HISTORY OF HORIZONTAL VIDEOS

From the beginning of motion pictures (1878 or 1888, depending on how you look at it) until a little over a decade ago, pretty much all video has been shot and viewed horizontally. This means that the aspect ratio, which is the “proportional relationship between an image's width and height,” would be something like 4:3 or 16:9, with the screen being wider than it is tall.

HERE COMES VERTICAL

With the advent of the smartphone and social media, the market for vertical video exploded out of nowhere. When posting videos on social media, clients now have to consider whether they want their videos to be shot and posted horizontally, shot horizontally but cropped vertically, or shot and posted vertically. This can be a difficult decision because usually you want to be able to use a video across multiple platforms…

The Fireplace Problem

We just finished a series of three videos for Stewards Advisory Services, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa.

One of the challenges with this project was the fireplace. The best location in the room reserved for our shoot was in front of the fireplace. However, the reflection of the cameras and interviewer was clearly visible in the frame of the video. The second problem is that the fireplace fan was extremely loud. The solution we chose was to shoot the interview with the fireplace off, then get shots of the fireplace on and edit them together. You can see the before and after of both angles below.

It is important to solve as many potential problems as possible when planning and shooting, but there are times when it is necessary to know how to fix things during the post-production process.

DENTISTS NEED GOOD TESTIMONIAL VIDEOS

As a personal consumer, I can’t think of any type of company that needs good testimonial videos more than dental offices. Sitting in a dentist's chair can be incredibly stressful, even terrifying, so whenever I do have to sit in one, I want to make sure I’m in good hands. Hearing stories of actual patients who can say why they trust a particular dentist’s office can absolutely make the difference between me booking an appointment there or not.

HIGH POINT DENTAL PARTNERS

The staff at High Point Dental Partners is incredibly kind, patient, professional, and capable. I was very impressed with their use of cutting-edge technology as well as their rapport with their patients…

BENEFITS OF USING MONITORS

• External monitors provide a larger viewing screen than camera monitors

• Monitors can be moved without moving the camera, allowing even the subjects to see the frame

• There are several useful features that monitors have included in their software (false colors, focus peaking, zebras, LUT overlays, etc.)

THE MONITORS WE USE

• Accsoon SeeMo and an iPad Pro 2018

• FEELWORLD F6 Plus V2 6-inch DSLR Camera Field Touch Screen Monitor

30,000 FEET

Although most of our video shoots are in the Triad/Triangle areas of North Carolina, we are occasionally hired for projects that require us to fly to our shooting locations. Depending on the scope of the project, we may just fly to one location per video or to several locations all for one larger video.

MULTI-LOCATION PROJECTS (STEWARDS FOUNDATION)

The Stewards Foundation is an organization that provides low-interest loans to small non-denominational churches for building projects, then gives interest from those loans to full-time preachers and workers from those churches to help with health care. I traveled with either Allan Dunlap, who worked with marketing, or Doug Rice, the president, to several shooting locations all to make one large video, which you can watch HERE.