Businesses of all sizes need better ways to offer their products and services to the world, and video is clearly the new language of brand communication. Learn how to plan a multi-camera production, increase production value through camera movement, and create cinematic lighting on a budget. Plus, get tips for adding great music and sound effects, saving time and money in post-production, and more!
All the video gear featured on (and used to produce) this course is available here.
Some links might be affiliates. If you purchase gear with them, I might receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks in advance for your support!
Questions?
Feel free to ask any questions regarding this course (on anything else) on Instagram.
From planning a shoot to DIY lighting solutions, learn how to produce professional videos with very little gear, tight deadlines, shoestring budgets, andno crew.
All the video gear featured on (and used to produce) this course is available here.
Some links might be affiliates. If you purchase gear with them, I might receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks in advance for your support!
Questions?
Feel free to ask any questions regarding this course (on anything else) on Instagram.
I’m very thankful with Benro for putting together a webinar to discuss the 1PersonCrew Approach. The host was my dear friend Matt Hill, who is not only an awesome guy, but also a multi-talented artist in his own right. Matt’s project with handmade paper dresses and long-exposure portraiture is jaw-dropping.
I hope attendees found the webinar fun and and helpful. In case you missed it (or want to rewatch it) here’s the full recording. Feel free to leave comments and questions below, or hit me on Instagram.
In the 1950’s the ocean freighters were heading into bankruptcy. It was too expensive and slow to move cargo around the world by water. The merchandise waiting at the docks often got spoiled or stolen.
The shipping companies, did what they usually do to lower costs. They fired a lot of people, and focused on making the ships faster, bigger, and more fuel efficient. That worked for a while, but the costs kept increasing and the shipping times didn’t improve substantially.
A good idea.
Then, someone had a great idea: What if the cargo could pre-loaded, so when a ship arrived, it would take hours, not days to load and depart? Bingo! The shipping container was born.
An even better idea.
A few years later, someone else had an even better idea; what if the shipping containers could have all the necessary parts to build a product, and the time from A to B could be utilized to assemble that product? Bingo again!
Today, all the necessary parts to build a car are loaded into a shipping container. The ship arrives, loads, and departs. While in transit, the cars are built. Three weeks later, when the ship arrives to its destination, complete cars get off to the dock and the empty containers are replaced with fully loaded ones. Brilliant.
Now, how can we possibly apply a similar approach to video productions?
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this challenge. The first step is to identify the most complex or time consuming processes, and then find ways to simplify them down to the least amount of gear and steps.
So buying a faster computer, a larger monitor or hiring a faster editor are just temporary solutions. What if we could blend some pre-production and productions steps? Even better, what if we could replace post-production all together?
The topic will the “1 Person Crew productions.” I’m used to travel and work alone, but for this course, for the bar has been raised. A lot. I need to find ways to do everything myself: shoot the story, capture behind the scenes footage, and produce valuable educational content, essentially at the same time. I’ll be producing short-form documentaries with real people in active locations, so I need to be respectful of their time. Not an easy challenge, but a very exciting one.
How am I going to pull this off?
I don’t know (yet).
My wife insists that a Vlog, could be a great way to document and share some of the ideas, tests, and challenges I’m dealing with in preparation to the 1 Person Crew online course.
I’m not so sure. I’m not young enough or thin enough to start vlogging. Even worse, I don’t have a mustache and I don’t wear tiny hats or striped shirts.
If (with an IF the size of a billboard) I go this route, I’d like to keep everything as RAW as possible, in other words, people would see my unmade bed, unshaven face, a crazy collection of cables, and a very unorthodox, but effective, workflow.
Why would I even consider doing this? I honestly believe that anyone interested or involved in run and gun scenarios (documentary, education, weddings, corporate, red carpet premieres, product launches, sporting events, music videos and even short films) will get something useful from my experiments (and public suffering). Let’s see. I might test the idea this week and see what happens.
Here’s an article, and a couple of related books, in case you want to know more. The “Minimalism” documentary is also worth watching because these people TRULY live with the bare essentials.
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For the past six (or it’s been seven? eight?) weeks, I’ve investing my time reading a lot, writing a bit, but mostly thinking. I picked some marketing books that would inspire me to think more creatively, to look for new ideas, to imagine bigger dreams and set new goals. Then I’ve been trying to bring those ideas down to earth, connect the dots, and make something happen.
There’s another book that I enjoyed very much a few years ago, but this time has felt a bit “slow” or perhaps dated: The Blue Ocean Strategy by Chan Kim.
But there’s a fifth book, SO good, SO timely, SO jam-packed with useful and actionable ideas that it deserved writing a blog post, the one you are reading. That awesome book is “This is Marketing” by Seth Godin.
Almost every day I’be been going out for very long walks. The first chapter alone is so good that I also bought the audiobook version, and this is the only book I’ve been listening to.
Let me share some Seth Godin’s gems:
“The marketing that has suffused our entire lives is not the marketing that you want to do. The shortcuts using money to buy attention to sell average stuff to average people are an artifact of another time not the one we live in now. “
“Good marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem. They use marketing to solve other people’s problems.”
“People like us do things like this” is how each of us understands culture.
“Begin by organizing a tightly knit group, by getting people in sync. Culture beats strategy so much that culture IS strategy. “
“Who’s it for and what’s it for are the two questions that guide all of our decisions.”
Priceless. Straight to the point. And very true. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter:
The 5 marketing steps suggested by Seth Godin.
Invent a thing worth making, with a story worth telling, and a contribution worth talking about.
Design and build it in a way that a few people will particularly benefit from, and care about.
Tell a story that matches the built-in narrative and dreams of that tiny group of people, the smallest viable market.
Spread the word.
Show up. Regularly, consistently and generously. Organize, lead and build confidence in the change you seek to make. Earn permission to follow up, and to earn enrollment, to teach.
Why is this book so impactful to me? Because Seth’s advice is precisely what I’m hoping to do with THIS website. I’d like to connect with other creative people who emphasize story over gear. To find interesting people who do amazing things and help them reach wider audiences. To build a small tribe where we can safely share our experiences, good and bad, cool techniques and time-saving tricks, so we can grow together and spend more time doing creative things and less fighting with cables and firmware updates.
It might take a long time, and I might not be able to achieve it, but I can promise I’ll give you my best. One more, for the road:
“We don’t need to rely on the shiniest, latest digital media shortcut. We have even more powerful, nuanced, and timeless tools at our disposal: we tell stories, stories that resonate and hold up over time, stories that are true because we made them true, with our actions, and our products, and our services.”
The Coronavirus outbreak has forced a global lockdown. Most governments are enforcing travel restrictions with random checks on roads, highways, and bridges and are requiring justification for traveling anywhere, even within a city. Because of this (and other reasons) most shooting assignments have been canceled or at best rescheduled. But this does NOT mean we can’t continue looking for interesting spots for upcoming projects.
This short article covers the 1 Person Crew approach to legally scout locations during a lockdown in two steps:
Step 1: Google and Google Earth
A quick Google search for “the best viewpoints in Lisbon” offers 30,000,000 results in 0.87 seconds. Wow. Another option is to search for “melhores miradouros em Lisboa” (306,000 results in 0.61 seconds) which most likely offers better recommendations from locals.
Three viewpoints immediately get my attention: Miradouro de Santa Luzia, Miradouro das Portas do Sol, and Miradouro da Graça. I like these three spots for several reasons:
They are reachable by public transportation.
They are close to main roads so I can use a share-riding service like Uber to get there.
The three are within walking distance from each other, yet they offer different perspectives of the city.
They all seem to offer good shooting opportunities at sunrise, sunset and at night.
Not only the views, but the viewpoints themselves seem visually interesting.
Portugal is safe at all times, so I don’t have to worry about that, but that would be another consideration anywhere else.
Here’ s a screen recording of my research process using only Google and Google Earth.
OK. I now have three potential locations, without leaving my desk. What’s next?
Step 2: Exercise
We are being “asked” to stay at home,
with few exceptions, which usually include:
Buying food or other essential items
Going to work if unable to work from home
Going to hospitals or health centers
Going to care for someone
Returning to their primary residence
Walking pets
Exercising outdoors for short periods in groups smaller than 2 persons
Aha! This last exception is our salvation. Now that we have identified three interesting spots, close to each other, and at a reasonable distance from home, it’s time to go out and exercise.
Then we need to pack everything into the smallest possible bag to avoid drawing unwanted attention.
My lovely wife also enjoys working out while enjoying this incredible city, so I was lucky to have an assistant this time. =)
That’s it! You are ready to explore the world and
scout potential locations for your projects. But remember: Wash your hands,
don’t touch your face, maintain social distancing, and travel only for
essential tasks (including location scouting for upcoming shoots).
PS: I wanted a “spy movie” kind of soundtrack, and it took me about 3 minutes to search, find, download and cut the song “Ace of Spades” from Artlist.io by far the best music library I’ve used. And now they also offer sound effects! Highly recommended.
When it comes to video length, a challenge is the tendency to equate “shorter with worse” simply because viewers aren’t used to ultra-short content (like 6-second videos) just yet. But that’s about to change, as lot of big brands with deep pockets have been exploring “six-second ads” including YouTube’s own marketing team.
According to YouTube’s marketing team “the key to success is to view the six-second time frame as a blank canvas rather than a limitation.” I like the sound of that.
Lots of Examples
All of the examples shown below have been produced for large corporations, with large budgets and most likely big crews. But the reason I believe this is relevant to small-crew and 1 -Person crew productions is because the applications are the same. Short-form videos may be a condensed version of longer stories, or they might be customized to reach specific audiences, for example YouTube vs. Instagram vs, LinkedIn.
Cool? Let’s move on. Other great examples are the Duracell bumper ad, the sequential story for Xbox, or the product lineup for La Mer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeT9nw9dfi8
Two different approaches
I believe the most interesting examples happen when brands approach the six-second ads as part of a larger campaign—when storytelling expands beyond the boundaries of one ad unit and spans multiple ads served to the same viewer over time. For instance, KFC used a six-second add to tease an UPCOMING 30-second commercial.
Conversely, Danone used the six-second video as a way to echo something a viewer had already seen in a PREVIOUS video.
More Examples
Similar campaigns by Estée Lauder, and SurveyMonkey are also meaty and memorable. According to SurveyMonkey “the 6-second time constraint was a great driver for creating a sense of energy while communicating the power of the tool simply. This was accomplished by effectively messaging the main components of our platform: creating surveys, collecting answers, and analyzing results.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlMhUb7h-A8
As I mentioned earlier, short-form ads an d videos may be a condensed version of a longer story, or they might customized to reach specific audiences through contextual targeting. Campbell’s Soup Company took the latter approach for its “SoupTube” campaign in Australia.
The Campbell’s Soup Approach
Here’s what Campbell’s did: To amplify a 15-second ad they created hundreds of variations of 6-second ads and ran them as additional media. Using some fancy audience targeting, Campbell’s delivered the contextually relevant 6-second ads to users by matching its product message with trending YouTube videos.
For example, users who searched for Pokémon Go were shown one ad/video where they were asked, “Legs hurt from walking around?”, while users searching the outcome of a specific soccer match saw a different version of the ad asking “Had your money on England?”
By building multiple 6-second stories that offered different facets of its message, Campbell’s proved that short-form ads can provide powerful touches to boost a longer story.
The Theory vs. Reality
Campbell’s original hypothesis was that the six-second version would “help drive upper funnel metrics like ad recall” and the thirty-second version would “build on that initial impact by telling a longer story to shift perception.” That’s pretty technical, but I get the concept.
What happened with that hypothesis? Glad you asked. The 6-second clips alone were LESS effective than the 30-sec videos to shift brand perception. But, and this is important, when the 6-second clip and 30-sec clip were paired through remarketing (essentially exposing people who had seen the long-form ad to a bumper as a follow-up) the 6-second clips were a great way to reinforce the 30-sec clips.
30-30-6
According to YouTube “the optimal media journey for a viewer is a 30-sec spot followed by another 30-sec spot, followed by a 6-second ad.”
Let’s say you just finished a travel video you would like to promote. It doesn’t hurt (and it doesn’t take that MUCH extra work either) to cut different 30-sec teasers and a few 6-second clips, and try to target specific audiences based on each platform. You could target groups that talk about that specific destination on Facebook, and travel companies on LinkedIn and travel enthusiasts on Instagram. Same travel video, slightly different marketing approaches targeting different people.
It makes no sense to have a super light laptop and/or camera system and having to carry a heavy bag full of chargers, adapters, and cords.
Also, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has forgotten expensive chargers at hotels (Buenos AIres, Casablanca and Houston) and airports (Porto and Barcelona to name a few), or who has lost a cable that could NOT be replaced (try finding USB-C cables in Myanmar).
And what about spending 14 hours shooting on location, getting late at night to your hotel to dump the day’s footage, and not being able to go to bed because you have to make sure all the batteries are fully charged for the following day? It simply sucks.
So my goal was to find a simple way to charge multiple batteries at once, minimize the amount of chargers and cables, and make everything fit into the most compact package. Ah, and also super important, be able to use this setup anywhere in the world.
Let me introduce you to “the Octopus” a gadget I’ve been using (and fine-tuning) for quite a while. Right now I can charge seventeen (17) batteries and/or devices, with a system that weights only 2.12 pounds (or 0.96 kilos). And the best part, I only need ONE international adapter.
8. and 9. Panasonic chargers for two Panasonic GH5 cameras (A Cam and B Cam).
10. ONE international adapter (A = North American Plug, B = Great Britain, Ireland, Africa, Honk Kong, Singapore, C= Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, China, D= Europe, Middle East, Asia, Caribbean).
Here’s what you’ll need to build a similar “Octopus”:
The necessary cables (USB-C, Micro USB, Lighting cables, etc)
AA and AAA battery charger
One international adapter set.
One last thing. I don’t know why, but sometimes a “brand name” battery costs more than two third-party batteries, sometimes even including the charger! I’ve using Wasabi batteries and Watson batteries for a long time and never noticed a performance difference against the “original” brand. I don’t know about other brands, but Wasabi and Watson work fine.
Check this out, ONE Sony NP-F970 costs $125.99. You can get the same battery under the “Watson” brand for almost half the price, $69.99. But for only $49.99 you can get TWO “Wasabi” batteries, with an adapter, plus a car charger AND a European plug. Wow!
There are SO many camera bags, all claiming to be THE perfect one for your specific needs. Obviously that’s impossible. So which camera bags are best for the 1 Person Crew and why?
I’ve owned dozens of camera bags in the past 20 years. I actually used to work at a camera store so I was able to field test ANY bag I wanted for a weekend, and then buy it with a significant discount. Needless to say I ended up with a closet full of them, from very uncomfortable “Sling bags” to extra heavy “hard cases” to even a “floating backpack” that I used once….
Over the years I’ve been increasingly demanding when it comes to buying equipment, and this includes camera bags.
I’m always looking for three things: I want the bag to be comfortable, to have the right features (like compartments that are easy to reach for me, but not for pickpockets), and “the look.” I want something that looks nice, but doesn’t scream “Hey! I have $20,000 right here!”
When it comes to brands, I also have used them all. I want a company that keeps innovating and taking risks, that is using high-quality materials, but also offers a fair price, customer service and warranty. This is easier said than done, of course.
At my workshops I often hear attendees complain “$400 for a bag?!?!?! That’s a lot of money!”
But is it? If I’m putting $20,000, $30,000 or even $40,000 inside a bag that will take some serious beating for 5 years, is $400 really a bad investment? I don’t think so.
So, I currently use three kinds of bags, all made by the same company. The smallest bag is a Messenger style bag. That’s the one I use pretty much every day, for my laptop when I’m not shooting, and with a very compact setup, especially if I need very quick access to my camera.
In action in Fukuoka, Japan.
What’s inside that Mesenger Bag? Watch the video below to find out:
The second bag is a video backpack. That’s the one I’m taking with me pretty much every time I leave town. It goes next to me in a taxi, under my seat on a plane, and on my back the rest of the time. That bag NEVER leaves my side.
Everything I need (except a tripod) to shoot several interviews overseas.
The third bag is a hybrid bag, which means it’s a rolling case AND a backpack. That’s my carry-on bag, that rolls 90% of the time, and it’s on my back when I’m dealing with sand in Mexico, snow in Chicago, cobblestones in Lisbon, stairs in New York’s subway, and mud in Bali.
Scouting the only tea plantation in Europe (in the island of São Miguel, Portugal).
So, what about you? Do you have a favorite bag or packing tip? If so, please share your comments below.
DISCLAIMER This article is not paid or sponsored by anyone. It reflects my own independent opinion. I only recommend companies and products that I trust. Some links might be affiliates, which means I may get a few pennies if you decide to purchase something. Thanks in advance for your support!
I have been studying Ira Glass and Anthony Bourdain for a very long time.
Ira Glass is very well known in the U.S. because he is the producer and host of a very well-known radio show called “This American Life.” Bourdain was a celebrity chef, writer, host and producer of travel programs for The Travel Channel and CNN, exploring cultures and foods around the world.
Ira Glass
The way the show works is as follows: a team of 12 people go out and find simple stories about everyday topics with normal subjects and characters, and produce fascinating stories about them.
For example, every highway has something called roadkill, which are the dead animals like deer, cats or dogs on the side of the road. Well, someone needs to go and pick them up. So many years ago, Ira Glass produced a story about the person who does that job, and it’s very appropriately called “Dead animal man.”
“I’d have given half my life for that squirrel at one time. I was a prisoner during the Korean War and I’d set up off at Han River and watch seagulls fly over, I’ll be laying there thinking I fry one. That’s how hungry I was.”
Clarence Hicks
The way Ira Glass asks and sequences the questions, and the kind of sounds he includes are all masterfully executed.
Ira Glass and his team approach pre-production in a similar way. Every Monday morning a group of 12 people meet, and each person pitches at least one story idea. As a group they pick and choose the best six ideas, and spend the rest of the week producing them. The following Monday they go over the six stories, pick the best one or two, and only those are the ones that get broadcasted. The other stories either die or get a second chance in the future.
The stories we hear on “This American Life” are incredibly good, not only because all the team members are super talented and work extremely hard, but also because they start with 12 stories, narrow them down to six and then hand-picked the best two.
Anthony Bourdain
Bourdain stories, on the other hand, were all about traveling to different locations and exploring local food.
“A prego is a steak sandwich slash booze mop that puts you right over the edge in a protein overdose, which is to say, happiness.”
The setup for all Bourdain’s shows was fairly simple. It was always Bourdain with a guest, talking about politics, culture and current events over food.
The way the shows were shot was very efficient. Two cinematographers recording sound on camera, and one director/producer/C Cam operator. Most of the time they used available light.
When one watches the show it’s hard to believe they only had a 2 or 3-person crew. And I believe a reason to achieve this high level of production is possible because they started researching each location a month before production, and spent a lot of time in pre-production.
Before each shoot the crew had pre-pro meetings to discuss core concepts, looks, shooting approaches. They found inspiration in movies, songs, books and researched about the history and the place in its current state. Yet, they didn’t use scripts, and Bourdain never wrote anything for a show beforehand.
“If you think you’ve already figured out what the show’s going to be about or what you expect out of the scene, that’s a lethal impulse.”
On location Bourdain and his crew spent on average a week of frantic work, and they shoot a LOT, between sixty and eighty hours of footage (on average) to produce a single one hour-long episode.
Conclusion
Most of us don’t approach our projects the way Glass and Bourdain did. We might have one or two projects or stories, we work on them, and then we might decide to publish them or not, but we don’t produce a high volume of content, and pick only the absolute best of the best to be shared with the world. That constant search for perfection is what makes them so great.
DISCLAIMER This article is not paid or sponsored by anyone. It reflects my own independent opinion. I only recommend companies and products that I trust. Some links might be affiliates, which means I may get a few pennies if you decide to purchase something. Thanks in advance for your support!
