What researching oodles of video companies has taught me

As you may have noticed …. I really hope you have… I’m a voice actor. Voiceover artist. Voice actress, for those of you who don’t mind a little self-gendering in a job title.

As a voice actress, I gotta market myself to the people who might hire me. As does any business. Thank you Captain Obvious.

So, I spend a lot of time researching video production companies – people who make explainer videos, corporate training videos, social media campaigns, promotional website video and even commercials. I look at video production websites, I connect with video producers on Linkedin, I somehow end up with a whole lot of “video production” retargeted ads on social media…

My friends, I watch a lot of videos. Well, I watch at least part of a lot of videos. If I watched the whole of each video on every website of every company I research, my eyeballs would fall out and my brain would spontaneously decompose.

Here’s some things I’ve learnt about video content:

The first few seconds really IS amazingly important. I know everyone says this…. that may actually be because it’s true. While I’m researching companies, I try to only watch a short section of each video, but sometimes a video will catch me. It might have cool music, some really fun colours, just something that really grabs attention. Maybe just a really attractive person… what can I say, I’m human. Whatever it is, that video producer done good! It’s worth spending extra time figuring out something really catchy for the opening few seconds of your video.

Music makes a huge difference. I had a bit of a complain on Linkedin about this the other day, which might’ve been a bit mean of me, sorry. I was watching loads of videos – and I notice the audio, because I’m usually wondering if they use VO or not – and hearing a lot of ordinary background music. But then a video came on that had some fabulous jazzy music with an interesting beat and a female vocalist and it was such a sight for sore… ears? Wait. A sound for sore ears, I guess. Plus, it was used really well and didn’t distract from the actual content of the video. So hey, try finding some fabulous music!

Local knowledge and images create connection and interest. This isn’t going to be relevant to all videos you make, or even many of them maybe. But if your video is promoting a place or event or business, images and sounds of the local area are so important. I so enjoyed looking through the websites of companies that work in my local area, just because I recognized the landmarks and places, and even the familar sunlight and sky of the region I live in. This instantly creates an emotional and sentimental connection that makes people want to keep watching.

Colour creates energy. Similar to finding good music – good colours create a LOT of interest. I’m so much more interested in watching a video when it’s colourful – or at least, depending on the tone and topic, appropriately coloured. Try to think carefully about what colours are in your footage and how you can use and enhance those colours with your editing to really catch attention.

Video producers are awesome.  Nah, I’m not just trying to suck up to people who might hire me… okay maybe a little… but it’s gotta be said – there is SO MUCH video content out there in the world right now, and there’s more and more and MORE every minute of every day. People who make videos are working so hard to keep things interesting and powerful and send the messages that people need to send. Good onya, video people!

If you are in fact one of those awesome and hardworking video people and you’re looking for some fabulous voiceover, here I am! I’d love to hear from you.

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