What Does the Future of Video Production Look Like?
Image via Unsplash, courtesy of @angelacompagnone
What does the future of video production look like?
That’s the question I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, considering how much the pandemic has changed the industry. Now, for clarification, I’m not talking about filmmaking. People will still be making movies the way they always have, because the demand is there (albeit with enhanced safety protocols). No, what I’m talking about is creating content for video marketing purposes. Will the pandemic permanently alter how that type of video is produced?
Before COVID-19, video marketing content was already trending toward a more raw, in-the-moment look with vertical becoming the main viewing experience. But there was still a place for high-end, high-concept productions.
However, the lockdowns and forced social distancing mandates changed the way video creators produced their content. Here’s what I’ve been seeing as a result:
Subjects are now shooting a lot more of their videos on smartphones and then sending that footage to editors, who create the finished product.
Production companies are sending out “remote kits” to subjects (which contain a point-and-shoot camera, a small LED light, and a microphone) with instructions for how to use them. Subjects are using these kits to record their own videos and then send them back to editors.
Production companies are relying more on recorded Zoom interviews in their edits.
The first consequence of this trend is that viewers are being conditioned more and more to accept Zoom interviews, vertical cell phone video, and raw “remote kit” video as a new normal for marketing videos.
The second consequence is that former shooters, editors, and “preditors” (hybrid Producer/Editor) are shooting way less, meaning that they are less content creators and more content curators. They are taking what footage they have and are trying to get as much mileage they can from that footage by versioning the product.
So, what does the future of video production look like? This is a purposefully open-ended question, because I would love to know what the industry looks like from where you sit, and where you think it’s headed. Leave your thoughts in the Comments.