Wow your audience with these 3 creative video techniques 

Woo hoo, it’s time! Time for the second instalment of this little capsule series, which I've designed to help you make more creative videos. 

Cool, huh? 

If you missed part one, you can catch up now by jumping over this post. I covered the clever camera angles, camera movements and speciality shots that you can incorporate into your next video to keep it more interesting for your viewers to watch (and more interesting for you to make!). 

Up to speed? Stick with me. In part two I’m delving into on-screen performance, narration and sound effects. 

Let’s jump straight in. 

My first piece of advice? Keep tabs on your performance 

When it comes to making more creative videos, one of the big things you can turn your focus to doesn’t involve any tricky camera work or technical know-how. 

I’m talking about your performance. 

Paying attention to your energy levels is good place to start, especially if you batch your content like Mike and I do for the Moonshine Moonshot series. 

When you’re the one in front of the camera, it can be incredibly difficult to understand how you’re coming across. You might think you’re raising the roof, but you’re actually sounding muted and understated, which might not gel with your audience all that well. 

Don’t get me wrong, your tone of voice and body language absolutely needs to evolve as your topic does. But sometimes you’ll need to get quite intimate with your audience. Other times you’ll want to rile them up and inspire your viewers to take action straight away.

And it can be difficult to differentiate between the right tonal shifts when you’re under the spotlight. 

That’s why I always recommend having another pair of ears and eyes on set when you’re filming. 

Because feedback really is a gift.

It’s up to you whether the person giving that feedback is a director, a producer or even just your mum (although, your mum will probably think you sound great no matter what you’re saying or doing, so maybe try to recruit someone who can be a little more objective if you can). 

Just be sure to have someone around who can pull you up when you casually shift from animated and excitable to monotone and serous without missing a beat. 

It might even be your voice over person if you have one! The V/O guy Mike Hill and I work with on the Moonshine Moonshot series often critiques our performance on set (namely because we don’t give him enough space to speak). 

Actually, that leads me nicely to my second piece of advice ….. 

Introduce voice over or a narrator to your video 

If you regularly watch Moonshine Moonshot (and if you don’t, you can fix that problem by subscribing to the show over here), you’ll already have been introduced to our voice over artist, aka ‘the big guy in the sky’. 

He’s a quirky character who pops in and out of each episode to share his hot take on what we’re discussing. Or sometimes he might just chime in to lighten the mood a little. 

Either way, he makes each episode much more dynamic and entertaining for our audience - it would be a very different show without him! 

If you’re balking at the term’ voice over', you might be more familiar with the idea of a narrator. 

Most filmmakers employ a narrator to deliver key messages and to tie a story together for their viewers. At Moonshine Agency, we weave narration throughout most of our impact films – I really find that a narrator helps to not only make my films more engaging but also more cohesive for the audience. 

And I know what you’re thinking – isn’t narration really expensive? 

It’s true, it definitely can be pricey depending on who you hire. But you don’t have to work with a Hollywood star or someone with a big profile to get the desired effect. You can simply jump over to a site like Fiverr and you’ll find a catalogue of voice over artists who can do the job just fine. Great in fact! 

Spice things up with some sound effects 

Ok, so here’s my final tip for this week to make your videos more creative – add sound effects! 

Sound is super important because it can really engage your audience and dial up your production value at the same time. 

It helps to emphasise what’s on screen, illustrate mood, develop suspense and elevate your video in the best way.

Sound effects also give your audience some guidance around the story unfolding in front of their eyes. Did your on-screen talent just have a brilliant idea? Bring it to life with a sound effect.

Or are they busily typing on their laptop? Mimic reality and introduce some keystroke sounds. 

Perhaps you’re just trying to create an eery atmosphere. Wind sounds or floorboard creeks will help the scene feel must more believable. 

Sound is an easy and affordable way to make you videos fun, creative and interesting. The best bit is that there are great, low cost sound effect libraries available online these days. 

I like Premium Beat but you could also check out SoundStripe or Pond5 

Are you inspired to get out there and roll camera? 

Amazing! And I promise I’ve got way more tips and tricks up my sleeve for the next instalment on this little capsule series, which is all about helping you make more creative videos. 

In case you need a quick refresher on what I covered it included ….

• Being mindful of your performance and ensuring you’re matching your energy levels to the topic your video is talking to 
• Introducing a voice over or narrator to deliver your key messages and tie the story together for your audience 
• Playing around with sound effects to indicate the mood of your video, bring home what’s on screen and help your audience get a better grasp on the story they’re engaging in 

Now go forth and start making incredible content! But if you’d like to keep learning with me, you can join me in the Define Your Ideal Audience online course where I show you how to identify what your audience thinks and feels, so you can create projects that will wow the pants of them. I know! Enrol now.