live action
Live-action videos use footage of actual people and places. There are two types of live-action videos: narrative and documentary.
type 1 — narrative style
A narrative video involves a story that has a plot and characters. A script is developed prior to production. The actors act out the plot and deliver the dialogue closely based on the script. Examples include movies, TV shows and commercials.
The success of a narrative video lies in the story structure and its characters. To boil it down, a story consists of a protagonist who faces an antagonist (can be a situation) and arrives at a resolution. The character needs to have a character arc, either physically or emotionally. The journey within the story allows the audience to witness the growth of the protagonist.
However, the proven story structure in films and TV shows is outdated in today's marketing environment, due to the sweeping popularity of social media and mobile devices, people no longer have patience for the story to unfold. Thus, stories need to be front-loaded. The emerging story arc places your protagonist in a win or lose situation at the onset, which increases the stakes. This is immediately followed by a subtle branding cue. Then comes the offer and product features. Try to create multiple peaks in this section and end with a clear call to action.
type 2 — documentary style
A documentary style video tells a nonfictional story. It usually features real people getting interviewed on a variety of topics. It’s the most common style of video for corporate communication. The documentary style video has become an immensely effective way to communicate new processes, promote causes or share big news at your company.
The magic of the documentary style video is the authenticity and humanity that lies behind the story. The audience knows they're watching real people, so the story carries more weight. Although a documentary style video takes a more realistic approach, it’s still storytelling at its core. The story is the king. Thus, the story arc explained above still applies to this type of video.
Documentary style videos are often more difficult to create because you don't fabricate the story arc in the script writing phase. Instead, you structure the arc across hours of interviews. You need to start high by moving the most intriguing sound bites which embody your theme to the very beginning and create an up and down flow with multiple peaks. Stir the stories told by your subjects, highlight the humanity in them, and tap into the real human interactions and raw emotions.
Pre-production
This part is crucial for documentary style videos. There’s no script, but you must have a preplanned map in mind:
Research the topic — Understand the goal of the video. If it’s about an organization, learn its mission statement and about its core businesses. If it’s about an event, determine what happened at the event and who was involved.
Pick and research your subject — Pick several people who know the topic well and who have strong public speaking skills. If time allows, schedule a pre-interview with each of these subjects. Know their titles, work scope and personalities. This is also a good time to remove the people whom you think aren't appropriate for the video.
Establish a focal point — Prior to production, determine what you want the main point of your story to be. Tailor questions around that point and break it down into different areas you’d like to cover. Assign those areas to different subjects. Each subject has different knowledge and stories, thus only assign the areas to the subject whose stories are most relevant.
Establish a rapport with your subject — Help your subjects relax. Be conscious of how intimidating the cameras, microphones and lights are. Start with asking about their background and their career and show that you're interested in their story. Never ask yes or no questions. Tell your subject to always include the question in the answer. For example, if they're asked what color the sky is, they should say, "The sky is blue," not just "blue." Explain the editing process, and let them know that if they fumble some words they can simply start over from the previous sentence.
A case study on a short documentary video
The Rental Exchange
This video is a good example of how a successful documentary style marketing video should look. The focal point is Experian UK's new initiative called “The Rental Exchange,” which incorporates people’s rental history into their credit files and helps tackle the challenges they face by removing barriers of financial inclusion.
Choose interviewees representing all perspectives — To elaborate this initiative, the production team chose three interviewees representing all three parties within a B2B2C model: Vicky, the Experian employee who’s in charge of the program; Tina, the consumer who benefits from this program; and Viv from Family Mosaic, Experian's client. With these three perspectives, the video paints a comprehensive picture of what this program is and how it helps our clients to better serve their customers.
Always start with the big idea, the meaning — The video starts with a sound bite from Vicky hitting the theme: This program removes barriers of financial inclusion for millions of tenants in the UK. Starting the video by explaining what the program is and how it works would have been less effective. People don’t care about a new product or program unless it helps them and represents a big idea that contributes to a better society. Find the big idea behind your product or initiative and start high by opening the story with the meaning.
Raise the stakes — After the big idea, the video introduces Tina, the consumer, and Vicky, the person in charge of the program. Tina's role is to make the video more relatable. She’s among the targeted audience of renters. Her dreams and struggles mean the most to the viewer. Without her, the program and the video would be out of touch.
Raise the stakes — After Vicky gives a brief explanation on what this program is, the video leads us into Tina’s life. She can't get a loan from the bank to buy music equipment for her college-age son, so she turns to a payday lender which eventually puts her into severe debt. At this point, the viewer has connected with Tina — they care about her struggle and want to know how it can be resolved.
Start with the big idea and follow up with the biggest obstacle the subject faces to really raise the stakes.
Present the resolution — The video changes to a more positive tone when Tina visits Family Mosaic. Viv from Family Mosaic talks about how they work with Experian and how this program allows them to be more financially inclusive of all customers. This resolution section creates a balanced narrative by intercutting perspectives of Viv, Vicky and Tina, showing how they work closely together to achieve a better outcome for the consumer, the client and society. The video ends with Vicky looking up into the sky and we hear her say, “I can breathe now.”
The story arc in a successful video is always vivid. Every element has a purpose, and the order of the elements following the story arc pushes the viewer on an emotional journey to arrive at a satisfying resolution.
A-roll vs. B-roll
The A-roll, or talking head, is the interview footage. The B-roll is the supplemental footage that ranges from people’s action footage, scenery footage or historic footage. The A-roll is the most important footage for telling the story, and the supporting B-roll is used to add depth and context to the A-roll.
Typically for interviews, we start with the A-roll, so we see the person who’s talking on screen. Then, we use the B-roll to cover the A-roll imagery, while still hearing the interviewee talk in the background. We use the B-roll as supplemental footage to show what's being talked about.
Using the Rental Exchange video as an example, when we hear Tina talk about supporting her son, who majors in music production, we see her and her son at home playing music with big smiles on their faces; they’re having a good time. This B-roll not only supports her talking points, but also adds an emotional layer to the story. In her interview, she simply states the fact that she has to buy music equipment for her son, but when we lay the B-roll on top of it, the stakes get a lot higher because of the emotional aspect. We see that she loves her son so much that she wouldn't hesitate to take risks to provide him a better life. This resonates with us. Action always says more.
It's worth noting that B-roll can be footage captured during production or stock footage purchased from online video libraries. One benefit of using stock footage is a lower production cost. Sending a crew to shoot at a real location is far more expensive than sourcing online stock videos. However, the limitation of stock footage is that it’s generic. It's often better to capture B-roll action footage of the person you interviewed and real events happening at your company.
A video with a great balance between A-roll and B-roll is like a full course meal. You have the savory main dish, but also the delicate appetizer, the smooth dessert and the sparkling beverage. So, always think about B-roll in your pre-production. Think about how to use B-roll to enrich the emotion that words simply can't convey.