In the age of viral phenomena, how to create a curated video from the point of view of form and content? Let’s find out together…

Every day we are bombarded with thousands of videos that appear on the home pages of our favorite social networks. Only YouTube has more than a billion hours of viewing per day. You understood correctly: a day! Once the distribution of audiovisual content was a slow, difficult, burdensome phenomenon reserved for a few. Today with a simple click anyone can access a quick and simple form of distribution – or rather “sharing” – and reach a large number of people at a totally free cost.

But in the age of viral phenomena, what is the use of creating a video curated from the point of view of form and content? First of all, it serves to distinguish itself from the multitude of movies that are uploaded to social networks and sharing video platforms, chaotically populated by non-thought-out and often roughly made movies. It is not true that a viral video must necessarily be demented – quiet, you will not have to do embarrassing ballets, go into surreal situations or make you look ridiculous in front of a video camera – a video cured in the form-content duality is often appreciated by the network audience, precisely because it is placed on a qualitatively superior level compared to the standards of the aforementioned videos.

In this article, I want to teach you the 7 rules to follow every time you intend to create and publish a video on the net, and whether you are a company or a private individual, a professional or an amateur, it does not matter.

Of course, with these tips, you will not become a first-rate director, but you will learn the basic rules to create an effective animated video suitable for your needs.

Are you ready to discover the secrets behind the creation of the perfect video? Make yourself comfortable that I’ll explain how to do it.

PHASE 1 – History

Before starting to start the creativity machine, you need to focus on what you want to tell and communicate. Are you going to make content to promote your product? Do you want to do the editing of a holiday or a party and share it with your friends on your social profiles? Are you going to shoot a Vlog (video blog) maybe to embark on a career from YouTube, Facebook star, fashion blogger, influencer?

Regardless of what your field of interest is, the key to success lies in the story? This is because the mythopoeic practice has always been rooted in man, who feeds the incessant need for good stories, and that we speak of oral stories, videos, movies, theater performances, songs, novels, comics or video games matters little. But be careful, this does not mean that our narrative strategy must necessarily provide for the invention of a story of fantasy, it is also important to put into play their storytelling skills to make our storytelling operation incredibly fascinating.

Identify the key points of your project and tell it clearly, with simple words and without too many filters.

Phase 2 – The target

I know, you have a beautiful story in your hand and you die of the desire to tell it to your audience. You cannot do it anymore, you have to start immediately to shoot your video and upload it on the net to make hundreds, thousands, millions of clicks. Stop!

You’re forgetting to bring a series of questions. Who should be interested in your video? Who is your audience? How large is it? What are the tastes of the people you want to reach? How old are they? Where they live? Why should they be interested in what you want to show them? In short, we could continue for hours with these questions, but we simplify this by ascribing these questions to a single field: the target.

I’ll tell you something unpleasant: there will be spectators that your video will not like. It is practically impossible to make people of different ages and tastes come together. What you need to do first of all is to understand who you are addressing. Therefore, shape your ideas and adapt them based on the anthropological, cultural, identity, economic and social characteristics of your target audience. So try to take a pen and paper, make a list of questions from ports, and try to give you answers. This is a fundamental step to carry out an accurate analysis of your target audience.

Phase 3 – Duration

One factor not to be underestimated is the duration. It is not objective and varies from platform to platform (as well as from person to person). The ideal duration for a video on Facebook, for example, is 30-40 seconds, as the use of the social network in question is distracted and lightning; if you can amaze the viewer within the first 5 seconds, then you can postpone your attention to a more advanced mintage. Without ever exceeding 3 minutes – unless you already have a solid and consistent fan base, but in that case the speech changes. Instead, platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo are more suitable for incorporating broader content. However, avoid exceeding 10 minutes (remember, however, that the viewer’s attention averages around 4-5 minutes).

But then just understand who to turn to and respect these times to make a good video? Obviously not, now I’ll explain in detail what you have to do.

Step 4 – Speak a little, speak well, and talk right away (Shooting and Editing)

Remember when I told you recently that if you can get the viewer’s attention within the first 5 seconds. Then why not give your video a longer duration? Well, if the concept of the video is you talking in front of a video camera. You have to get right to the point of your speech, you have to talk a little and say the basics. Do not turn too much around the speeches, the user has the mouse knife on the side of the handle. Plus, if you feel teased or bored you can interrupt in a fraction of a second; at that point, you are screwed, as in Monopoli when you go to prison without going through the street!

Avoid all the uncertainties that take shape in those annoying “ehm”, “mhh”, “uuh”. Remember that you can take breaks between speeches, pauses that contribute to making the speech more pleasant and orderly. But do not take it too easy, avoid stopping for too long. Eventually, you can resort to editing to cut dead spots or omit parts of the speech. I recommend Adobe Premiere Pro if you use Windows. Or, you can even use Final Cut Pro X if you have an Apple computer instead!

Phase 5 – Lighting

You do not need an extremely expensive and professional video camera to shoot a good video. What matters is to illuminate the environment that surrounds you well, paying attention to get a video of dynamic range. To do this you can record outdoors with sunlight, or indoors using the light that enters from a window. Avoid artificial lights if you’re not expert enough, they could generate unpleasant color effects on the image disturbing vision.

Step 6 – Audio

“Even the ear wants its part.” This proverb was not exactly that. However, you can apply it well to what I am about to tell you.

Whether it is a spoken video or a sequence of images with music underneath, you must know that the audio plays 50% of the work. Always record your voice with a microphone of good quality. Even better if external to the camera. In post-production, you will synchronize the two tracks. Then carefully choose the background music, perhaps enriching the video with sound effects if there are elements an overlay. Choose well the soundtrack of your movie, because it is essential to give the images a high level of pathos. An emotional charge that they could not exert themselves.

Step 7 – Care for the title, thumbnail, and description

And now? Now you just have to upload your video on the net and try to reach as many people as possible. Try to take care of the outline information, such as the title, description and thumbnail preview. This you can create on a graphics program, such as Adobe Photoshop). A video before being seen must be open and for this. Plus, you will have to pack your product in an attractive way so that people who come across your content are encouraged to click.

In some cases, an effective marketing strategy is necessary to accompany the video on its journey to glory. However, it is essential!