3-Step Video Shooting Guidelines

First and foremost… thanks for shooting and editing a 3-Step video. We hope the experience is a good one, and we want to make sure you have all of the information you need to create great videos for our customers.

You probably have some questions about the process. The following information and videos should go a long way to answering them. You’re also welcome to check out how the customers are introduced to 3-Step Video Production.

Of course, if you have more questions or want additional clarity surrounding something, don’t hesitate to get in touch (tgnau@t60productions.com | 844-351-6060).

Thanks for producing one of our 3-Step Videos!

Introduction to 3-Step Videos

Our hope is that this process should take you just two to five hours to complete. 3-Step videos are all about quality and efficiency. We want to produce the best video possible in the most efficient way possible. That’s why we developed 3-Step Video Production.

  1. INTERVIEW: videographer conducts a single interview with someone on-camera, asking three simple questions, taking just 5-10 minutes.
  2. B-ROLL: raw video will be shot around the business/organization, taking just 45-minutes.
  3. EDITING: answers obtained from the interview will be trimmed and edited together into a 1-minute story. Then, raw video, a royalty-free music bed, and a call-to-action are added.

Gear You’ll Need

Gear… we all love talking about gear. I’ll keep this short and sweet:

  • CAMERA: professional/prosumer camera (DSLR and mirrorless cameras are also great). GoPros and/or smart phones are okay to use as a secondary camera, but they should not be your primary camera.
  • AUDIO: professional mics are required. If you’re using a DSLR or mirrorless camera, please make sure you’re either using a preamp or a separate digital recorder.
  • LIGHTS: we’d prefer you to have lights. Even a single on-camera light for the interview would be fine. Just make sure they look good. We’ve been known to stick people in a window and use natural light in a pinch.
  • EDITING: we edit on Final Cut Pro X, but we don’t require you to. Please give us a well-edited video on whatever platform you like best. You’ll probably need to create and insert a basic graphic page at the end. Some sort of call-to-action. It’s nothing complicated. We don’t expect you to be graphic designers. Take a look at our sample videos for the type of thing we expect.

Initial Contact with the Customer

Someone from T60 will get in touch with you regarding the customer’s contact information. The shoot date should already be set, but we’d like you to call/email the customer to confirm and make sure they have your contact information.

We have one rule when it comes to communicating with the customer… treat others the way you wish to be treated yourself. Common sense. Simple stuff.

Please remember, in some circumstances this might be the first time they’ve ever been on-camera before or had someone shooting video for their business. If this is the case, please do your best to put them at ease.

Make sure they understand this isn’t live TV. If they don’t like the way they’ve said something, it’s okay to try again. We want them to look and sound good. We want them to have a video they’re going to be excited to share.

The Shoot and Edit

The customer gets a one-hour video shoot. During that hour you will interview one person, asking our 3-Step questions.

But before you get started with everything, make sure to ask them if there’s anything that MUST be in the video. It could be a tidbit of information, a specific thing they want shot… we just don’t want to turn over a completed video at the end and have them disappointed that we missed something important.

SHOOT: Now, the three questions… don’t freelance too much with these. We have different sets of questions depending on the type of video you’re producing, and we’ll be sending them to you. Each of these videos should run about 1:00, so the answers from the three questions should be enough, but we know you’ll be the judge of that on the day of the shoot. If you feel like you need more, you’re welcome to ask your own questions at the end.

The answers you get from the questions will likely dictate what b-roll to shoot.

EDIT: this is where the three questions should really help. The first answer is designed to be the beginning of the story, the second answer is your middle, and the third answer is the ending. You should be able to pull something from each of those answers, and piece them together into a nice story.

Remember, we do this for efficiency. That’s the name of the game.

Also, we have royalty-free music you can use. We’ll send you a link to our library.

Finally, you’ll need to get a company logo from the customer (if they have one) and create a basic graphic to close the story. It’s usually some sort of call-to-action and/or contact information. Here are some graphic samples… nothing complicated.

Payment Structure

The customer is paying $1000 for each video. We’re splitting that 50/50 with you, so you will be paid $500 once we have approved the completed video. In other words, as long as the video takes you five hours or less to complete (and it should), you’ll be making at least $100 per hour.

What are we doing to earn our 50%? Glad you asked. :-) We have already put in a ton of work before you’re ever assigned your video:

  • we’ve developed and tested the 3-Step process.
  • we have and continue to market 3-Step Video Production to the marketing and business communities.
  • we convert prospects into customers, and we find the right people (that would be you) to produce them.

One Last Thing

Wrapping-up, you should know that the customers are not going to get any creative say in the finished video. Of course, if there’s some sort of error, they can request that we fix it. Other than that, they get what we give them.

When you send us the finished video, we’ll review it and make sure it’s up to our standards. It’s possible we’ll have a change or two, but chances are it won’t be long list of stuff.