How to use an iPhone camera to create video content for social media -

More and more clients are reaching out to us for input on capturing and creating videos for use in their digital marketing mix. While we have tons of ideas for content, the sticking point tends to be the follow through.

Clients get excited when we brainstorm ideas with them but the project quickly becomes overwhelming. They worry about…

trying to write a script;
figuring out the equipment;
getting decent quality footage;
scheduling time to do the recordings; and,
finding a way to get the material to us.

As an SMB working for SMBs, we understand exactly how these pain points can stop the process dead in its tracks.

We decided to turn it into a challenge and put our money where our mouth is. Read on to see how we used an iPhone camera to create video content for a branded social media series.

Making a Plan

First things first – what topics did we want to cover and how did we want to do it? We were inspired by the simplicity of a Q&A format and decided to run with it. Zoe and Kirstie could prompt Amy in a similar way that Amy prompts clients and then work through the whole process and document it for our client’s viewing pleasure.

TAKEAWAY #1: Trust the Process

This article was written approximately five months after the footage was captured. There is a method to the madness and you need to work with a team committed to your overall success on a long-term basis.

The process can be daunting when you’re doing it alone. Having someone there to prompt you can make the recording feel more natural, more conversational. Taking the Q&A approach is a good way to overcome nervousness, it takes the pressure off you as the content creator to do all the work. Ask someone for help with this step or lean on the internet to gather some questions for you to answer. – Kirstie

Equipment & Prepration

Amy felt confident that the video quality of her iPhone 12 would be sufficient. Drawing on her work editing video from client Jamie Powell of Powell and Associates Private Wealth, it was determined that a selfie stick would be needed. Click here to see the Gritin Selfie Stick with Bluetooth Remote that Amy bought.

After acquiring the necessary equipment it was decided that Amy’s office space would work for filming due to the abundance of natural light. Logistics out of the way, our team immediately hit similar roadblocks that we encountered with clients. We had planned a video shoot and Amy rescheduled it.

TAKEAWAY #2: Working with a team adds accountability.

“Rescheduled” is the operative word here. It was not canceled but moved to a date two weeks in the future. Zoe helped Amy work through the blocks that had come up and caused her to back out of the initial date.

Excuses, excuses, excuses…

Amy’s office was a mess;
Amy didn’t think she looked good enough;
Amy hadn’t prepared a script;
Amy got in her head and thought who cares about anything we are doing and what is the point??

Zoe turned all of the obstacles into specific actionable tasks in our online project management tool and it was rescheduled in a meaningful way. She took the time to outline key message points that had been discussed but not broken out into topics. By breaking this into bite-size pieces, the whole project gained focus and felt manageable.

TAKEAWAY #3: Determine Your Message

While we don’t think you need a script, you do want to highlight your main message and then a series of points you’re going to make. For some people, a script is necessary. If you go this route, try and run through it enough that you do not have to read word for word off a prompt. If you’re like Amy, you will do better having someone pose questions to you and you’ll take a conversational tone.

Getting clear on her message made it easier for Amy to stay on point with her topics and served as a guide for the editing process. Even a simple outline of topics and your desired outcome is enough direction for a video editor to determine what to keep and what to cut. Sometimes we extract gems that get used for another purpose entirely, the key is to work with a good team. – Kirstie

TAKEAWAY #4: Don’t Get in Your Head

Lights, Camera, Action! Recording Your Video

The video shoot day finally arrived. The selfie stick had been sitting unopened on Amy’s desk for about a month at this point. Amy was once again finding excuses and trying to get out of shooting any video. Zoe reminded Amy of her own advice, just start recording.

Let’s start with the selfie stick. Opening up the box, Zoe started capturing video right away on her Samsung device. Once Amy was able to position her iPhone in the holder and begin recording, the resistance pieces started to come up again. Amy was unhappy about her split ends and pretty much all aspects of her appearance. She was distracted by clutter and her eye was drawn to a huge white tag on her chair. The great thing about “selfie-style” video shoots though, is you can see all of this in real time and correct it.

Zoe was right there on hand, working to alleviate all the pain points Amy mentioned. She added a lightheartedness that helped move the whole thing along. They worked through camera positioning to find the best angles and best lighting. Amy had to keep being reminded that some details would be ironed out in the editing phase and to just keep going.

Amy and Zoe carried on, and spent over two hours working through to main content ideas they had outlined. One is this idea of creating your own videos, and the second being a discussion about logos and how they pertain to branding, which will be our next video series.

TAKEAWAY #5: Change Your Shirt

In hindsight, a wardrobe change with the topic change may have been a good idea. That said, we determined to strip the video series of colour which helped to alleviate some visual distractions. Beyond clothing changes, other ideas when shooting a few topics in one sitting would be to change the angle or background for the appearance of a different day and time. Conversely, having continuity can be good for branding so either approach can work.

Just as Amy needed to be reminded that certain details would be ironed out in the editing phase, you should keep this in mind to when filming your video. What you’re shooting is raw, unedited footage. Of course the better the video quality you provide the simpler the editing stage can be.

It’s best not to get hung up on getting it right the first try. Amy sent me roughly 7 minutes of content of which we used approximately half. – Kirstie

Logistics: File Sharing & Editing

Next we worked through one of the biggest pain points that clients have. The logistics of getting video files, which can be large, sent to us in high-resolution format. Once they figure HOW they will send the files, next is how to advise us of anything they want us to know.

Here’s how we did it.

Kirstie and Amy chatted about options for file sending and determined they were both comfortable with Google Drive. Amy loaded video assets into folders and then created tasks in Basecamp that corresponded with each folder. This way, as Kirstie reviewed the footage, she could put notes in each thread and build out the topics in bite-size pieces. The best part about this way of working, and where our clients are usually pleasantly surprised, is we can pick out the key messages and turn something that they feel is quite flat into something that feels succinct and polished.

Amy had tasked Kirstie with reviewing the initial videos of her and Zoe setting up. She immediately responded with “I love how much fun you guys are having… we can clip them, edit over some things and add music. We can make this work!”. Amy left it with Kirstie to do a bit of editing to show what she meant and they worked back forth to pull out the best bits.

Using the footage captured they determined that four key ideas could be built out:

1. Equipment and Preparation
2. Lighting and Angle
3. Establishing Your Background
4. Working With a Team

The final video compared to the original content was very different. It is interesting to see and drives home our earlier point of trusting the process. We went from colour to black and white and overlayed a subtle filter to soften some edges. We designed covers, decided on text and graphic animations, background music and transitions. Large chunks were clipped out entirely. By the time that it was all said and done, you couldn’t even tell that Amy was previously getting in her head about filming.

My suggestion? Save editing time by paring down your content but don’t overthink areas of imperfection. Leave it to someone you trust to bring out the best in you. – Kirstie

Polishing & Publishing

After many months of back and forth and clipping and editing, we created a couple of series out of the original footage. We worked away at it slowly, allowing each other time with each edit and working on this in between client projects.

IMPORTANT TAKEAWAY #6: It’s a Series of Small Steps

Using a tool like Basecamp is a game changer in our work. Having a list that allows you to assign tasks to an individual and set a due date can make or break a project. Like us, clients get busy and sometimes have to put great ideas on hold. They need us to be able to take the reins and run, or sometimes set it aside and come back to it. When you move things out of the inbox and into a system they have somewhere to simmer and can have the heat turned up at a moment’s notice.

In the finishing phase, we incorporated filters, audio and branding elements to elevate the status of the videos. We outlined a plan for sharing, including a note to do this article which is essentially an overview of everything we did in written format for our blog. Getting the ideas organized into an article helped us to step back and look at the delivery of the content as a whole. We identified gaps in the message and brand inconsistencies before scheduling the content.

IMPORTANT TAKEAWAY #7: Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork

Speaking of scheduling, this is where having a team hired to push the whole effort over the finish line is paramount to the success. As the whole thing went on, Amy had to dissociate herself from being in the video and trust her team to build it out. Once content is approved, Kirstie can take it and ensure it gets published on all channels complete with branded tags and proper linking.

How to use an iPhone camera to create video content for social media