mobile and social video: best practices robb montgomery

Smart Film School Robb Montgomery

Best practices in Mobile & social video

Robb Montgomery

Smart Film School Robb Montgomery@robbmontgomery

A field reporter carrying a smartphone (and the knowledge to use it for visual reporting) is a tremendous asset to news outlets.

A properly outfitted and trained reporter can file live reports at broadcast quality, file raw footage and even produce a complete news package entirely on their phone. In addition, the types of social video content that can now be produced with an iPhone is astounding.

The key is strategy, training and retooling newsroom workflows to suit the needs of mobile consumers.

http://www.robbmontgomery.com


Short form video. (As in ‘really short.’)


Some trends


75% of Buzzfeed’s top videos are under 60 seconds in length, and square in format. – Forrester


Social videos attract 3X more inbound links than plain text posts – Moz

https://moz.com/blog/what-makes-a-link-worthy-post-part-1


Facebook loosens its video ban on publishers – Digiday

http://Digiday


Mobile people, mobile video


Video formats for Mobile Millennials1 second - Boomerang

3 seconds - Live photos

6 seconds - Vine

10 seconds - Snap Chat

15 Seconds - Instagram

30 seconds - Twitter

1 minute - Facebook

2 minutes - YouTube

10 minutes - Vimeo

13 hours - Netflix

While there is an emphasis on short-length videos, it would be a mistake to think that this group cares only for short attention span content. What they pay attention to,

actually, is visually-led content.


Storytelling questionsLinear or Non-Linear?

Silent or VR Surround sound?

Vertical, Horizontal or Square aspect ratio?

Live or 360°?

Short or long?

Promotional or serialized?

For which screens?

The calculus for using video to reach mobile consumers now has many inputs for variables. In 2015, we had our Big Bang with the convergence of autoplaying videos

and mobile consumption stepping up into the dominant behavior. And just like in those explosive nanoseconds after the bang. we see the mobile video universe is rapidly expanding. There are new announcements, mutations and behaviors being born at this moment.


10 types of social video 1. Live streaming

2. Video collage

3. Story cards

4. Graphics packages

5. Long form multimedia

6. Cinematic shorts

7. First Personalities

8. Kinograms

9. Walkthroughs

10. Quick hits

@robbmontgomery

These are 10 types of video reports that I teach field reporters and producers how to create with just their

smartphone. As I struggled to classify and name the many types of popular social video available just at this moment, it became

clear to me that we indeed have to find some common language to describe the new cinema screens in our customer’s pockets.

And we need common language about video because, in our reporter’s pockets, that same mobile device is also a

phenomenal video capturing, editing and sharing machine.

We all need this so we can decode and begin to speak with greater precision and story language about exactly what we mean when we are making assignments and measuring results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_82ayy0nsc&list=PLRnT0qj_Q7GD4MFp2ZAG1Nv1SolW8IU2F


Insights from my clientsLarge broadcasters and pure-play digital media news outlets in Asia and Europe


S

Make social videoSmart Film School

Mars Studio

@robbmontgomery

As I have been consulting with media clients recently on social and mobile video, we have been examining these behaviors and comparing it to research that suggests a

roadmap for best practices.


The best-performing videos are visual and action-based

Avoid talking heads.Instead, show stunning imagery, action shots, and a lot of movement.

@robbmontgomery


The pictures are the story

It is possible to produce video stories without a storyboard, script, or talking head.

Today, social stories are being written first with the smartphone camera.

@robbmontgomery


Find, capture, edit, and file a polished video story from anywhere.


Story snacks

The attraction of short-form social videos lies in their “snackable” nature.

See examples on my Twitter feed@RobbMontgomery

http://www.twitter.com/robbmontgomery


Quick hit videoFun, simple and informative.

The reporter writes with their camera and then writes text to support the visual story.


Always on the go

Short videos suit our busy lives, brief attention spans and the need to consume content easily and quickly.

@robbmontgomery


Breaking news: Live from my iPhone.


Add a call to action at the end of the video SHARE THISVOTETELL ME MORE

@robbmontgomery


Video memes

Highly visualized data stories can be illustrated with title cards, graphics, and text animation.

@robbmontgomery


Video memes

Short lifestyle HOW-TO videos Visual recipes, fashion and cosmetics tips, relationship advice, sports talk, video gaming strategies, and gadget tests.

@robbmontgomery


R

Short recipe videos for social streams


That clip was filmed, edited and shared using an iPhone.

View on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KTKEOv4ND8&index=9&list=PLRnT0qj_Q7GD4MFp2ZAG1Nv1SolW8IU2F


Video memes

Travel deals, health tips, career advice.

Think ‘Columnist,’ but this kind ofpersonality- driven content is presented as an ongoing series of 10-second Snapchat video clips instead of a series of 10-inch columns.

@robbmontgomery


VJs

Specialists

Generalists

Video strategy

To support a higher level of video literacy across the enterprise, managers must allocate video skills and resources wisely.


A Kinogram video made entirely on iPhone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_82ayy0nsc&list=PLRnT0qj_Q7GD4MFp2ZAG1Nv1SolW8IU2F


www.SmartFilmSchool.com

Step-by-step tutorials in social video, mobile journalism and smartphone video production.

Contact me for site licensing.

http://www.SmartFilmSchool.com

http://www.smartfilmschool.com

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mobile and social video: best practices robb montgomery

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