Recently I was in a meeting with a potential client discussing business video. He mentioned what stood out to their marketing team about our videos was the ‘spacing’ we put into our edits. I pressed him a bit more to find out what he meant by that, and he said it felt real and not too ‘salesy’. It felt authentic.
It comes back again to story, I think. The element of allowing your video to flow and speak, instead of slapping you across the face. In this day and age, viewers of your video content are far more educated and aware of what feels authentic and what seems fake. So much of that lies within the editing, specifically along the lines of verbiage, spacing or ‘padding’, and overall feel.
Verbiage
The best editors know how to reduce in a way that enriches your content. Meaning, the content needs to be cut down and yet have all the messaging or story still there in the shortest amount of time possible. This is truly a gift that video editors often take years to develop. Experienced professionals (known often as “Power Editors”) can hone in on what will work and what won’t efficiently. Cutting out just a word or a frame sometimes is really all that is needed to get that video edit ‘just right’. This brings me to point number 2: padding.
Padding
“Padding” is the space between points in video, usually having to do with speaking. If words run on top of one another constantly and there is never a ‘breath’, your audience can feel confused and overwhelmed. As our client referred to up top: the pace is everything. And yes, there are times to put speed into it but also times where the talking should be digested for a second or 2 with just visuals (and maybe music). Padding gives pace to your story and is a huge contributor to the last element to be discussed today: feel.
Feel
I’m a musician (play a couple instruments well and a bunch of others not so well 🙂 ) A word common to that field is “phrasing”. It’s a simple concept but professionals and accomplished musicians will often work on it until the end of their lives and/or musical journey. Though it can break down into small items like the ‘attack’ on a note, or the crescendo/de-crescendo in a musical passage, OVERALL it’s the way you are interpreting the notes on the page.
This is so similar to video. Video has a feel or interpretation to it which includes style of music, flow of the story (is there actually a beginning/middle/end?), climax moment, and so much more. All of which contribute to the vibe your viewer will get watching your video.
Is the video pro-looking or amateur? Is the video sad or happy? What is the final thought/emotion your viewer is left with? Some of these things are seemingly so elementary and yet so hard to deliver. Hopefully now you can see just a bit more why.
To close here: check out one of our recent videos we did, and notice the feel and padding particularly:
Drobots Camp Video – Version 1 from Waves Media on Vimeo.