Author: Bob Apr 06, 2018 10 min read
With the emergence of such projects as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the world of investment and startups changed forever. At present, every person like you and me can launch an investment initiative to collect funds from supporters inspired by your idea. However, there is tough competition for backers’ money, so you have to look really impressive and convincing to collect the desired sum for giving your project life. There are almost 4,000 live projects on Kickstarter, and the chances that yours will be watched, considered, and supported are very low if you start the project unprepared. And the best way to increase your initiative’s visibility and appeal, in the opinion of experts and Kickstarter founders, is to make a video accompanying your project’s description. It should not be a professional, studio-type video with impeccable images, but it still has to follow some rules (and some optional but highly recommended suggestions) to let your project stand out from the crowd. Here we have collected a bunch of tips for those who wish to know everything about how to make videos for Kickstarter. Read on to become a Kickstarter video production guru!
If you have very scarce knowledge on how to make a video, then you may fall prey to a cowardly idea of not making any at all. We would like to talk you out of this plan at once! Initiatives and projects with videos are much more successful than projects without videos, as the Kickstarter experts report. So, don’t lose this additional opportunity for making your initiative heard and seen.
The process of Kickstarter video creation is not as simple and quick as you might think from the very start; however, at the same time, it is not as complicated as making a TV commercial, for instance, or shooting a film. Those knowing how to make videos advise breaking down the process into four steps:
Pre-shooting preparation is the most responsible stage of Kickstarter video creation. At this stage, you have to create the vision of this video and write a script for its recording. Definitely, from the very start of work on the video, the whole idea and steps may seem vague and blurry for you. Therefore, the planning stage is so important; here, you make your thoughts more visible, give them shape and form, and then embody them into words. If you are not sure how to present your idea in the best way, make several variants of scripts and consult with friends and peers. Their objective feedback of detached observers will be a guiding line for you to continue.
Shooting itself is also a responsible, nervous stage of work on the Kickstarter video, so you should rehearse the script several times and get ready in advance to successfully record your message. At this stage, our advice is to stay natural and sincere, not to try to use some facial or language techniques that are non-usual for you, as this will be noticed at once. Relax! You have as much time as you need, and you can make as many versions as you want for further editing and selection of the scenes you like most.
Editing may take even more time than shooting, but it depends on your expectations and goals. If you are knowledgeable about editing techniques, you may experiment with background and lighting, do some color correction, and even create some special effects to your liking. However, if you are not an expert in these aspects, then some basic editing techniques will also be enough to make your video appealing. You may even use the free editing tools on your smartphone or laptop, and this will be OK.
The spread of the video is a step about which many start-upers forget, but it is as important as video creation. This stage may be launched right after the release of your Kickstarter video at Kickstarter or Indiegogo; you should share a link to your project via all social media channels you have. This will increase its coverage and visibility and will definitely increase your chances to get the financial support needed.
Here are some more tips for making the Kickstarter video production an easier, quicker, and less frustrating process:
If you are not sure what video to make, how to arrange it visually, and what message to include, then preliminary research is surely needed. To make the video appealing and likable, you should make it by the example of videos that you personally like and are engaged by. So, to see what you like and what may touch your feelings and make you open your purse, take some time to study Kickstarter videos already available at the site. Once you find something that you like (or even adore), analyze that video and derive some lessons for your own project from it.
People understand that something is necessary, useful, and desirable with their minds; they do it rationally. However, what makes them desire something, long for something, and make quick simple decisions, is their emotion. So, try to apply to your audience’s emotions – by promising a significant improvement of their lives with the help of your project, or solution to a burning problem. Once your readers see their benefit and react to it emotionally, they turn into your backers.
Kickstarter founders advise the contenders for fundraising to make their videos as short as possible. So don’t lose any of the precious seconds on irrelevant fluff; make your video very informative and up to the point. You have only a bit less than 10 seconds to make the viewers interested; if you fail, they are likely to visit another page.
Brevity is the sister of talent, that’s right. But your goal should be to cover all essential points in a short video. If you miss some important detail, you or your project may be misunderstood. Thus, we recommend greeting the audience, including basic information about yourself, depicting the problem you are aiming at, and offering the solution with your project. End with a call to action, and your video will be perfect.
Even if you have no idea of how to create a Kickstarter video, that’s absolutely not a reason to give up the idea of creating one and embellishing your Kickstarter campaign with it. Don’t do it on your own if fear a failure so much – entrust it to experts. For instance, the Wow-How Studio is a great assistant in Kickstarter video production; its experts know a lot about Kickstarter videos and make the best products for campaigns’ great outreach. Order your unique video at Wow-How Studio and remove this issue from your to-do list!
Now that we are done with the conceptual issues of bringing your idea to life in an effective Kickstarter video, let’s talk a bit about the technical side of its production. Once you have a great script and a fantastic project to promote, it will be a great shame to reduce the project’s outreach because of technicalities.
The first thing that you should take care of when planning the shooting of the Kickstarter video is the sound quality. Yes, indeed, technology has gone far ahead and today even an iPhone video may be of fair quality and can be enough to collect funds through a Kickstarter campaign. But if the image is OK even on the smartphone camera, sound usually leaves much to be desired. Hence, we recommend taking care of a separate microphone in advance. It does not have to be a premium-quality expensive studio microphone (we are not recording a pop album, right?), but a cheap clip-on microphone can do a great difference.
If you cannot purchase one and still want to improve the quality of your video via accessible means, use a simple but strikingly wise lifehack from recording experts – use two smartphones. Placing one at a necessary distance to make a great video is a necessary sacrifice of sound quality, but you can use the second smartphone, placing it close to your face, to record sound. In this way, you will get a great video in one device and a great sound in another one, which can be mixed together in a single great video with simple editing techniques.
Here the pieces of advice are quite simple – the image you are recording should not be dim and gloomy. If you don’t have any special lighting equipment, the situation is not desperate at all! Turn on all the light you have in the room and place some mobile lamps as close to your place of video recording as possible. It is much better to have a light whitish background for the Kickstarter video, since it causes the least distraction from you and your message, and you always look good at such a background. You can also make the video recording outside, but make sure that the sunlight does not come into the camera, which may spoil the entire video.
There is a common misconception that a Kickstarter video should look professional, so you need an expensive professional camera to create the video. This is not so! The main thing for your video is to look good, and for you to sound legible and appealing in it. The rest is just a matter of your imagination and available equipment.
This piece of advice may look too stupid to be included into this review, but you can’t even imagine how many Kickstarter projects fail because the fundraisers forget to actually ask for help! Many of us think that if we are infected by some idea and know how cool it really is, everyone else also feels this and donates money. However, this is not always so, and even if people like your idea, they may just watch your video, think of how good you and your initiative are, close it, and forget about you in an instant. To avoid this, always include the magic CTA at the end of the video – a call to action that urges the audience to donate money and bring your project to life.
