So how do you make an epic Video Ad from a 12 minute off the cuff VSL in just 48 hours?
You kill your darlings.
You cut, cut, cut until all the story beats are there, but with no repeats, no hesitations and only the BEST lines of copy.
What are the best lines of copy?
Those that provide facts, invoke emotion and important information.
So why cut it so much?
2 reasons:
1: retention 2: consistency
You want people to keep watching which means you need to keep the story moving, you want the correct pacing so people can anticipate change and you want consistent style and visuals - which to do great can easily take 3-4 hours per minute.
And nobody wants to do 40+ hours of editing in the next 48 hours.
You COULD go ham on the intro, but then people will drop off as the consistency of the video drops off.
I have a rough cut of said video ad here, and as you can see teal is the hook, orange and blue are the story beats broken into "chapters" and the red section is the CTA
You can see just from looking at it that it's evenly paced.
In fact - when I made a speaker reel for Carrie Wilkerson recently I noticed the orange section on her video was twice as long, and it made me feel like that section went on for too long.
Guess what - her only comment was "I think the dad bit drags on", and I already knew that the pacing in my timeline would be clear in the video.
Quite cool when you think about it.
Anyway - we've got 12 minutes down to 4, if I'm going to get 4-6 music tracks in here, mix them down, B Roll, Titles, Graphics and sound effects, in just 48 hours - I really want to get this down to 3 minutes.
Let me know if you found this insightful as I think it's pretty cool to see a modular approach to editing!
ryancollinsvideo
KILL YOUR DARLINGS
To make a masterpiece you need time.
So how do you make an epic Video Ad from a 12 minute off the cuff VSL in just 48 hours?
You kill your darlings.
You cut, cut, cut until all the story beats are there, but with no repeats, no hesitations and only the BEST lines of copy.
What are the best lines of copy?
Those that provide facts, invoke emotion and important information.
So why cut it so much?
2 reasons:
1: retention
2: consistency
You want people to keep watching which means you need to keep the story moving, you want the correct pacing so people can anticipate change and you want consistent style and visuals - which to do great can easily take 3-4 hours per minute.
And nobody wants to do 40+ hours of editing in the next 48 hours.
You COULD go ham on the intro, but then people will drop off as the consistency of the video drops off.
I have a rough cut of said video ad here, and as you can see teal is the hook, orange and blue are the story beats broken into "chapters" and the red section is the CTA
You can see just from looking at it that it's evenly paced.
In fact - when I made a speaker reel for Carrie Wilkerson recently I noticed the orange section on her video was twice as long, and it made me feel like that section went on for too long.
Guess what - her only comment was "I think the dad bit drags on", and I already knew that the pacing in my timeline would be clear in the video.
Quite cool when you think about it.
Anyway - we've got 12 minutes down to 4, if I'm going to get 4-6 music tracks in here, mix them down, B Roll, Titles, Graphics and sound effects, in just 48 hours - I really want to get this down to 3 minutes.
Let me know if you found this insightful as I think it's pretty cool to see a modular approach to editing!
6 months ago | [YT] | 5