have an event and I don't have all the detail yet.

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I need it covered. And that's all I know right now.

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Right? And, and we, we just

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actually just got a call just like that this week,

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two days this week, right?

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So that, that happens, right?

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And so everything we're gonna talk about today is, uh,

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geared towards you understanding how you can perform

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and not feel like you're taking advantage of.

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If you're hiring a crew, we won't be able to help the folks

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that are DIYing, right?

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We're not gonna talk about the tech.

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We're not gonna talk about the what mics, what tripods, what

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platform, or what AI we're using to edit. Yeah.

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This is, you wanna hand it off,

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but you wanna feel confident handing off to somebody else,

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Right? Exactly.

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And so what we are going to do is talk about time,

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your control and the cost.

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Those are the three things, the big things that we need you

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to understand when you're, you're dealing

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with hiring somebody.

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And it's just like any other thing.

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If you've got a, a contractor

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or you wanna outsource something, those are the three things

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that you really want to, you know, focus in.

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So time, how long does it take If you're a planner,

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you know, you got six months, three months, six weeks,

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whatever it is that you have,

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and you know what your timeline looks like.

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Yes. And you have other tasks that you're also trying

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to balance.

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And this is not necessarily

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Your main Job. Your

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main job, right?

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Right. So, you know, time, one of the things

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that you wanna do is to get

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with your expert.

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Let's talk a little bit about where do you find your expert.

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A lot of times we do referrals, right? Mm-hmm.

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Like we get, uh, referred by past clients

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or current clients, right?

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That's true. And that says a lot, um, of,

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you know, helping you.

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So find somebody that you have faith in.

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Now, you may get a referral from somebody

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where you like the product that they put out,

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but they may not have had a good experience

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when they give you the referral.

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So that is something that we'll talk about on

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how you can get a better experience, right?

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To not feel like you're being taken advantage of,

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Or you might turn to, well, what happens a lot

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for us is you may turn to somebody you know

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that had the same kind of need, and you turn to them

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and go, well, what was your experience?

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Who, how did you reach out?

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And you, you know, that way you get a,

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Gimme a for instance, A for instance.

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Um, well, a lot of times we, we are covering,

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uh, events and someone knows

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that they're doing a similar event

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and they know, let's do an example of they're in government

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and they are reaching out

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to the person they know who's at another municipality

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or entity that has a similar job,

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and they're reaching out to them

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and going, how did you attack this?

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And how did you find the person

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that you wanted to hire, right? Who ended up doing it,

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Right? And so, referral

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is, is a matter

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of tapping into your network of collaborators,

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partners, you know, colleagues, people you admire,

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people you wanna get to know.

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And so tapping them for what they did and,

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and what their experience was with their, uh,

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video person now know that just about every

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place in the country has a videographer somewhere

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in the corners, in the high school, in the college nearby,

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in the community college nearby.

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So there are places that you can look, uh, to find,

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there are, uh, you know, groups, LinkedIn groups and, and,

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and that sort of thing.

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So if you feel like you don't have a place to look,

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there are lots of places that you can look

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to find somebody to work with.

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Do I suggest that you use somebody without experience?

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Depends on what your budget is, right?

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How much is it gonna cost me?

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A lot of people will take the shortcut

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of having their brother-in-law's,

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cousin's nephew who happens

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to have had a few classes in high school with editing.

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They have a, you know, a camera in their pocket.

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Now they have the task,

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they have the skills and that sort of thing.

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But what you may not have is

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that person may not have the maturity to understand

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what it is that you're really trying to communicate.

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Or they might, they might have the maturity.

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They may not understand what the purpose is of the video.

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So let's say that you're a nonprofit

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and you're looking to create a, um, fundraising video,

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and you have, you know,

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you wanna do a creative collaboration with them.

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That person may not have the understanding of what it is to

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ask for money in a way that is, uh, polite

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or, um, in tune with the story of your nonprofit

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or whatever it is that you are, you know, uh, representing.

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I I, I would say too, in that instance,

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'cause sometimes we've been pulled in

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after something like that has happened, you have

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to take on the role of definitely being the producer.

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You're, you're hiring a person to run the camera, right?

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And so, and to edit it, right?

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And that become, they become a tool

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or a technician versus somebody

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who has a different experience as a producer, right?

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That those are two different things, right?

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You know, so getting references

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and finding somebody can be as ma as just a as simple

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as finding what your, your network looks like

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and who has done these things.

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And maybe there's somebody, uh, that, you know,

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a video you've seen at a conference workshop

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or other, you know, on the online.

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And you can just reach out to them

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and figure out what they did.

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So that is the first place to start, um, having a reference.

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We have available to us a, um,

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cheat sheet, which is a set of questions that we

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will ask people that are calling us to do work for them.

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There are questions that we believe

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the person should be asking us.

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And so we'll run through some of those.

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So what you will be asked as a client

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is the first set of questions that we'll run through here.

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And we're gonna run through those so that you can, uh,

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you know, be prepared, uh,

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what somebody should be asking you.

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And if they don't ask you these questions, you need

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to just like put a little question mark on whether they're

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the right client, uh, uh, videographer

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or video crew for you.

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And we'll have available this as a giveaway.

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So we'll give you, uh, a link to that,

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what you'll be asked as the client.

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We'll run through a few of these. Mm-hmm.

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What's the purpose of the video?

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That's the one of the first things that I ask the clients.

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So why do you ask the, why do you ask the client that?

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I wanna know if it's a, you know, entertainment piece,

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is an education piece.

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Is it something that has a story that needs to be heartfelt

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or funny or, you know, just engaging

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Because that changes how we film it. Our suggestions,

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How we edit, How we edit,

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How we compose, right?

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Who's your target audience is also one of those questions

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that I ask, are you trying to get the attention of

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by creating this video, right?

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Are you trying to get an 18 year old's attention?

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You're trying to get a 60 year old's attention,

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a certain demographic attention?

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You, it's important, right?

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'cause it's gonna visually look different people

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who you choose to be in front

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of the camera, all kinds of things. Yeah.

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I mean, some of the music that we pick becomes important

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is if you're trying to create more energy

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for a youthful audience,

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Elicit a certain kind of feeling or response.

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If you have an wanna an emotional, you know,

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punctuation on something, it will change

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how we approach something.

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And if you, if you don't know, that is okay too,

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but it gives you a chance to figure out, well, yeah, I,

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do I want a technician,

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or do I want a partner that helps me create a communication,

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something specific that I'm trying to communicate? You

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Know, something that seems obvious that you should ask,

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what is your delivery date?

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Or be asked, what's the turnaround on the media now?

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Because Monique will go all the way through.

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Here's when we're gonna start filming.

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This is when you can expect the first edit

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all the whole entire process, right?

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The, and billing as well, right?

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A timeline from, you know, script production dates, when

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to see graphic proofs with branding, you know,

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all these sorts of things I put into a timeline.

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So what, how you, you know, how quickly you need

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that timeline, how quickly you need that video, right?

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Is really important. What is your project budget?

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Sometimes I ask this

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because there is an expectation that, hey,

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I saw this video and this is what it is.

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And I look at it and there's literally a helicopter shot

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and pyrotechnics over the Statue of Liberty

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on the 4th of July,

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and they want this video with these elements in February,

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which is six weeks away.

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And there's another thing wrong with asking that.

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And, and you shouldn't feel, you shouldn't lose confidence.

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No. 'cause of that, right? It's like you don't

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know the sky is the limit.

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Your budget may be the sky is the limit.

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I mean, part of it is, it's like, yes,

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we can take a look at what you have a sample of

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and say, oh yeah, that's a $30,000 video,

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or 500,000 video.

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Or you may tell us, Hey, we have $3,000

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and this is what we wanna do, and we are creative enough

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and have enough skillset to know

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what your budget will allow you to do.

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If you're looking for, you know, a 15, 3, 15 minute videos

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for $3,000, we're gonna point you somewhere else.

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Um, because that is an unrealistic expectation.

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And, and then we bring it up

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and other people bring it up as well.

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And it's not, I know people feel like sometimes when someone

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asks them what's their budget,

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whatever they are gonna create is gonna

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hit the top of that budget.

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And I get that. But it does make a huge difference.

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We need to know, because we're not gonna,

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we're gonna make suggestions.

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We're not gonna order the helicopter, right?

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Right. We're gonna make suggestions that are accommodate

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that budget, right?

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Is your video part of a plan strategy or a campaign?

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Is this something that fits into a bigger story,

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a bigger communication plan?

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Are you one of those that has a plan going on?

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You have a campaign going,

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and this is just one of the elements.

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You have brochures, you have a website,

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you might have a podcast that, that is accompanying this,

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And you need it to tie in

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because you don't wanna,

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if the website has a very different aesthetic to it

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than the video that you're about to do, that

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may be two different departments.

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And you may need to have a discussion there. How will

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You measure your results

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or your turn on the cost of the video?

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So this is a subjective mm-hmm. Measurement.

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A lot of times marketers have very definite ideas.

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They wanna be able to see

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and quantify views where it's viewing.

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And I'm gonna tell this story that I heard the other day,

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and that is, there is a guy that has a newsletter,

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and he has a thousand people on this newsletter,

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but it is the right eyeballs on his newsletter

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because his newsletter is specifically for

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the music industry at a very,

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very executive level.

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So there're only, there's a finite number of people in that,

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um, target audience.

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And so when you're quantifying, oh,

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he only has a thousand people on his newsletter, no,

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they're paying top thousands of dollars for this newsletter

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so that they have this industry very niche

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industry specific content available to 'em.

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So that measurement becomes, well,

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a thousand doesn't sound like a lot,

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but it's the right eyeball.

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So when we're looking at marketing,

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and we're looking at this as being a plan in marketing,

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sometimes it's not about how many views you get.

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You are not looking for a viral video necessarily,

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because the people that are looking at viral videos are also

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looking at cat videos.

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They're not necessarily looking at ways

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to help your nonprofit

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or to, uh, solicit your help with, uh, your business, right?

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So is it part of a campaign or a strategy?

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And how do you measure your return on investment?

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Is, is something that you really need to nail down.

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It could be views, it could be, you know,

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the right eyeballs.

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And sometimes your audience may be one person

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that one donor with the biggest check that

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that's ever happened for your nonprofit.

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And, you know, they will donate again if you

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could just get in front of them.

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And this video might just be the one. And so that is,

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Or it's just that one client that you,

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That one client wanna, You're looking for.

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That's right. You're, you're looking

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to engage with, right?

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So your return on investment becomes a different strategy

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and a different way to measure.

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And we will ask sometimes if there's a specific visual

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that you wanna capture,

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because there might be something that we might miss.

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And if you tell us ahead of time,

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or tell the person that you wanna hire, let them know, oh,

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by the way, I need

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this artist is gonna be doing this,

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but we don't really care about the beginning part.

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We just wanna see the last two days,

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or we wanna see the beginning,

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and then we don't wanna see any of the middle.

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We just want the final

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Outcome, right? I mean, one

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of the example I think you're talking

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about is the murals.

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Mm-hmm. Right? So they wanted to see, it's very short,

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it's three minute video, but they wanna see

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the entire process.

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They don't wanna just see, oh,

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here's the mural, let's talk about it.

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So we had to be engaged from when the artist

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had a blank wall and started prepping

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and doing all the fill in

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and what it looked like at the end.

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So that image was very, very important.

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And so that was something that we, and

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What they could have asked us

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and they didn't care about, was they could have asked us,

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well, we wanna see the process of how we chose

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who was doing the mural and what our ideas were once we got

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what that artist, and they didn't want that.

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They wanted the beginning of the process for the artist.

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That's exactly right. Uh, so we, we will ask

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that question, you know, what visuals that need

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to be captured, who will be on camera

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to represent the organization?

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Because sometimes this is a video that is a,

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you know, explainer video.

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This is a video business card for the business, right?

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Mm-hmm. We talked to, uh, A CEO

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that was telling the history of their company.

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They weren't necessarily the founder.

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They were the current CEO,

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but they were very close to the ground floor.

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And so that was the right person to have on screen

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and talk about that, rather than having the marketing person

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or their public affairs person talk about that.

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One of the other things too is let's say

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that you're reaching out, we've been hired to do recruiting

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of minority students into, uh, stem summer programs.

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And so what, who we showed

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participating in the event became important.

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We could show, um, potential, uh,

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Latino parents and, uh, African American parents,

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Asian parents, um, different, uh, students

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in the summer program. And

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The, and they asked us to ask specific questions so

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that we could get eliciting different answers, so

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to show from coming from different places.

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So there was specific questions

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that we ask each interview, right?

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Because it, it comes really important about what

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is representing on camera, the message,

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your communication about your topic, about your video.

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So we will ask who will be on camera going

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Into that? It's like, should,

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should the answers there be scripted?

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There are sometimes there are certain people, let's say

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CEOs, they're not necessarily set

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to always be in front of a camera.

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And, and some

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CEOs are just not good at it.

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And, but they might be really good if it's scripted.

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So will you be needing a prompter?

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Their answers to these questions need to be scripted.

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Sometimes they legally don't want to, right?

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Because they want it to be off the cuff.

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And some of them have legal issues

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that they need, and that's true.

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Need to make sure that they are on the right legal line of

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what it is they're talking about. And,

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And a lot of times too, we'll be in front of

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and interviewing people who, employees of a corporation,

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and they're like, well, they'll turn

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to the person who's sitting there

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that represents the company

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and go, well, what is it that you want me to say?

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Because gimme a little hint.

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And they'll say it in their own words.

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But if they have that little bit of a script

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or an idea, then they're not going to feel, uh, cons,

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excuse me, conspicuous.

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Let me just say that when you are creating a video

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for your company, even if it's got the feel

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of a documentary, it is always in bounds to

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feed somebody an answer that you're looking for.

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Because you may get in front of a, a testimonial video

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where you know that the outcome

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for this particular person was, you know, a very emotional,

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very life-changing event.

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They may feel like it wasn't,

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but you know, when you tell your story for your company

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that, that it is, and they may downplay some of that.

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And so you want to feed that to 'em and, and say,

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and give them cues that this is

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what we really want you to talk about.

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This is what we really, so those

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Would be the specific questions and how to ask it.

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And that way you also may not want

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video crew being the one to ask.

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It may be somebody who was there

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and they go, I remember this happening.

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Can you talk about this?

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And you already have that relationship.

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And so sometimes it's sort of scripting the answers.

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It's also feeding them the answers.

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So that is something that we ask, do you want scripted

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or fed questions?

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Because it makes a difference on how they respond

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and what you communicate and that you get what you want.

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And as a quick thing,

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sometimes you're not getting that response.

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Or maybe as the video crew, you need the ear of a person

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who understands what can be edited.

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It may sound great, you're sitting there listening,

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but is it an edible editable piece?

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Did you, did you get the answer you really wanted?

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As a videographer, may think, Hey, that sounded perfect.

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That's easy to edit,

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but as the client, you might be,

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that wasn't really what I wanted. I

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Have seen a lot of nodding heads during an interview when

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as a, as the editor in the room, and I'm hearing it's like,

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but they didn't really say right?

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They didn't say the proper noun.

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They said it, and they never say,

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your company was the best thing that ever happened to me

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because it changed my life.

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They said, yeah, it was a great experience,

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which is watered down from

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your company was the best experience and changed my life.

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That's a cooperation thing between the, the videographer

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or producer and the client, right?

559

Being able to go, did you get what you needed?

560

Did you get what you needed? Right?

561

And sometimes they, they just say it just, it's not wrong,

562

but they just say it in a way that isn't,

563

um, the most impactful.

564

And as a producer with experience, that's something that we,

565

when Piper and I are on set, we look out for all the time.

566

'cause we, we know, eh, that we heard it was great

567

and that really doesn't say anything.

568

So we, we roll it back and we kind of prod

569

and pull and push, right?

570

And coax the proper noun out of them.

571

And so on the spot we're kind of saying, is that

572

what you wanted to the client?

573

Did you get what you needed?

574

And leading to that is who's going

575

to give the final approval?

576

Is it gonna be a single person

577

who's gonna give this the final approval?

578

Because that ends up how many people need to see it

579

and how long we have to wait for each?

580

'cause a lot of times what will happen is there might be

581

five people that need to see it and give approval,

582

and the first person says, okay,

583

I want this change and this changed.

584

And the second person

585

who watches it says something completely different.

586

They wanted that left in, right?

587

And so it does, it is important.

588

That's why we're asking who is gonna be the final approval.

589

Part of it is, there are some things

590

that we educate our clients about when we spend with, um,

591

meetings and on location,

592

and we give the company person in charge of the video,

593

we give them information that the person

594

that doesn't come into the process until they see, oh,

595

why didn't we use X, Y, Z?

596

Well, because they had a big t-shirt

597

that had a terrible logo on it when they showed up

598

or whatever it is that that happened, right?

599

If they're not in the room the whole time,

600

that when they watch it out of context, it becomes harder

601

for them to approve a video.

602

So that's why we ask who's gonna be

603

available for the final approval.

604

We'll also ask, where's the video gonna be shot?

605

Interior, exterior,

606

Your place, my place.

607

If we're doing it in your place,

608

we will ask additional questions of can we see the place?

609

Because we need to see is there power?

610

What is the lighting situation?

611

I will always be listening

612

because people don't realize you're living your life

613

and you don't notice the different noises in a room

614

or noises coming into a space.

615

Same thing with exteriors.

616

People will go, oh, this is a beautiful exterior

617

and it may be in the middle of two traffic lights

618

and a stoplight and a bus stop

619

And a fire station And a fire station.

620

We've had that happen. Or visually we know people are gonna

621

be walking through and we can't

622

stop tra we can't stop walking traffic, right?

623

Or things like that. So that will be a question of

624

where you intend to film this.

625

That concludes what you will be asked

626

as the client except for the last one.

627

And that is, I'm just gonna say this.

628

Don't ask us how long the video should be. We don't know.

629

We don't know what your audience is.

630

We don't know what the story you're telling.

631

We don't know what your communication,

632

what your campaign is like.

633

We don't know a lot of different things specifically

634

to your target audience.

635

If it feels like you just wanna have a number of the budget,

636

that is something different than asking us, you know,

637

how long should the video be?

638

Because data is showing that

639

you can create a 60 minute podcast

640

and people will tune in and watch the entire 60 minutes.

641

If it is 60 minutes

642

and they wanna know every little morsel,

643

they're gonna stick with it.

644

If you are trying to find a recipe

645

and you just want the basics,

646

60 minutes may be the right amount,

647

especially if it's a tricky process,

648

might be able to be a shorter video.

649

You know, it's up to you to know

650

what your audience really is about.

651

So please don't ask us how long should it be.

652

I'll give you my opinion and

653

I'll give you what the data says.

654

It can be 60 minutes, it could be five minutes,

655

Right? We can ask

656

questions and maybe make a suggestion.

657

But in reality, you're the content expert.

658

You are the expert for your company of

659

what the intention of the video is,

660

Right? What's your message?

661

What are you trying to communicate?

662

Those are the most important things.

663

And can you communicate it in 30 seconds?

664

Can you communicate it in five minutes?

665

Can you communicate or does it need 60?

666

We won't know until we get to the details

667

of answering these other questions.

668

Shifting to the next part, which is

669

what you should ask the video crew.

670

And these, these questions are not out of bounds

671

because it's gonna give us information as well.

672

You have every right to ask these questions.

673

Absolutely. And So have you worked

674

with another client in my industry before?

675

You may want it

676

to look like your video to look like everybody.

677

I hate to say that look like everybody else's in the same

678

industry, because you don't want to. I I

679

I You don't wanna stand out. Wait, here's,

680

You do. But here,

681

Here's an example, right? You

682

know, I talked to somebody about, um, doing a,

683

um, speaker's reel.

684

And this particular person wanted me to have experience

685

for a speaker's reel.

686

I thought it was interesting

687

because I didn't understand

688

what special skills were needed for that,

689

but they seemed adamant it adamant about it.

690

And I was like, you know, honestly, I've not done it.

691

I've done lots of different videos that have generated

692

dollars for organizations and engagement with clients.

693

So if you need me to have speakers real specific, yeah,

694

that specific industry, I don't have it. And

695

That's the comfort level, right?

696

It's like, oh, and it's an easy, okay,

697

if you've done a speaker's reel, you know exactly.

698

'cause there may be something that we don't understand.

699

The product may have to be two and a half minutes

700

and have this and this and this and this,

701

and it's a shortcut.

702

So if you have already done one, there's shortcuts to it.

703

Also, the process of doing it

704

because, well, I'll just say again, with government,

705

we understand that there are certain things that you have

706

to do and attend to in government,

707

and that's already understood, right?

708

And there are legal things, right,

709

that happen in corporations when you're talking about drugs

710

or giving, um, specific, um, uh,

711

results, right?

712

So those, those are the types of things that, that are

713

really important to have that maturity

714

and to be able to, to say with, with confidence, you know,

715

with my other clients that are in this industry,

716

this is something that they consider crossing the line.

717

Perhaps you should consider that we become a consultant.

718

Once you decide that you are working

719

with somebody who's worked in that industry before,

720

You wanna go through the list really quick, like, yeah.

721

Do you have samples of your work that match our budget,

722

the budget that we are, we know we are set at?

723

Do you have examples

724

of work you've done at that budget? Right?

725

And, and I've, I've, you know, I have a $3,000 budget.

726

Here's something I did for $3,000.

727

This is something that I did for $5,000, you know?

728

And so that, that becomes something that I can provide

729

to you if you ask for it.

730

Here's our deadline. Are you gonna be able to meet it?

731

And can you provide a timeline?

732

We've been honest with people before

733

and said, yes, we can do what you're asking,

734

but there is no way we can hit your timeline right?

735

That that is an important one for you.

736

Especially if you're one of those that is like, oh,

737

it happened, it needs to happen in the next two weeks

738

or the next four weeks,

739

because that is, that is a lace late start

740

because of the fact

741

that sometimes you need just a little bit

742

more finessing.

743

And when you don't have the timeline that you need,

744

you need the experience to expedite the good outcome.

745

Can you explain the video process to me?

746

We've done this a lot

747

because a lot of our clients have never, there's this,

748

they've suddenly been tasked with something that they,

749

they don't know video at all.

750

And they're like, my boss told me to do this.

751

They're always like, I hate to ask this, but,

752

and it's like, no, no worries.

753

We'll ask, have you ever done a video before?

754

That's right. And it starts with what a script

755

format looks like.

756

A lot of people think it looks like a screenplay

757

in industrial videos, it looks very different.

758

So, uh, we'll help with that.

759

That is something that we we're used to.

760

And you should ask us about,

761

Are you going to subcontract this out?

762

Are you gonna hand it to somebody else?

763

I'm not, I'm talking to you right now,

764

but are you gonna end up handing it to somebody else?

765

And they're gonna come back and ask me questions

766

that I've already provided you answers for?

767

And, and that's a legitimate question.

768

It's like, am I going to see you show up

769

or is it gonna be somebody else?

770

That is a big one because I can't tell you how many people

771

have hired us and they're not on location

772

And there's nothing wrong with that.

773

But we are asking, in some cases, we're the subcontractor.

774

We are asking them questions

775

and they're giving us answers on behalf of the client.

776

We show up. And that is not the expectation of the client.

777

What types of things do you need us to provide?

778

So as the person hiring, you will ask your video crew,

779

what do you need us to provide?

780

They may say, I need to you to find a location.

781

I need you to find experts.

782

I need you to coordinate the schedule.

783

I need you to find the specialty props.

784

I need you to get us access to a courtroom,

785

Because that's all gonna be in their, their bid to you.

786

They gotta work to do that.

787

And so they need to know that it's gonna affect the budget.

788

Can you use brand logo, fonts

789

and color scheme in the final product?

790

Right? You will ask your videographer to use your brand,

791

your fonts, your color, you know,

792

all the branding that you have.

793

Ask it specifically

794

Inclusion rider.

795

Will you use women or minorities in key

796

production positions?

797

This is something that is big to us.

798

If it's important to you, you have the right

799

to ask these questions.

800

Yes, absolutely.

801

Um, I was reading, um,

802

not too long ago about keynote speakers

803

and, uh, present presenters.

804

So they're getting paid to come in and present.

805

They're getting paid to be keynote.

806

And one of the things that, that people are asking is

807

how many women, how many minorities are being asked

808

to present and be on the, the main stage?

809

They will turn work down if there isn't a certain percentage

810

of representation in the entire conference.

811

It may be a two day, it may be a one day,

812

it may be a five day conference.

813

And so when you are doing business as a business,

814

you may decide to go

815

and spend your dollars with African American, uh,

816

owned businesses, or Latino owned businesses,

817

or L-G-B-T-Q owned businesses.

818

You may not care at all,

819

but if you do care, you need to ask that specifically.

820

Can you post to my platform directly for me?

821

We get asked this a lot.

822

If given the credentials,

823

that's gonna be the immediate question from

824

whoever you're hiring.

825

It's like, well, who do I get the credentials from?

826

Right? And so here's, here's the thing too.

827

Be a little skeptical if they are not gonna post it for you.

828

And the formats too.

829

That's, that's important to, um,

830

the different platforms have different formats.

831

Like if you have an intern, we had a one client

832

that had a very specific internal media

833

formatting, and it was, it was interesting

834

that we, we needed to know.

835

And so if, if we had handed them something,

836

they would not have been able to post it on their internal,

837

um, server because the formatting was incorrect from

838

us as the videography company.

839

By having us post it, we understood, oh,

840

this is a specialty format,

841

so we needed to do something different.

842

Can we have a special set

843

or background that has our branding?

844

Sometimes it's, it's not necessarily your branding, it's,

845

you wanna have a very specific background.

846

So they're, they need to know that.

847

And can they provide that?

848

They may turn around and say, well, we can't provide it,

849

but do you have someone on your staff

850

that can provide it?

851

Right? We will make sure it's there. Right?

852

And so It's filmed,

853

Basically what you're doing is you're asking the

854

videographer to help you source something special,

855

something specific

856

That'll follow in with, uh, do I get

857

to pick the film location?

858

Or do you get to pick the film location? Mm-hmm.

859

And that can be a question. I mean, I have known producers,

860

cinematographer, uh, excuse me, videographers who are like,

861

let me pull out where I wanna film.

862

They don't want it to be in your hands.

863

They want to deal with it.

864

I want to have creative input on the final product.

865

How do you propose we work together

866

This specifically for those who are super planners, right?

867

You wanna have input, you want everybody to have orange ties

868

because our brand is orange.

869

That includes if you've hired a, uh, on camera

870

actor to do something for you.

871

You wanna have all those details you wanna ask specifically.

872

I want to have a lot of input.

873

How do you as a videographer want to work with me

874

as a client?

875

Very important question.

876

We've had also the opposite of, uh, my plate is full.

877

This is what I need.

878

This is, this is the basic of what we're trying to get to.

879

I don't have time. Can you take this entire project over

880

for me and make sure it happens?

881

So we've had both sides of that happen.

882

Do you see places where we can cut the budget?

883

That is an important one,

884

especially if you're budget conscious

885

or you, you feel like you want the $30,000 video,

886

but you only have 10,000.

887

So there are places that as an experience videographer,

888

I will know where you can cut the budget.

889

We won't hire the helicopter.

890

We might hire a drone operator.

891

I wanna contract you as a work for hire.

892

A work for hire means

893

that they do not own your copyright that you do.

894

If they can't do this for you

895

or they don't understand this question, move

896

to the next name.

897

The expectation of what you filmed for me

898

now may get used in another video in the future.

899

And it's not your company's video. It

900

It's not your video.

901

How will you give me these assets at the end? All the,

902

On A hard drive or what is it?

903

A live live to recording an option versus editing.

904

And that's, you've gotta decide if that's

905

what you possibly want.

906

You just want camera starts, camera ends.

907

There is no edit process.

908

'cause you need it quickly and it is a single take. Mm-hmm.

909

Can that be provided? Yeah.

910

Such as a lecture

911

or a live event that you know has beginning and end.

912

One of the things that I, I notice on here

913

that it's just missing a shooting ratio.

914

And this, I think this is something that

915

is an education point, right?

916

Like let's, let's do an example.

917

Yes, there's an interview and you don't know for sure

918

what it is that you want.

919

On the video, there's

920

This misperception.

921

You turn on a video camera

922

and you make a three minute video by just hitting it record

923

and then stopping it three minutes later.

924

That is not the case.

925

For every minute of finished video,

926

you may have four minutes of actual raw footage.

927

So that's called a shooting ratio.

928

So if you want to, if you were looking at having,

929

you needed to fit it into 10 minutes

930

and it was gonna be a 10 minute video,

931

you may end up shooting 40 minutes

932

Long of, of, of actual footage.

933

Then it becomes the editor's job to sift out the best

934

10 minutes out of that 40 minutes of content.

935

So the higher the shooting ratio documentaries can be

936

50, 60, 70 minutes

937

to one minute finished depending on

938

how long they were in the production process.

939

And so you wanna keep your shooting ratios pretty low.

940

You want it to be less than 10 to one.

941

Now the other thing that is the misconception is that

942

I'm gonna hit record and three minutes later they're gonna

943

have the perfect take on what it is

944

that they're gonna talk about.

945

And that's it. No an interview to get

946

to elicit something.

947

Just one soundbite may take 10 minutes,

948

Even if it's scripted,

949

because it's not necessarily on the first take

950

or the second take or the third take. So

951

Sometimes scripted can take a little bit longer,

952

but that is the closest like it,

953

That's gonna be the closest, yeah, the

954

Closest to one to one ratio.

955

It, it isn't, it probably never will be.

956

It's probably like a two and a half, three to one.

957

And that's the shortest, you know, ratio.

958

And that's something here that you wanna mention to you,

959

whoever you're hiring, I wanna keep the shooting ratio low

960

so that that saves our budget.

961

Can you provide us with strategy for metric

962

of video views?

963

And so that is something

964

that you can ask your videographer

965

and they may tell you, oh, you know, there's this, you know,

966

strategy of doing X in the first 30 seconds,

967

or, you know, having your call to action, blah, blah, blah.

968

So they're, they're gonna give you strategies.

969

And if you don't have your strategy, this is a good question

970

to ask your videographer.

971

We have, uh, gone through our list

972

and there's a whole lot to hiring a videographer.

973

One is a culture match, right?

974

You wanna make sure that you, you know,

975

have a rapport at some level with the person

976

that you're gonna be working with, whether that's, uh,

977

you know, you have the same aesthetic

978

or you have the same humor or you have the same friends.

979

Those are some things that, you know, may, uh, really

980

have you connect well with a videographer.

981

One of the things that you wanna do too is to make sure

982

that you have a lot of communication

983

that they don't ghost you, right?

984

You need to make sure that you are communicating with

985

that person in the channel, whether it's email, text,

986

telephone, remember that it is their job

987

to make you happy and to make you look good

988

because you're hiring them to make you look good.

989

And so that should be their number one concern.

990

I've seen a lot of, uh, really great footage,

991

beautiful videos out there,

992

but they were so painful to be part of

993

because the cinematographer,

994

and I'll go with cinematographer versus videographer,

995

had an aesthetic that they just could not let go of.

996

And what should have been a 30 minute setup became a

997

three hour ordeal trying to get one thing,

998

you know, perfect.

999

And so as the client, you're wondering, well,

1000

what are we trying to accomplish in this three hours?

1001

Which, 'cause I swear we got it in the first 30 minutes.

1002

Those are some of the things that, you know, you need

1003

to know when you're working with a videographer that, um,

1004

that there can be, uh, a mismatch of

1005

what their objective is, that they are trying

1006

to look themselves look good, versus really focusing on

1007

what your message and what your communication is

1008

and making you look good.

1009

So you just, you know, there's a balance there.

1010

You want them to do beautiful work.

1011

You want that work to reflect on how your message

1012

is delivered and, and, um, consumed and engaged with.

1013

So in the end, usually when they work with us,

1014

they understand that they're creating a video,

1015

they understand where they plan to use it,

1016

and they have a plan in place, at least by the end.

1017

And, and there are some that are very, you know,

1018

they just kind of happen and they end up being di quite

1019

different than the original plan is

1020

because somewhere along the

1021

line they're like, you know what?

1022

We're seeing this happening and this is very different.

1023

We'd actually like to do this instead of

1024

what we originally planned on.

1025

Maybe we were gonna do totally interviews

1026

of just people's faces.

1027

We don't feel like it's gonna come off well.

1028

So let's switch gears

1029

and we're gonna do a lot of what we call B roll,

1030

which is just going out

1031

and filming things happening with maybe a voice underneath.

1032

I mean, it can change. So it can change and it's,

1033

but it's, the client in the end knows what it is

1034

that they're looking for

1035

because they understand the objective.

1036

I I will also caution here that there are many times

1037

that we've been with clients on the video production.

1038

They're, they're, they're new to it

1039

and, you know, it gets exciting.

1040

It's very glamorous. We have lights, we have cables,

1041

we have these, you know, fancy looking cameras

1042

and a lot of things are happening.

1043

We can, might have a slate, right? It looks so Hollywood.

1044

And you start dreaming about how, oh,

1045

we can make a video about another topic altogether.

1046

Here's the one that, that's most famous.

1047

Let's do it in Spanish.

1048

We don't have a script, we don't have people, we don't have,

1049

you know, an approval, we don't have the message,

1050

we don't have the story connected to this,

1051

but let's do it in Spanish.

1052

And then before I know it, I see somebody in front

1053

of my camera who's doing something and they're,

1054

and the Spanish speaker is like,

1055

what is it I'm supposed to be saying?

1056

I said this in English, but I don't

1057

think this is gonna work for Spanish.

1058

And so this, a lot of great ideas happen on set

1059

and it really does derails, you know, the efficiency of

1060

what you're trying to really accomplish.

1061

And so if you're gonna do another language,

1062

that should be something that is discussed ahead of time

1063

with your videographer and whether they have the skillset

1064

and capabilities to really pull that out,

1065

or whether you have internal staff that can help.

1066

So too many options can be a problem.

1067

Too many great ideas can be a problem.

1068

Just remember, the more you plan, the better off you are,

1069

the less money you're gonna spend.

1070

And if you only have a few uh, dollars in your budget,

1071

don't be embarrassed by that.

1072

You can put together some really great looking videos

1073

if you ask the right question and you get the right partner

1074

and you get somebody who will produce,

1075

not just be a technician

1076

and a tool who will produce with you.

1077

I hope this was helpful, Piper.

1078

I hope this was helpful and not overwhelming.

1079

Or, because our, that is not our objective.

1080

I get the biggest thing.

1081

I guess that's the biggest takeaway I want.

1082

You can ask questions, you have the right to ask questions,

1083

no question is dumb.

1084

You may feel like the, the person that you're about

1085

to maybe hire may ask you a question

1086

and you're like, that seems, why is that relevant?

1087

And you can ask why is that relevant? Mm-hmm.

1088

It could be a flag to you.

1089

It could also be they're asking you a question

1090

that you're like, oh, I didn't even think of that.

1091

So communication on both sides,

1092

I'm gonna say is very important.

1093

If they're not communicating back with you, to me

1094

that's a red flag.

1095

And the client has done the same to us.

1096

We've gone in and we try to elicit, we ask questions

1097

and we don't get the answers.

1098

That is a red flag to us.

1099

And we will say, I'm not sure

1100

that we are the person that you need.

1101

Or, we'll let them know

1102

that they're not gonna make their timeline

1103

or their message is gonna be not ideal. And

1104

So that's the feedback I think I think you'd be looking

1105

for when you go to hire.

1106

So hiring a video crew is

1107

what we call the pre-production process.

1108

So we, we, we generally do three phases pre-production

1109

where we're doing the planning,

1110

production, postproduction.

1111

And so these questions help you get through a lot of the,

1112

the three phases

1113

and just know that in the process in general,

1114

you are in the pre-production phase.

1115

And the more planning you do, the better your budgets use

1116

of your budget dollars are in the pre-production

1117

And expectations will be met, right?

1118

So today we talked a little bit about how

1119

to hire a video crew

1120

and not feel like you're taking advantage of.

1121

If you have questions

1122

or comments about the episode, you know, let us know.

1123

We wanna hear what questions you had about

1124

our comments today.

1125

Alright? And we'd love to yeah, get some feedback

1126

And we'd love to work with you.

1127

Thank you so much for listening to this episode

1128

of Change the Reel.

1129

If you like the episode, subscribe,

1130

share it or leave a comment.

1131

And remember, representation starts here, Hast Pronto.

1132

See you soon.