Why Some Corporate Videos Look Cheap (and How to Fix it)
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
How to Make Your DIY Corporate Video Production Look Professional
When it comes to corporate video production for social media, it’s the little things that make all the difference. Your brain subconsciously processes a myriad of details that affect your perception of a video, so it’s crucial to get them just right. While social media content can be much less polished than website videos, every corporate video is representing your company. The last thing you want is for your band to look cheap. This week, we’ll explore our top tips on how to fix video and get your content looking its most professional.
1) Harsh Shadows are Confusing your Perception
Lighting plays a tremendous role in capturing professional-quality video. While it’s obvious that not enough lighting poses an issue, it’s important to remember that too much lighting also affects video quality. When lighting is too severe, harsh shadows form and distract from the subject(s) of the shot. In fact, this type of lighting is typically used in noir-style films to illustrate something sinister and leave the audience unsettled—the exact opposite of your brand video’s goal. In general, harsh shadows confuse perception by creating abrupt, high-contrast dark lines that obscure details, break up familiar shapes, and create disorienting, unrepresentative geometry. In response, your brain takes in these confusing signals and perceives the corporate video as “cheap” due to being so visually unclear.
How to fix it: Use reflectors and diffusers to create a softer, more balanced look. Also be cognizant of the angles in your frame--hitting some subjects dead-on often amplifies the shadows.
2) Audio that is Hard to Hear is Unclear
Think of the last time you tried to watch a video with poor audio quality. Even if you powered through to get the content, you were likely too distracted by the sound to get a positive first impression. Similar to poor lighting breaking up our visual field and producing cheap-looking content, poor audio quality chops up our auditory input and significantly lowers our perceptions of the production's quality. The human ear is very skilled at filtering out noises that are not important. Think of being in a restaurant; despite the quiet sounds of others, you're able to hear your companion just fine. Our brains allow us to focus on just the words of the people in front of us, despite excessive background chatter. However, a camera microphone simply can't do this. In the exact same scenario, the microphone picks up ALL the noise. That's not only the table next to you talking, but also the clinking of plates in the kitchen, the humming of the AC above the door, and the footsteps of the waiters walking by. This makes it impossible to focus on your video's actual content.
How to fix it: Use a microphone! We specifically recommend using a highly directional mic like a lav, which will ensure that only the subject speaking will be recorded. Make sure that each person talking gets their own lav and that it is placed at their chest (this gets the resonance of their voice and produces a full, clear sound.)
3) Too Much of the Shot is In Focus
When considering shot composition, depth of field can make or break that "cheap" look. Depth of field is the distance between the closest and farthest points in a frame that are sharp enough to appear clearly on camera. Phones have a very large depth of field, which means almost everything in the shot is in focus. While that makes filming easy, it also makes the production look very cheap. When you maintain a shallower depth of field, fewer objects in the frame distract the eye. Like with clear lighting and audio, tighter depth allows the video itself to be easily taken in, making the content easy to understand and remember. By keeping the background soft with the subject in focus, the frame tells your eye exactly where to look.
How to fix wide depth of field: Use a lens with a low f-stop. The lower the f-stop, the shallower the depth (an f2.8 is much shallower than an f4). Put your subject close to the camera but far away from the background. Make sure the "field" in focus only includes the subject and nothing behind them. Physically moving the subject away from the background helps keep it out of focus. If you are filming on an iPhone, use the "Cinematic" video setting, which mimics shallower depth.
Angela Wolf Video offers corporate video production services near Philadelphia, PA.
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