Behind-the-scenes is one of the most valuable shots you can get on your next video shoot. Yes, you need to plan for that tricky interview. Yes, you need to manage locations, schedules and the editing workflow plan. But adding a BTS camera–stills and/or video– will pay you back ten-fold.
Here’s why.
Social sharing demands visuals. You want plenty of pics you can quickly share to stakeholders through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and more. Watch your posts get much better traction with these visuals. For example, Facebook posts with visuals get shared two to three times more than those without. And Facebook currently pushes live video to the top of the algorithm, as does Instagram, so doing some live BTS footage while you’re shooting will get you even more shares.
Everyone loves a look behind the curtain. The process of video production is still a bit magical. Your internal and external audiences love to see “the making of” a project. So whether you are shooting your nonprofit digging wells in Africa or creating this year’s annual state of the company corporate video, you can engage your audience with some BTS scenes. These can be shared through an email alert, on the web in the interface where your video plays, through e-news blasts, or in social posts leading up to the release of your video.
Photos can help tell your video story. A BTS camera can also get you out of a jam when you don’t have enough budget or time for b-roll (background footage) to cover interviews. I shot a project where we incorporated flashes of BTS stills of the participants that we shot doing a photo shoot the day prior to our interviews in the same studio setting. By getting this “two-fer” imagery, we created visual assets for a multitude of purposes, including spicing up the video content of the interviews. We also gave viewers an added window into the personalities of our subjects.
So the next time you are planning a video shoot, be sure to assign someone to shoot behind the scenes photos and footage. You will need to PLAN for this added asset generation, including how the BTS photographer will or won’t move around while you are shooting. You don’t want to distract participants, or interrupt your main focus of video production. You DO want to get more assets to share and boost the value of your project.
Amy DeLouise is a video director-producer who teaches #LinkedIn Learning courses, and in-person workshops on maximizing impact with video. She is the author of The Producer’s Playbook: Real People on Camera (Routledge).