The Salt Sessions

Transcript

0:00
I’m Bev Salt, the founder of Add Salt.

0:02
I'm a marketing consultant.

0:04
For more details about me, head to my website: addsalt.co.uk.

0:10
Today I've got a guest joining me called John Starkie from Edit Easy, we're going to talk about video production.

0:20
So most businesses now use videos as part of their content marketing.

0:25
Videos do dominate the marketing industry in every format imaginable.

0:30
I recently read a report compiled by Wistia on the state of video for 2024 and the report identified that the biggest reasons that people don't produce videos is down to lack of time, lack of resources, and lack of technical ability.

0:48
Now, John, you and I have been working for almost a decade producing videos and I've got to say, over that time, video production has come a long way.

0:58
And there are so many more tools available to help people produce videos now, especially with AI helping with captions and transcripts and generating shorts.

1:09
John has spent years working in video production, working for agencies.

1:14
And nearly three years ago now, I think, John, you set up your own freelancing video business and here you are today, John, what equipment is needed to make a video?

1:26
Can people use their mobile phone?

1:29
Yes.

1:30
So well, firstly, thank you for having me, Bev.

1:32
And yeah, you're absolutely right.

1:34
Ten years ago, further like the barrier to entry making video was really high.

1:39
You had to spend a lot on cameras and equipment.

1:45
And video production can be and still is a time consuming process, but technology now means that we can do things quicker, faster and easier.

1:55
And especially if you're creating content for your business, especially user generated content, content that you're making to promote your services.

2:04
The equipment you need can be quite small.

2:07
It can be your mobile phone and it can be free editing software online.

2:11
If you Google free editing software, there's a plethora, some better, some worse, but they're all Or even if you've got a Mac or APC, you'll have i-movie or movie maker.

2:22
There's tools readily available.

2:25
And of course if you want higher production quality, you can hire equipment or you can bring in freelancers or production companies.

2:36
But it all really depends on what you're making and why.

2:40
So if you are a high-end property company doing luxury tours of millions and millions pound houses, you might think or you know, it's probably more realistic that you have a really high quality polished video because you know, your viewers, your audience are expected to see something pretty fantastic.

3:00
Whereas if you're a business that's just giving and this is a really marketing term, snackable content, little bits of information to help solve a problem, then doing it on your phone is perfectly acceptable.

3:15
I think with social media now, we're all used to seeing mobile phone generated content.

3:21
We're all used to seeing when I say low production quality, that doesn't mean low quality.

3:25
But if it's clearly not filmed in a studio with actors and lights and all this kind of thing, but it's still good.

3:32
And I think the equipment you need if you want to start out and you're just testing, if you want to make video content, starting small with your mobile is, perfect.

3:43
The only thing that people trip up with is sound.

3:46
It's kind of weird said this quite often that you watch TV, if you're watching the news and they're doing an interview and the sounds doesn’t sound right, you know, instantly. You're not being taught that it's bad.

3:58
We know when it's bad.

4:00
And I think people often forget when they're filming with their mobile phones, just their phones.

4:03
The microphone is kind of on the body somewhere.

4:06
So if they're holding their phone really far away, I don't know if that works, your mouth is really far away from the microphone.

4:12
So you get the echo, you get the, the fuzziness or a classic is they're going to stand outside, You know, welcome to our business.

4:21
Look how big it is.

4:22
Look at my premises, but the wind's blowing on the microphone, and you hear that noise.

4:28
So if you're going to start off making content for your business, I think using your phone is totally fine.

4:33
If the output is something that is suitable for it, but you should, if you're going to make an investment having a little microphone, be it a desktop microphone like I'm using here for a podcast or you can on Amazon, you can get a little wireless clip-on microphone that'll attach to you.

4:51
You can plug into your phone is really worth it, especially when you get them with a little fluffy bell on it called a windjammer.

4:58
So you don't get that outdoor noise.

4:59
Just simple things like that mean that you can easily produce appropriate content using just those tools.

5:05
Like I said, editing online, you can.

5:09
There's lots of different services now and there's more than ever.

5:11
I use paid for software because I need the right tools to get work out quickly.

5:20
When it comes to equipment, then yeah, it can be done.

5:22
The barrier to entry now is, is as low as it's ever been for creating content.

5:29
Definitely.

5:30
And are there any recording tips you can share?

5:34
I mean, sometimes people say, “Oh, can you just edit that person out the video?”

5:38
And we say, “Not really not so easy to edit somebody out of a video, don't have them in the video in the first place.”

5:48
Can you share any tips with us?

5:50
And definitely there's a bit of an insider joke within the industry that will sort that out in post.

5:56
So people filming or post-production people will be out filming and they're like, this thing has happened.

6:01
They'll be like, don't worry, the editor will be able to sort that.

6:04
But again, if we're talking about if you're, you know, businesses wanting to create their own content easily and quickly.

6:11
The biggest recording tip, obviously simple ones like light, sound and a background.

6:17
So you know, if you're filming yourself, you want to have some light in front of you shining on you, not light behind you because then you get that silhouette, you know, horror movie kind of look.

6:28
I talked before about sounds you want to have.

6:31
You want to ensure that if you're speaking or recording sound, it can be heard.

6:35
And that sounds really obvious.

6:36
But people, that's a big pitfall.

6:38
They think that the microphone on their camera, on their camera phone, sorry, will just magically hear them and it won't.

6:48
You need to check it.

6:49
So you do a little test recording first.

6:51
Can you hear me clearly?

6:52
Because people, there's so many stats each year there's a new stat on, on video viewership and people will accept low quality video, but they won't accept low quality audio.

7:03
If you click play and it looks amazing, you can't hear it.

7:06
No one's going to watch it.

7:07
It's just impossible.

7:08
Whereas if the video recording is a little lower quality, but they can hear it and they want to hear it, they'll watch the whole thing.

7:14
But the biggest recording tip, apart from any of that, the biggest tip really is a plan.

7:22
And lots of business owners, they're like, well, we need to make a really short 10-minute film.

7:27
We need to mention our six businesses, 6 businesses.

7:30
We need to mention that we've got 5 directors and they need to see how many vans we've got.

7:36
And then they need to see all our computers.

7:38
And what often happens, you're saying before barriers to stop people making it is, you know, in house person or they'll bring someone in or however they do it, they'll film everything.

7:48
It'll take ages, they'll watch it all back.

7:51
They won't be happy with it or it'll end up being edited out.

7:54
It becomes a huge, huge resource and time drain and it just puts people off and they're like, well, we're not going to do that because it took ages.

8:01
We've got nothing out of it.

8:03
Whereas a plan, a storyboard, even just a bullet point list of what we want to cover, why we want to cover it and then how we're going to do it.

8:12
Because if you're making a video about the window cleaning business, to just make up an example, instead of spending all day filming the staff cleaning windows, if you make a little plan, right, I need to film the van arriving, greeting the customer, cleaning the windows, and then at the end to say we're available in your area and it costs this… just making it up.

8:34
Of course, you could probably knock that out in an hour if you had a tight plan.

8:39
And then when you come to edit your film, you just edit to your plan.

8:43
If you were going to have a say, the van arriving, greeting the customer, cleaning the windows and then the call to action.

8:50
If that's what you plan to film when you edit it, you're not looking through hours of footage.

8:55
You're just looking through the clips.

8:57
Well, that's the van.

8:57
That's the best van one.

8:58
That's the best way to clean one.

9:00
And then you put it all together done.

9:02
For content to be effective, really apart from the marketing necessities of it has to be watchable and interesting and you know, solve a problem or educate or inform you.

9:16
You've got to be able to do it quickly otherwise you won't do it again.

9:19
And then there's a real demand now, I think for customers expect if you're going to make video content, they export back more than one video and you know, like you see content creators, brands, you know, creating content, dishing it out every week, every day.

9:37
And if you want to do that, then you need to have a plan that allows you to do it quickly and easily.

9:44
And I think, yeah, I my #1 recording tip would be to, to have a plan.

9:49
And I was often a joke for myself.

9:51
I always used to tell people it's people, time and places.

9:54
And they’d be like, what do you mean?

9:55
We want cool lights and fantastic cameras.

9:57
But if you don't have the right people in the right place at the right time all together, then you just all fall short.

10:03
And then once you've got your plan, if you then think, oh, that was quite good, I want to do some extra cool stuff.

10:09
You can.

10:10
But quite often businesses go for the cool stuff and then forget about the nuts and bolts.

10:15
And then, yeah, it becomes a bit of a resource drain.

10:19
Oh, that's great advice, John.

10:20
Have a plan.

10:21
We often see in movie trailers, a voice over artist and a lot of company explainer videos use a voice over artist as well.

10:30
What are your thoughts on them hiring them?

10:33
Are they expensive?

10:35
Yeah, voice overs are great and they're absolutely fantastic because again, if you're doing a video and you want some spoken content, but you don't want it to be you because some people don't their voice, they want something sounding more professional.

10:50
If you're creating a video that needs a voiceover, that's an interesting question to kind of ask.

10:55
If you're making a video and it's Bev Salt's top five tips on marketing, then you don't need a voiceover.

11:02
You need to hear you because authenticity, trumps production value, if that makes sense.

11:07
So the first question is, do you need a voiceover?

11:10
It depends on your video.

11:11
If you're making a super polished brand film, then maybe you do.

11:16
And voiceover artists are great because they're professionals and they'll take direction.

11:22
So I work with lots of fantastic voiceover artists.

11:25
And you know, we're making a film and it needs to sound caring and loving.

11:29
So they'll speak in a caring and loving way.

11:30
Or we're making a film for a sports brand and it needs to be kind of powerful and exciting.

11:36
And then they'll speak in an exciting way.

11:39
So that's really good.

11:40
And a good voiceover can elevate a video where it's appropriate to have a have a voice over.

11:46
Costs can vary differently and really good voice over artists understandably costs quite a bit of money, but it is an interesting thing.

11:53
It's never as expensive.

11:54
I've always found personally it's never as expensive as you think.

11:58
And depending on how the video is going to be used.

12:00
So sometimes you'll get a quote based on usage.

12:03
So if you're making a video that's going to sit on your website and go on YouTube, usually it's cheaper.

12:10
Not always.

12:10
I'm being generic here.

12:11
Usually it's cheaper than if you're having a voice over for a TV commercial because it'd be seen by 10 times more in theory.

12:19
And so yeah, you can get voice over artists, you can Google Voice over artists.

12:25
There are lots pop up.

12:26
Or if cost is a barrier, you can use services like Fiver and just that's okay to name drop you freelancer service websites like Fiverr and Upwork.

12:38
And there's some great artists on there as well.

12:40
That can be a lower cost.

12:45
It's all a sliding scale.

12:46
But yeah, voiceover artists are amazing if a voiceover is right for you.

12:52
It’s a hot topic at the minute, because right now we're seeing a real kind of explosion of AI generated voice overs, which six months ago sounded like AI generated voice overs.

13:05
You could spot them a mile off!

13:06
However, now I use, for example, a service called Art List.

13:11
And then there's another one which I can't remember what it's called off the top of my head.

13:15
Did I write it down?

13:17
Well, you just want art list and there's if you Google AI voice overs, there's a really fantastic couple of them, which six months ago and it's pretty fake and terrible.

13:27
The ones on art list, the one I use now, they sound pretty good.

13:32
You know, pretty much except if you're making a first draft of video and you just want to put a voice over in or if your clients happy, they can be a good alternative and the costs are good.

13:41
But of course, you've got this weird kind of balance of AI versus human made.

13:48
I know Walkers in Europe and Asia.

13:51
It's lays.

13:52
They've used an advert recently, where they use an AI voiceover.

13:55
It caused quite a lot of controversy, because they do anything wrong, but it's open up a whole can of worms.

14:02
But AI is interesting topic, unfortunately it is here to stay.

14:07
It's going to have an impact on creators and artists, but it is another tool in the arsenal should we say.

14:13
But with AI voice overs, everyone thinks they are loads cheaper, but to get a really good one doing what you want it to do, you do have to pay higher, if that makes sense.

14:22
It is, but technically yes.

14:24
But it's not as cheap as you think.

14:26
Consider it you just type it in and get it back.

14:29
But it is very instant.

14:30
Yes, of course.

14:31
And speaking of AI, because you mentioned AI generating voice overs, you can obviously get AI generated music and sound as well now.

14:39
So what are your thoughts on that?

14:43
Well, again, part of me is like, ah, stay away.

14:47
And because you know, it's taking elements of my job away from me.

14:51
But again, I can't really say that because AI is here whether we like it or not.

14:54
We've all been using ChatGPT for ages now.

15:00
Adobe has some fantastic AI.

15:03
It's got Firefly or text to image where I type in.

15:06
I'd like to see a picture of a, you know, a man running through a busy St and then it will generate one.

15:11
And now also with services like Runway and Adobe itself, you can get AI generated video clips.

15:18
They're in their kind of baby stages at the minute.

15:21
They're not always perfect as like a bit of a comedic thing with hands where can't really do fingers or or hands properly.

15:28
But it's getting there like it will.

15:32
Unfortunately.

15:33
I'd love to say it won't.

15:34
It will always be human generators.

15:35
There's always a place I think for human generated.

15:38
But again, rightly or wrongly, if it comes to cost, people will use AI because it's quicker and cheaper.

15:46
And I think AI is a tool we're all going to have to get used to.

15:53
I use Adobe Premier Pro, which is video editing software.

15:55
I use the Adobe suite and they've got some AI products that are coming where if you have a video clip that's 6 seconds, it'll allow you to make it 7 by filling in.

16:06
I don't know what magic or dark science they used to do it, but it does look pretty good and it will fill a hole.

16:13
So, so yeah.

16:15
And I think as it stands at the minute for people wanting to create content for their businesses, it's probably not there yet, especially if you want an authentic video.

16:24
Again, if we use our example of a window cleaning business, I've just made that up.

16:29
And you want to have footage of your team in their uniform or whatever doing their job, so is going to be no good for you because people are watching and immediately realise it's fake.

16:41
But I think where AI is good is if you filmed your little video and you forgot, so you get a lovely shot of someone, I don't know, putting the key in the ignition of the car.

16:51
That's maybe that's a poor example, but you could eventually you'd be able to use AI to generate that up so you didn't miss it or or a sponge being squeezed and all the water come out.

17:00
There are probably poor examples, but you get what I'm saying, there will be tools that will allow to pick up those little bits.

17:06
And it's like you said before, as well as the, you know, you can get it to automatically transcribe and subtitle your videos now real quick.

17:14
You don't have to go through and type it all out.

17:16
Needs to go through and check it.

17:17
But yeah, there's, there's lots that can be done.

17:20
It's a scary slash exciting time for content creation when it comes to AI and all the everything around it.

17:28
It is.

17:29
and then it leads me to ask the question on copyright.

17:33
So where you have used AI generated, say with the example of the window cleaning business and you got someone to you generated somebody putting a key in the ignition.

17:44
Would you need to declare that?

17:45
And who owns that right?

17:49
That's to be fair and in honesty, I'm not exactly sure.

17:52
And when it comes to the legalese of it all, and I'm certainly no expert.

17:56
I know again, I use the Adobe suite.

17:58
Lots of people use Adobe of Photoshop Premiere Pro.

18:01
If you're using there and AI generated stuff, the AI has been generated through Adobe stock.

18:08
You have to pay for that, but it means that there should be no copyright issue.

18:13
Some of the other AI software's that you know, it's in the news as people is there's a bit of controversy of who originally created whatever inspired the AI because you're the AI learned from content that's out there.

18:26
So it's a bit of an interesting one.

18:28
I've certainly read things where people in the future are saying we should state if this has been AI generated.

18:33
And if you use stock websites, which lots and lots of people do, and they are fantastic for purchasing stock clips, or there's free stock websites, loads of them.

18:42
You can get free video clips if you need extra bits.

18:45
A lot of those now, they'll have a little thing in the bottom corner saying this is an AI generator.

18:51
Then you'll be able to click and learn if it's safe to use.

18:53
And those ones have been created with the intention of being safe to use.

18:57
But yeah, and unfortunately, not a huge expert on that, but there's a whole, I think at some point there's going to be like one of those landmark projects that's going to hit the courts and then we're all going to get some legislation that means from now on, we must do this in the same way that, you know, like advertising alcohol or smoking or, or fast food after 9:00.

19:18
You know, I think there will come a time where we have guidelines.

19:23
Personally for me, I've not used it enough to truly know.

19:27
But yeah, you only need to quickly Google it to see people that have and have not.

19:31
And the implications of it is, it's pretty interesting, yes.

19:35
And if there are any lawyers listening and know more about this, please do contact me.

19:42
And John, you've touched on some of the editing software that you use, such as Adobe.

19:46
Are there any other editing software you'd recommend for people to use for video production?

19:53
Yeah, well, I use the Adobe suite and lots of other people use Final Cut.

19:58
If you're from the Macworld and all the software completely relates to budget and what you're doing.

20:06
So I'm like to call myself a professional.

20:08
I do it every day, in day and out.

20:10
Motion, design, animation, your video producers are all editing.

20:14
So I use, I use a paid for suite because it has all the tools.

20:17
Yeah, kind of industry standard tools.

20:19
But if you're creating content or a smaller scale for your business.

20:23
And you know, like we said before, if you're not looking to create something hyper Polish, just great, you know, there's nothing wrong with that.

20:30
There's so much user generated content, it doesn't need to be perfect these days, if that makes sense.

20:37
Then there's a tonne of free editing softwares and I quickly popped into Google before we joined this call and there's loads like Wondershare film or even Adobe do a lower price one called Premier Rush, which is more mobile phone based, which is really handy because you can keep it all on your phone if you just want to do quick little videos.

20:57
But yeah, editing software, there's probably too many to mention and to a degree they're all of a varying quality.

21:04
The only thing to watch when I say not a varying quality, not at all.

21:07
They're all of a similar quality.

21:09
They'll do what you need to do, they'll chop out the bits of the video you want, they'll brighten it, they might improve the sound of touch and then you can put some music and all of this kind of thing.

21:18
But editing, well, it is a craft and it does burn much, much, much more time than you realise.

21:24
And the limitations with the free softwares is they might not be as flexible or quite often mean the world operates at a bog standard now of HD quality, you know, before forgetting 4K, for example.

21:38
But all of these free services that'll let you do all of your work, but then when you want to save your files and to YouTube, they'll say, oh, you can only have it low quality.

21:46
And then you need to pay a payment barrier so you can get the, the high quality, if that makes sense, Which is, is it a little something to watch out for?

21:54
But yeah, there's so many online ones.

21:58
Now watch a little tutorial on YouTube and, and you'll be away.

22:02
And it's more about finding the right software that you like.

22:05
Some people like lots of buttons and options and, you know, want to have it really detailed.

22:10
And that's where a paid for piece of software or something, you know, like Premiere Pro is fantastic.

22:15
But if you just want something very simple, very easy just to get the job done.

22:18
Yet some of these free services or even if you've got a Windows machine or a Mac, you'll have I-movie or movie maker for Windows.

22:26
You've got software right in front of you probably never used that will do the job.

22:31
Absolutely.

22:32
Yeah, no problem at all.

22:33
And it's just if you want to start adding those layers of complexity like graphics, simple animations, that's where the paid for services could really be quite helpful.

22:43
Or you get to a stage where you're like, well, I need to outsource this now because this has taken all of my day long.

22:49
And I meant to be winning business, not making videos all day, which is which is what happens a lot People, businesses, you know, small or large will start creating content, hit like a point where cost versus time becomes a thing.

23:06
And then outsource it all brings one in house because that's when you start to yeah, even with all of these magical powerful tools.

23:15
And it's the time that even though the 10 years ago, it used to take ages, now it's so much quicker, but it still takes a long time.

23:25
And that's what I'm finding out in my podcast as well.

23:27
Editing podcasts takes ages.

23:30
OK, Brilliant John.

23:31
And if people want to contact you to ask any more questions on videos, how will they contact you?

23:37
Yeah, definitely you can.

23:38
You can contact me through my website, which is editeasy.co.uk or via LinkedIn.

23:43
So if you just search John Starkie, hopefully I'll pop up, I'll probably hopefully be tagged on this post.

23:48
And LinkedIn is a great way to get in touch.

23:52
But yeah, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

23:55
Yeah, there's like any subject, you know, once you scratch the surface and then you start watching, finding out more than you decide.

24:01
There's a million things that can do and can be done, which again, I don't repeat myself 10 years ago won't possible.

24:07
Whereas now for a small amount of money, in some cases, you can really make some really fantastic video content quicker than you realise.

24:17
Again, if you make the plan so that you can get it done, always have a plan.

24:22
OK.

24:23
Well, thank you today for your time, John.

24:25
That's been very helpful.

24:26
My pleasure.

24:26
Thanks for having me and yeah, thank you very much.

24:29
Thank you.

24:29
Bye.

24:29
Bye.