Top tips for... Commissioning or making video for the web

Keep the following things in mind:

Audience

• Who are your audience (age, sex, race)?
• What are they looking for?
• How can you keep their attention?
• Focus on your audience: think what they need, not what you want.

Message

• What are you trying to say?
• What’s the most visual way to say it?
• Make it engaging. You have about 12 seconds to grab viewers’ attention online, or they are gone.
• Make it short: web video is usually between 2 and 5 mins long.

Style

• Film has its own visual language: use it.
• The strength of video is evoking an emotional response; don’t be afraid to use music or narrative to effect this.
• Don’t allow a lecture to become your narrative.
• Avoid clichés; try and find a modern perspective on a message.
• Make it professional. Just because your film will only be seen online doesn’t mean it should be low quality.

Strategy

• Don’t use video just because everyone else is.
• Don’t commission a video just because they look nice.
• Plan your cross-media strategy: a video on its own is not a strategy.

Production

• Know your budget (time and money).
• Work to the highest standard. Audiences expect quality, regardless of the medium.
• Seek advice from media professionals before embarking on a video project.
• Plan well in advance: video projects take longer to complete than most other forms of media communication.
  

For further information visit: www.ox.ac.uk/itunes_u/audio_and_video