From Trint's recent webinar 'Craft better, edit faster' with Amina Moreau.
Co-founder of five-time Emmy Award winning Stillmotion and Sway Storytelling, Amina Moreau, joined us for our webinar on how storytellers can create slick videos with smoother production. During the webinar we looked at the evolution and trends within the video industry, what success looks like for pre-production teams and the technology that brings everyone and everything together in the editing room.
Having worked with everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies, Amina's navigated countless challenges in client alignment, story development and production efficiency. Nowadays, one of her greatest passions is empowering other creatives to be able to do more of what they love, by sharing what she's learned along the way. Here's what we discovered from our talk with Amina.
Lesson one: customers care about stories
Every business has features and benefits, but it's your story that you need to sell and it's your story that sets you apart. If your customers resonate with it, you're on to a winning streak.
I keep seeing this challenge...in the industry, and
that is showing the wrong work in our portfolios.
- Amina Moreau
Experience is important for consumers and we want to know what a brand's customers have to say. In today's world, the consumer is a big part of the brand, so who better to tell your story than your own customers? Adding that human element takes your brand from a tone of voice to a story that resonates - and builds connections.
Lesson two: why video is so important
Today's storytellers are in high demand. Whether you're a writer, video editor or producer, everyone wants your content - or more specifically your videos - and they want them now. Video has become a powerful marketing tool and nothing works harder. In fact, 94% or organizations report that video converts the same or better than any other content form and 79% of people say a brand's video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or app.
The more consumers watch, the higher the demand - but at the same time, consumers are overwhelmed. They're inundated with video content, and not just in the traditional sense of TV ads. We're constantly being bombarded from video ads in games to bus stops and even at the cash register. In an overstimulated world, it's getting harder and harder to compete for mindshare. So how can brands use video to break through the noise and resonate with their consumers?
Lesson three: expectations are out of control
Staying relevant is essential for your brand's survival. That means engaging with your customers in the way that they want and speaking to them on the channels they use. Younger audiences are consuming more and more video comms, and with Gen Z entering the workforce and becoming the new target audience for many brands, storytelling creatives need to keep up.
From social media to how-to guides and even dance tutorials, video has boomed. It's everywhere. And if you're not doing it, you're behind and missing out. Posting videos on Instagram Reels but not TikTok, for example, could cost you some serious exposure: 689 million people to be precise. With more than 2 billion downloads, the popular video app has become a global phenomenon, giving absolute beginners the tools to create high-quality videos and an opportunity for global exposure unlike any other social media platform.
While advancements in technology have made it easier to produce quality content, it's also inflated expectations. Clients now expect us to make good videos, do it fast and make it cheap. When in reality, it's impossible to achieve all three.
Amina advised you need to decide which of those three you want to be and where you want to specialize to ensure you attract the right clients from the start. Otherwise you'll face an uphill struggle trying to change your brand's image.
Lesson four: the Three Act Structure
During the webinar with Amina, we learned how using the Three Act Structure will help you craft your story: Act I is about setting your scene and developing your characters, followed by the conflict in Act II and finally resolution in Act III, where the story comes together. Using the Three Act Structure helps video storytellers to tell compelling stories with an engaging narrative arc, one that's sure to capture the viewer's attention and hold it from beginning to end.
Think of ourselves as the hero on a three act
structure journey to tell the stories of our dreams.
- Amina Moreau
Lesson five: planning during the preproduction phase saves time and effort
Video producers need to get to the final cut faster and preproduction preparation is essential for success. The more you prepare in this phase, the easier it is in postproduction. Amina advised that getting client expectations upfront at this stage is essential to manage expectations for a smoother production process. Using the Three Act Structure in preparation and setup means you're not overshooting scenes; instead, you're only shooting what you need, so you won't have to trawl through hours of footage to find the important moments.
Get to production faster with Trint
Your content needs to connect with your audience authentically. Brands need to be consistent in quality and fast in creation. Speak to your customers on the channels they use by leveraging the power of A.I. with Trint, upping your video creation and speeding up your workflows. Trint makes it easy to produce and distribute accessible videos, fast.
Creating Stories in Trint is the fastest way to get your rough cut or draft your paper edit. You can pull together all your key quotes from multiple transcripts into one place, then easily move into onward workflows, including direct to audio and video software.
Amina explained how before Trint, getting to the paper edit and manually cutting and pasting different quotes to pull together for the editor was slow and tedious. 'Now I have this tool, I realize just how inefficient that was. And I could have probably done it in a fifth of the time.'
Now you too can script, organize and tell your Story, faster.
