Speaker 1: Yo what's up everybody, welcome back to the channel and for those of you who don't know me, I'm Jason Anthony and I'm a full-time content creator. On this channel I like to teach you guys how to step up your content creating skills so if that's something you're into, consider subscribing. So for today's video we're going over promotional videos. How to get new clients, how to prepare for them, and how to shoot them. How is it that we can step up our game and stand out from the crowd, the rest of the photographers and videographers out there that are trying to do the same thing as we're doing. So what I'll do is I wrote down some notes, yes I'll be reading from some notes, and I advise you guys to grab a pen and paper and take some notes down yourself because these tips and tricks really helped me develop my style and get more work through referrals and being able to send out the work that I already have. So when you guys first start out it's really hard to get gigs when you don't have anything to show. So my number one suggestion is jump on Instagram and DM businesses or people that you want to work with and offer some free work. Yes, I know I said free work, everyone wants to get paid, some of us are trying to do this full time, some are part time, some are freelance. It's got to be done. If there's a niche you want to get into, you have to have something to show them. So once you get the client what you're going to do is set up a meeting, this way you guys can talk about a vision, come up with how you're going to tell the story about that person or business, and really nail the music, figure out what track you want to use. For me personally, I like being able to listen to the track as I'm filming so I know prior to editing what type of shots I want to get, it really helps. And then once you set a time and date, oh by the way, when you go to that meeting, make sure it's at the location you'll be shooting at. This way you get an idea of what the lighting situation looks like, you have an idea of what shots you already want to get before you even start shooting. So once you set the date up and the time, we have to prepare for it. So what are we going to bring? So being that we had the meeting and we saw what the lighting situation is, if we need lighting, bring lighting. But I personally like to try to travel very minimal. If I know the lighting's decent, I will bring a prime lens and a zoom lens. So my go-to usually is a 16-35 and a 55 or 85 for some tight B-roll shots. For the sample video that you guys will see shortly, I shot it all on one prime lens. It was the Sony 28mm F2. That's it. And because it has such a short focal distance, I was able to get tight, medium and wide shots just using that one lens. Sometimes when you have too much gear, you're thinking about like having to use it on the shoot, whereas you should be focusing on the shots to get because not every video shoot you're going to do is going to be staged. And sometimes it's a one-time thing. You have to capture it right then and there, whether it's weddings or someone cutting hair, like I'll show you guys, you can't cut hair again. You have to get another client. So you have to be on point. Now there's two types of promotional shoots I want you guys to think about. One is a staged shoot and one is on the fly running gun. Now when someone's getting their hair cut, obviously it's running gun, but if you're doing a food video on how the food's prepared, that can be a little staged. You can redo shots. You could do different types of effects like whip pans, whereas the other style shots you have to get the first time. I don't think I could stress that enough. So once we're done with the meeting and we have the gear list that we want to bring with us, we're going to go into that shoot and kill it. You want to be confident AF and you're going to kill that. Like straight up, you have to be confident in yourself, even if it's your first time shooting the promotional video. Now there will be curve balls. Every video shoot that I've ever shot on, there's a curve ball. I forgot my ND filter or didn't have one for the lens that I was using or the lighting suddenly changed from super bright out to shadowy and cloudy and it's about to pour. You always have to adapt. So knowing your gear, practicing as much as you can with your camera in different situations is going to make you a better filmmaker in the long run. So for the first shot of my promotional videos, I like to have a really wide shot, whether it's a drone clip or a really shallow depth shot. And those seem to be my favorite openers or what you'll call like a master in the beginning. And then the rest of the shots are going to change from tight, medium and wide. And you want to change up the angles and the focal ranges as much as you can so that when you put the video together, you're really telling a story. So what I'll do now is show you a sample of a promotional video I did for my friend who's a barber. We'll go check it out and then we'll come back and talk a little bit more about it.

Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, nah, nah, don't try me, baby, there's been a lot of motherfuckers trying to get in my way lately, and you can't blame me, baby, it'd be a long damn time before I let you take it from me, ooh, oh yeah, I've been getting money laying low and working for the life you're praying for and I ain't ever, ever going cold, I'm on my way, no, no, no.

Speaker 1: So that's an example of one of my promotional videos that I did for a barber. What'd you guys think of it? Did I nail everything that I mentioned earlier? Was there multiple angles and tight, medium and wide shots? Did I tell a story? I like to think so and he was very pleased. I like the fact that we got him going into the barber shop, setting up like he was starting his day and then cutting the hair. We didn't just hit record while he cut someone's hair and that was it. So we told the story, we had some good transitions, nothing too fancy because at the end of the day we want to tell that story and if you guys would have done it any differently, let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear how you guys would have approached that. I really would. If you thought this video was helpful, leave a thumbs up. If you're new here, consider subscribing and you guys can always catch up with me on Instagram where I post new photos and videos daily. Until next time guys, I'm Jay Anthony, peace.