We had a great time at the JustGiving office last Friday, working with 10 of our charity members as part of a competition we ran with Be Inspired Films to help charities create their own video for the web.
The day kicked off by looking at the amazing opportunity video offers and how fast it is becoming a medium that supporters expect to see from charities. Then we looked at the business case, why make a video at all? What were the outcomes the charities were hoping to achieve? Who is their audience? How could they make their message short, powerful and outcome focused?
In the morning we covered all the theory – lighting, sound, composition and Be Inspired shared their top 10 tips on what to do and not to do with video to get the best results based on their many years of professional experience. We looked at which equipment to use – cameras, microphones, tripods and editing software which is especially useful if you don’t already have a camera or are thinking of changing the one you already have… And all this was before 11am!
The course was structured so that from 11am onwards it was all practical hands on learning as Be Inspired’s main objective for these sessions is that charities who come along with some or little knowledge can go away able to recreate their own decent videos time and time again at no extra cost. We finished off by looking at how to export the finished video and how to upload it to the web to share on Youtube, Facebook, webpages, blogs etc.
I caught up with one of the competition winners, Rachel Wright from EACH, and asked for her feedback on the day:
“It was such a surprise to win a place on the course, I know it’s a cliche but – I never win anything! Online video content is something we’ve been looking to develop for a while, especially recently, with so many events coming up at Christmas, so the course couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect, I was a bit concerned that it might be very technical and I might struggle, as I haven’t really had any experience of filming/editing video before. However, it was pitched at just the right level – it was challenging and made my brain work pretty hard, but was all very clear and easy to follow, and Rav and Anthony were really helpful, coming round and giving advice and helping me when I got stuck. There was certainly no opportunity to get bored – it was all really interesting and hands-on, and we were contstantly busy throughout the whole day.
“The course has given me a lot more confidence when it comes to creating video. We’ve never done any filming at events because we didn’t really know how to get good results and what to do with it afterwards. Now I think I’m much more likely to give it a try, and will know how to edit it afterwards to make some really good video clips, which we can use online to promote our fundraising events and the charity in general.”
We’ve had a great response to the video workshop competition that we want to know whether you’d be interested in future training sessions from Be Inspired.
Normally their ‘How to create a video for web’ course costs £399, but we’ve managed to negotiate a fantastic discount for JustGiving charity members. Be Inspired is offering the course at the reduced rate of £199 to charities that register their interest within the next month. Submit your details here to register for this exclusive deal. If enough people want to take up this offer from Be Inspired we’ll work with them to get some dates in the diary. Check out the video below to hear from the other competition winners and what they thought of the day.
Rav Chambers from Be Inspired Films said:
“We are very excited about working with JustGiving to be able to offer charities the opportunity to develop the skills and confidence to create their own videos and powerfully communicate what they do online at little to no cost aside from the training. We had a great day, all the charities made huge progress and we can confidently say they can now create their own videos to a good standard – not bad for one day!”
How to create video for web – August 2010 at Just Giving’s HQ from Be Inspired Films on Vimeo.
Tags: Be Inspired, training, video