Inside the Actor's Studio: The Making of the Orange Marketing Videos

Kelsey and I are nothing, if not transparent with our clients. We are completely honest about what we think we do well, what we think we can take a crack at, and what we have no earthly idea of how to get done. However, we are both life long learners and when we see a knowledge gap, we pursue it with a vengeance. But this video thing ... It had us scratching our heads.

Here is the story of how we attacked video for our startup ...  

Every once in awhile you have to drink your own Kool-Aid. At Orange Marketing, we firmly believe that video is a great way to create content for your prospective buyers, Meaning, you can easily shoot video and then get a transcript created via a service like Rev.com and instantly have content in a couple of formats. And we firmly believe having video content available for your prospects is critical, because of the way people consume content today. Shout out to Impact, a HubSpot Diamond Agency, who pulled together these Amazing B2B Video Stats.

So that means we had to suck it up and shoot video. Are you scared of video too? Just follow the easy steps below and to help you conquer video!

Step 1, Call someone under the age of 25.

We found a smart young man who is super familiar with video shooting and wants to get into editing. And we offered him a living wage to help us. Our hero Brett Kramer!

Step 2. Just do it.

We figured out our topics via a quick brainstorm. We basically had a loose outline of the things we wanted to talk to and who would talk about what. We set the date, got Brett over to my house and then just shot video in the living room. On my iPhone. Yes we used a tripod with this little gadget. 

Critical Mistake. We did not review the video footage as we were making it.

Here is where we made our first mistake. Neither of us reviewed the video to see how it was coming out, I think we were terrified to see ourselves on video. Later I looked at the videos and promptly decided they would never see the light of day. The lighting was wrong, I was at a weird angle that made me look like a shiny old lady (no comments). And the background was too busy. I outright rejected 3 hours of video that we worked really hard on. Kelsey went along with me because frankly, she doesn't believe anyone should ever suffer. Even me. 

Step 3. Call someone under the age of 25.

We know a girl, who knows a little something about video. (Shout out to future super star Kerina!!). She said we could totally do this ourselves without renting out a real studio ($$$) and she makes her own videos all the time. She had a few words of advice:

• Lighting is critical. So we ordered this light and a stand.
• Get a plain backdrop. And we purchased this backdrop.
• Get a mike. Then we bought a microphone. 
• Use translucent powder and primer to help with shine.
• Finally, we bought the powder. and the primer she recommended.  

Step 4. Get help from someone who can use a screwdriver properly.

And that wasn't me. Shout out to Albert who set everything up the night before and then proceeded to play with it.

Step 5. Test! And Shoot!

This time around both Brett and Kelsey realized that I would throw everything out the window if I didn't like how I looked in the video. So we tested the lighting, And we tested the video. Brett tested the microphone and said it was perfect. That part he was in charge of. We honestly had no idea what he was doing as he is a musician as well and has mad sound skills. 

Step 6: Edit

The hard part was next which was the editing. We left that up to the Brett. We didn't want to pay a fancy service as we were just getting our feet wet. And, he knew a thing or two. He wanted us to buy him this software: Magix, so we did. 

If you are adding up our expenses, you may realize we have made a small investment (nearly $650 not counting labor), but we feel it is all worth it in order to be able to take videos and talk to our customers and prospects in our own voice about things we feel are really important, whenever we want. And we now have our very own portable video studio!

And this is the result below and at this link as a "real" blogpost. It seemed okay to us, but what did we know?

Step 7. Get Feedback.

We showed our videos around. We heard suggestions like 

• Use a white background
• Have more lighting
• Coordinate your clothing better (???)

We have our own suggestions for ourselves like

• Have a written outline 
• Check body positioning in the playback as well (notice my full body turn towards Kelsey)
• Repeat sentences after the planes fly over (our studio is under SNA)

We made four videos in this series which we will post one by one, with the edited transcripts underneath. We plan to try again. Because practice makes perfect.

And video content is really, really important for startups.

Other Orange Marketing Videos

• 5 Minute Video: Why Content is So Important for Your Startup
• 5 Minute Video: Creating Content Quickly
• 5 Minute Video: How to Use Email Correctly for B2B Lead Generation