new “about us” video

Corporate video is very new to me – one of many things I’ve known for a while we needed to do, but had no idea where to start.  Video is the type of content that could potentially go viral.  It also is simply a medium more likely to be seen by today’s audiences, who are increasingly immune to datasheets and one-dimensional content.

Fortunately, one of the many benefits of having a large office in Sri Lanka is getting to experiment with vendors at a fraction of a cost for similar US-based services, such as professional videography.  Last year, when our leadership team was meeting in Sri Lanka, we were able to hire a video crew to take the raw footage (at about 1/10th of the US cost).  It took a while to get the editing done, but here’s the first short video clip.

 
WSO2 Elevator Pitch

We prepared a few simple questions in advance, to ask Sanjiva (our CEO) and Paul (our CTO). Their answers were recorded a couple of times, from different angles. Things we’ve already learned from this process for next time:

• Prepare LOTS of questions in advance.  More than you think you’ll need.
• Record way more footage than you think you’ll need.  If you want a 2 minute video, take at least 10 if not 20 minutes of footage.
• Background is important.  Ours isn’t very interesting – I think we erred on the side of caution, not wanting to distract from the interview too much.  I’d like to try this with a different, more casual setting possibly.  Like maybe Paul and Sanjiva having lunch (so the viewer feels he’s just sitting down to a table conversation with them?), or in the common space of the office, with people mulling around in the background.
• Consider background music.  Our in-house video editor (among many other titles!) selected a generic drum beat, which works just fine.  It’s something you can play with though, but I’m not sure how this would work with copyright issues.  But then again, music is very subjective, so if you put a lot of time into getting it “just right”, there would still be plenty of people to disagree with your choice.
• Other visual elements – we’ll have to try this with future videos.  But you could keep a single audio track of dialogue, while cutting away from the visual image of 2 people talking together to show other things such as images of engineers working, architectural diagrams, customer logos, and lots of other things.  This should probably be thought through before recording, included in the original storyboard.
• And don’t forget branding and SEO elements – make sure you title and tag it appropriately, to help make it easier for viewers to find.  (We’re still tweaking this now actually.)