Some tips on creating video reviews
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Tips on creating Video ReviewsHi Ciao Friends! I thought since no one has done this yet, that I create a little user guide for creating Video Reviews, similar to my Tips for Writing Reviews guide I have done. Again, this guide will be purely based on my approach to creating video reviews, which may be quite different to yours, but still, this might be interesting and hopefully helpful for you nonetheless! While I have found Ciao's own guide to Video Reviews as found in the help section (check it out!) to be very helpful, I thought it would be nice to offer a guide from a user perspective about the little things that may be of help to you. Getting Started
OK, first of all, as mentioned by the Ciao Video Review Guide, what I do is the rather obvious step of choosing a product that I want to review. You can pick whatever you want as long as the product exists on Ciao.com, but it is a good idea in my opinion to choose something that you are comfortable with. It is more obvious in a video review if you are not so sure about certain functions of the product you are reviewing, so being comfortable with the product will really help you feel at ease making the video. The alternative of course, is to simply do some research on the product. You can then throw some handy facts into the review to make it interesting for the user! Having more confidence in the product means you will have less "hmmming" and "ahhhhing", and less mistakes which makes the editing process much easier later!Preparation
A tactic that I employ is to simply make a list of the key points of the product that I want to talk about, you don't have to cover everything, just what you believe are the most important points, or the ones that you think will be most interesting to the viewer. I then decide on the overall structure of the review, and where I am going to fit these points in. A structure that I think works well is to introduce the product, with some facts, then progress to explain each main feature that you want the viewer to know about, whilst demonstrating them as best you can, and then talk about the pros and cons of the product with some personal feedback as to why, before summing up the product and deciding on whether or not you would recommend it. Its pretty much the same as a written review to be honest, with the only difference being that you have to think about which camera angles to use, and how you are going to best demonstrate the features. This is where it really is handy to make a quick diagram of the type of shots you want to use. I find it helps to draw it as it gives me a clearer idea when I actually do the shooting, but you don't have to draw it of course, as long as you have some idea of what you want to do then that is enough. A rough guideline makes shooting the video much quicker later, which might be important if your camcorder is running low on power, turning it on and off all the time while you decide what to do will eat up the battery.Shooting
One thing to remember is that when you are shooting the video, you don't necessarily have to do it in the same order as you want the video to be. If you have the camera set up perfectly to capture your face at the start of the video, you don't have to move it for shooting the product and the rest of the video, then have to set it up again just right to shoot your face at the end of the video, so you can simply shoot both the start and the end of the video and put the end section in the correct place when editing. Also, as Ciao have said, using a Tripod is a big help, unless your camcorder has some really good Image Stabilization technology, or unless you have a really steady hand of course! I try to get some nice close-up shots of the product, and try to show it from all angles, as this is something that written reviews can not as easily convey, and it will really help the viewer to get a good glimpse of the product and as such may be more helpful to them for helping with a buying decision. Ciao recommend on their guide to have a friend shoot the video which is a good idea, although if you can't sucker someone into doing this for you then its obviously best to set the camcorder in a position where you won't need to move it too much.Lighting
I do tend to struggle with lighting when making a video, as I don't have any sort of professional lighting equipment, much like you, I would imagine! I know it is important to keep the scene lit so the viewer can see the product clearly, so one thing you can do that I have done, is to simply use a desk lamp for the extra lighting. You can point the lamp towards you or the product and that should more than suffice. You can also try shooting your video near a window in the daylight which can also help. I don't know the exact best lighting methods so I just try to make the scene bright enough, and that's all you can do really! SoundSound is another difficult area I find, as you will at one point be close to the camera, perhaps when shooting close-ups of the product, then at other times you might be further away, when doing your greeting for example. It is possible to alter the sound levels later when editing, but I find it a real laborious process, going through each scene and deciding if the voice is that little bit louder or quieter than the previous one, so I would recommend trying to get it right when shooting the video, by maybe keeping at the same distance from the camera in every shot if possible, really, but don't worry if its not perfect, as long as you can be clearly heard that's the main thing, none of us are experts here on Ciao! Editing
Editing is where I usually spend the most time on a video review. I just use a simple video editing tool with basic functions, so you don't have to shell out on expensive software! You can find some freeware stuff or trials that will work, but watch out when using trial editing software as sometimes the videos will be watermarked until you register it. For my video review I used a trial version of "Ulead VideoStudio 10", which is basic as I said, but it does the job! Look around on the net and you will find something, you may already have some video editing software on your computer, such as Windows Movie Maker!I find that it is best to keep the video simple, while a special effects blockbuster of a video review might look good on your hard drive, the lower quality and frame rate of the video review once its online will mean that all your fancy stuff looks a bit choppy. That's not to say you can have some nice effects, rather that it is better to keep fast moving animations or footage to a minimum as it will not look good. For transitions between scenes, I usually only make use of them when there is little difference between one scene and another. For example, if in one scene my camera is at the top of the table, and in the next scene it is slightly lower down on the table, I would use a small "Cross Fade" transition to cover the change in position of the camera. The Cross Fade transition wouldn't work so well if you were cutting from footage of the camera to footage of you, as there is too much of a difference between scenes and it will look a bit messy as the two different very different images overlap. So here I wouldn't use a transition at all. But you can have your own style here too of course, and there's lots of transitions to choose from in video editing software, but overuse of these is usually the sign of an amateur video, or so I'm told, I'm no expert! So, that was just a rough guide of what I have done to create my video review, and as I said, its by no means a definitive guide! You may agree with some of my points, and maybe not, but I hope it was helpful for you to see what methods I have used!Thanks for reading! All comments, suggestions and ratings on this are very much appreciated! MisterB
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