Create a 2-Min. Video

Recently, I was approached for a project that required a 2 min max video of myself. My initial reaction was what the ****? I hate being in front of a camera and a whole 2 min.? What would I talk about? If that wasn't bad enough, I had 1 week to compile the video. This pretty much mean, 1 day for research, 1 day for filming, 1 day for compiling and development, 1-2 days of editing. Here are my initial steps.

1.) Research (DAY 1):

It pays to use this time to look for inspirations. Find the mood that you want to depict on the video. Do you want something bold and dark with a hint of sensuality, desire or lust? Or something simple, elegant, bright and fresh? Does your video need to be professional? Your options are endless. What helped me was researching on videos that I liked and found inspiring. The videos below are some examples that gave me ideas.

Also, use this time to figure out what you want to say in the video, where to film (indoors or outdoors) or what time in the day (morning, mid-day or night). All of these will depend on the type of video you want to create.


THE VOYEUR ISSUE TRAILER - XXXX MAGAZINE, "THE UNTITLED MAGAZINE" ISSUE 3 from XXXX MAGAZINE / THE UNTITLED MAG on Vimeo.

This video is the opposite of the Moiree trailer. It's bold, avant-garde and risky. Of course, I don't suggest you trespass or do anything crazy. These are just simple suggestions of styles that may help bring out ideas that could be incorporated in a video.

WORKING CLASS TRAILER from Billy Rood on Vimeo.
WORKING CLASS TRAILER from Billy Rood on Vimeo.

What I like about this trailer is the way they capture the stress behind the scenes of Fashion Shows. Base off the sound of the music, it takes the viewer in a different direction; Basically, it is a snippet of the un-glamorous side of a Fashion Show. There's this filtered frames and busy scenes that makes the video feel rigid.

 2.) Film Shooting (DAY 2): 

At this point, I had a creative direction in mind and filmed at places that I wanted to add in my video. Definitely, use this day to shoot at as many different locations as possible, if, you require it. Also, be very selective about the angles, focus, etc. At the end of the day, you want to be able to have as many good options to choose from once you compile your video.

Luckily, my friend who helped me film had a good camera. In addition, he knew how to work with the framing, come up with ideas on angles (side views, top view, etc.) and wasn't afraid to help me make changes if something didn't look right.  Once I was in the editing stage, I had so many good selections that it was tough to choose which ones I needed to take off within the 2min. time frame.

3.) Development Stage (DAY 3): 

The nitty gritty part of creating a video is editing. For some, it's easy and fun. However, doing it for the very first time I think, is very stressful. At first, I had no idea what program to use so, I used google to find the top best video editing program and I found Keynote to be the easiest to use for this time sensitive project.

Here are the features that I found useful.

+ A music library & the ability to add your own.
+ A selection of type effects
+ Templates
+ Easy to use window panels and layers.

Once you've imported all of your videos, I found that figuring out how to start and end the videos was the toughest decision for me. To me, setting a solid mood and style in the beginning helped me transition to the next part of my video story. While some videos will start fast and quick, others will gradually begin their story line by setting music or effects. What helped me was having a creative direction from the beginning. This is also the stage where, you'll go through your selection of frames that you want to add or not in your video. As I mentioned, I had a few good frames that I could've used in my video but, sadly it didn't make sense for my creative direction.

4.) Editing (Day 4&5):
After you've compiled your video. Sleep on it and come back the next day with fresh eyes. This always helps me get a better view of anything I design, provided that I have enough time to do so. At this stage, I usually will replay the video multiple times and fix everything. I check for sounds that are uneven, transitions that are not as smooth, again add and get rid of frames that I don't need or change music for something that fits best to my overall concept. At the end of the day, I will send out my compiled video to as many of my friends as possible who will give me truthful feedback. By doing this, it confirms to me what really needs changed.

To upload my videos, I normally use YouTube but, you can use others (i.e. Vimeo). In YouTube I send the link of my video to my friends; this way, they can easily view it via phone, email, facebook and/or in different browsers. After the feedback, I make the necessary changes and then, re-save for final output base off of the required way the video is suppose to be saved as. Did that make sense? Just make sure you save all your files the way the company or person who, you're creating the video for wants it saved out....whether it's in .mov (file extension), 100K (file size), etc.

You're probably beyond stressed at this point but, pat yourself in the back! Now go out and have fun!