They say a little knowledge is dangerous.  When it comes to shooting web video, a little knowledge about video isn’t necessarily dangerous, it can just be very embarrassing.

So, what can you do to create web video that looks good and doesn’t mark you out immediately as an amateur? 

Do you hire a professional?  Do you need professional cameras?  The good news is that you can generally shoot good online video on your own. 

And nowadays you can use cheaper  cameras that simply weren’t available to us a decade ago. 

Web video is not TV

But to do it well, you must understand what web video is.  And you need to learn and practice both editorial and production skills.

A lot of people make the mistake of shooting online video as if it is being broadcast on television.  But web video is viewed differently to television.  And the current level of quality is hardly comparable.

The viewing experience differs too.  When you watch traditional TV you simply see video.  On the Web, however, video usually appears as a screen within a larger screen.

Web video is just one of several content types on the Web page competing for your viewer’s attention. 

Therefore, to create phenomenal online video that will hold you viewer’s attention, you need to structure and shoot it differently than  traditional video.

When you start doing web video you should work your way through three stages.  First, is content preparation, second, shooting the video and third, editing it.

Steps to make Web video

The content preparation stage is known in traditional television as pre-production.  This is where you clarify your message and develop a narrative structure.

Once you have a narrative structure, you plan the pictures you will shoot with the camera and consider how they will “cut” or join together to tell your story in the most powerful way possible.

You’ll be making these decisions as you plan your budget and production schedule.

The shooting stage – known in traditional television as production - is where you take your storyboard and/or script and shoot the action.

This is the stage of web video work that most people visualize.  They forget the content preparation stage.   Normally shooting gets bogged down and becomes very inefficient when the editorial stage has been ignored.

The final stage is the editing stage.  Traditional television refers to this as post production, or “post” for short.  This is where you take the footage – known in the industry as rushes – and edit them.

Editing involves cutting out all the mistakes and content you don’t want and then joining them together.  It also involves cutting in other pictures to make the video more interesting, and any titles or special effects.  Today editing is done using non-linear desktop software packages.

Skills

Like anything, creating quality video requires good skills.  But they can be easily learned with sound instruction, practice and feedback.