Video Reviewer Recruitment!
Over the course of the past year we have received a number of product reviews all relating to soccer jerseys or other pieces of apparel.
These reviews have all been in the shape of a written text + sometimes with accompanying photos.
We will now try to up the ante a bit. We will try to move it from written reviews and to a video review!
The video review is in many ways much more difficult than the written review. The reason for this is that people are so accustomed to professionally produced moving images, motion pictures, movies or simply films. More lately video has become a category in its own right with the rise of the Internet and services like youtube and vimeo.
To craft a good video it requires a good story line, a good structure, a good scene performance by the presenter + good technical equipment and setup.
This makes it vastly more difficult to create a good video than it does to write a good review. But as the many youtube sensations have shown it can be done even with very rather basic equipment at hand and essentially no budget.
It does to a large extent come down to the individual performing in front of the camera. A decent HD camera, and good lights and sound (or the absence of noise).
So how to do a good amateur video?
Keep it short. Keep it simple. Most videos can get the essential message out in around 2 minutes. Rule of thumb should be more than 1 minute always less than 3 minutes in total.
Lights. For photography as well as for video or movies the right lights are essential. Very bright lights which will reflect in the lense should be avoided as well as too little light. Artificial lights can be effective but should never be directed towards the lenses of the camera. Bright sunshine should be avoided but a bright day is the best environment for outside shooting.
Sound. Most amateur cameras whether photo cameras with video or camcorders come with a small built in microphone. Such a microphone has difficulty in picking up the sound unless it is coming from very close by and can easily be disturbed by background noise. So unless one has a large microphone as an accessory to the camera one has to pay a lot of attention to noise and positioning towards the microphone.
Of course it is possible to make a performance of the cuff and simply press play and then pull it off without any preparations or without any script. But possibly for most people the better result will come with a few rounds of rehearsal and some kind of script whether written down or simply elaborated and stored in the mind.
Background. A stable background can make the video more focused on the presenter but it can also be inserted artifically using a video editing program. However, in order to give the video more life and to include the sense of place a static background is of course not an advantage.
Cast. Often a production is more interesting if it takes place like a conversation rather than as a monologue.
an example is the economist and tea with the Economist click here for an example!
Inspiration. The web is packaged with do it yourself tutorials and advise as how to do this or how to do that. Youtube and vimeo also have plenty of amateur material published where one find inspiration.
We invite a global audience to participate. What would be an extra benefit of a review. To bring some visuals from your location! The inside of a house looks pretty much the same across the world these days. Cities and countries not so much though certain elements seem to have been universally adopted by now. So to bring a video clip from a public place in an interesting location would surely be very welcome!
So if you are interested in providing us with a video review of a soccer jersey drop us an email:
info@mmsport.dk
let us know what you can do and we would be glad to send you a jersey for video reviewing.
an official soccer jersey including official name and number printing from one of Europe’s leading clubs.