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No, I don't want to have a haircut!
I like long hair!
Hatchoo!
Damn it!
Well i'm definitely not going to cut my beard!
Hatchoo!
I guess it had to happen at one point
but the beard is staying
What do you guys think, it's pretty short huh?
Anyways, today i've got 10 super simple steps
which if you follow can turn any boring object into an epic video.
Just like the stupid chair you saw in the beginning.
So step one Think about your background
I went for a soft blue paper roll because it felt like, together with a chair
it gave this ikea retro look.
So make sure that your background makes sense.
Also having blue or teal colors in the background usually work very well
as it pops out your subject.
It doesn't have to be an entire blue background like I have
but some of those blue tint is definitely nice to have.
Unless your boring object is blue of course.
Then I would go for something different.
Step Two: Lighting
and i'm going to make some more videos about this very soon
but one simple rule that always works is backlight.
I had set up a hard top backlight,
a hard light from the side, and a soft fill light from the front.
But I rarely use that soft box.
I would look at each shot individual and see if I would needed the top light or the side light.
These are all Aperture lights so together with a remote I was easily able to turn them on and off.
Step Three: Time to start with the shots.
Open with something mysterious, extreme close-ups, shoot out of focus, silhouettes.
textures also work very well as together with that strong backlight
it creates deep contrasts.
It's usually very intriguing without spoiling the object yet.
Step Four: Cut to the revealing of your object
Now I turned on the lights to make the revealing even more exciting.
Just try to make sure that you're kind of introducing a new chapter in the video.
Step Five:
Show the object from unique angles if you haven't done it yet
and start with also showing its functionality.
Since I found sitting on the chair too obvious I simply chose to let it turn around.
So I build it up that the chair would tilt and then start rotating.
And by the way all of it was shot handheld or on a tripod.
I was able to do everything myself and if you can it's also best to shoot in a sequence.
That way you can pay attention to movement and create natural transitions.
Step Six:
Finish the video with a creative touch.
Don't just cut to a long shot but let something happen or introduce something new.
I did a couple of things like showing the studio environment
with all the lights which is that something new.
And then i turned off the lights in a sequence which was that final touch.
So if you work with these tips you already have a more exciting story.
But to tip it off there's also going to be some post-production work.
So load everything into Adobe Premiere Pro
and while we wait for that to happen let's talk about today's sponsor Storyblocks Video.
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So here I go again.
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you got nature, animals, people, machinery
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Besides that there are also overlay effects like muzzle flashes, transitions,
Film burns and that also continues
and finally and that is the most exciting part about Storyblocks
are their After Effects Templates.
Now these are gonna save you the most time because you can just choose any kind of
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All right, Premiere Pro is ready it seems
and i'd like to start with music for videos like these .
So step number Seven:
Important is that you look for a song that has a variation and dynamic
and with that i mean look for parts in the music that you can use as an intro
a middle, and an ending.
B-drops are great, build ups, silent parts, these are all dynamic elements
that will make it easier for you to edit with.
So don't just slap some background elevator music on your edits.
For the chair video I actually started with editing the music in my timeline.
And then i would add the shots to it.
Step Eight: edit your shots to the music.
Use B-drops to add a hard cut or ramp the speed together with the build up of the music.
After the reveal the music tempo increased and so did i with the cut of the video and time remapping.
Step Nine: Add fun visuals to the edit
I created some simple transitions like the typical mask wipe.
Basically you have one shot where your object wipes over the frame
add a mask next to that object and animate it so that it follows that path.
Feather that a bunch and then place a new clip underneath that one.
And if both shots go into the same direction you get a very smooth transition.
But also time remapping itself can be a great transition.
Speed up the last part of clip A and then speed up the first part of clip B
to connect them together.
And finally I also added some lens flares which I simply downloaded from Storyblocks.
Now these are very subtle lens flares as I didn't want it to look cheap.
You can also experiment with animations.
Film burns or other visuals just be careful that you're not going to overdo it.
So the same goes with motion animations.
I created one rotation zoom animation after the reveal shot.
And that was to better match it with the following shot.
But that was the only time that I did it.
I think one golden rule to follow
is to always ask yourself: "Why am I doing this?"
If you can't find a good reason then don't!
And that brings us to the last step and that is sound design
which is going to add a whole lot more body to your video.
And even though your object might not produce sounds things like swooshes is already great.
Whenever you do a fast transition or your object wipes through the frame add a gentle swoosh sound.
We always use Storyblocks Audio for that but there are various libraries out there.
Freesounds.org is a free library.
Just pay attention to the license as you're not allowed to use everything for commercial purposes.
Now with swoosh sounds I often tend to stretch those audio clips to get a different pitch.
And make sure that they aren't too loud.
Remember that subtle effects usually work best.
Impacts or hits are also great sound effects for if you let your object drop or move around.
Basically any contact sounds.
And if you follow all of these steps you get the following video:
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That was it for today.
Thank you so much for watching. Thank you storyblocks for the support.
And as always...
Stay Creative!
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G I L L E S !
B W O A A R R G G H !