STUFF THE CAPITALIST (aka KD) LIKES: Real People In Video Projects (Red Hot Chili Peppers version)...
February 09, 2018
Who am I? Who cares? Good questions. It's my site, so I'm going to tap into Fridays once in awhile by telling you more about who I am - via a "Stuff I Like" series. Nothing too serious, just exploring the micro-niche that resides at the base of all of our lives. Potshots encouraged in the comments...
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They come from every state to find
Some dreams were meant to be declined
Tell the man what did you have in mind
What have you come to do?
Some dreams were meant to be declined
Tell the man what did you have in mind
What have you come to do?
No turning water into wine
No learning while you're in the line
I'll take you to the broken sign
You see these lights are blue
No learning while you're in the line
I'll take you to the broken sign
You see these lights are blue
---Tell Me Baby, Red Hot Chili Peppers
If there's one thing wrong with perfect people, it's that they're too damn... well... perfect.
That's why one of the things I like to see is effective use of normal people supporting big brands or big ideas. Of course, normal people can't carry a 60-second commercial, a 4-minute video or a 30-minute TV show, so if you're going to use the common folk in video, you have to be creative. Which usually means...
Montage.
If you've got a video project to support a brand (let's think about employment branding since most of you that read my stuff are HR pros or recruiters at some level) and you want to use the common folk, you're generally going to have to interview a bunch of folks knowing that 98% of what you capture will be unusable. But the 2% will be pure gold.
Enter the editing room.
When you create a company video showing common folks, you're going to edit it in a way that helps you meet your goals and showcases your people in the best possible light.
You could do worse than the video below from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The video is from their 2006 hit, "Tell Me Baby", and the theme of the video is a montage of interviews with people in Hollywood that have struggled to be discovered on various levels. Some applicable lessons from this for any video project including employees include:
--Real talk rules. Listening to people talk about their struggles is powerful and feels real.
--Dreams. Listening to people talk about their dreams in addition to the struggles is the perfect balance.
--Fun. Seeing those same people with others laughing (in this case with a surprise visit from the RHCP) kind of brings it full circle.
You could do a perfect video, but why would you want to do that? Take a look at the video below from the Chili Peppers (email subscribers, click through for video)
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