Hello, welcome to the Watermark Water Cooler. We have Kirsten here today. Kirsten is a graphic designer with us. Kirsten, tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I work out a lot. I do cross it. Yeah. And I love to bake. Oh, what Baking And a lot of CrossFit Kirsten brings in so many good, delicious things.

And then the polar opposite of that is she works out a lot. So it's like, I work out a lot, so I don't feel guilty eating high. What about the rest of us that you bring the food to? I only bring a limited amount, but I like to share. Cool. We're gonna talk a little bit today about video and how to make it accessible to everyone and how important it's to be accessible to everyone.

Kirsten, why is video so important right now? Anyways? Video is very important for lots of different reasons. One, it helps create authentic content that you can connect to your users and your audience. It's all over social media. Even platforms like Instagram were made originally just for photos.

Mm-hmm. are now moving towards more videos and then, you know, it's just a. Way to produce content. You can tell stories and it's different than just a static image on a page. Having that movement really helps capture attention from people who are just, you know, on their phone or on the computer just scrolling.

Yeah. I mean, it's a wildly growing platform if you don't have it in your media mix. I think it's time. Mm-hmm. . We're probably already too late also, but there's like, I mean, you're never too late. I take that back, but I mean it, you know, it is something that is really important in the media mix. How do we make it this successful for everybody?

Like people think to themselves, I gotta have all this fancy equipment and it's expensive and I have to edit it and it takes time and we will say it video. Producing editing takes time. It does, yes. A little bit more time than a graphic would. Whether you're doing it on the cheap side of things or the expensive side of things, it takes time.

Like you have to edit it and make it look good, but, Well, what are some ways to make this affordable for people? Oh, yeah. So you can make video editing as expensive or as cheap as you want. The cheaper option would be your smartphone. Most people have one nowadays, and most of 'em produce really good quality video and audio that you can utilize readily.

So all you really need is to just grab your smartphone. You can grab a cheap tripod to set up on a table, and then you just have. A nice background. You can sit in front of a wall, you can be by a window for some natural light, so you don't have to worry about any lighting, even those nice room lights that people get Yeah.

For when they're on all the webcam calls. That is the cheapest way to have a setup to start filming and to get the audio, and then for video editing. You have the iMovie on Mac, which is free to all those users, and then you have the Windows movie maker for all Windows users. And then you know, you can get into the fancy Adobe Suite or Final Cut Pro if you really wanna get around and mess with it.

That can get expensive. So free options are a great way to start. Yeah, I mean, I think also authentic content people connect with anyways, so. It doesn't have to be this highly-produced thing to make somebody want to watch it. I actually think sometimes that content is actually more engaging to people.

Because I feel like this wasn't highly produced. It wasn't this like, Fake thing. Mm-hmm. , especially for social media like TikTok Yeah. Is very forgiving for, you know, if you have lots of rough stuff that you're just putting out there. Yeah. Because it comes and goes so quickly. Yeah. Now, TikTok is very forgiving.

Because you don't want to create a commercial-quality video just to be on there for less than a minute because people are just gonna scroll past. Right.

I think one other thing that I, feel is really important, is that even if the video quality isn't great, the audio quality can really, it's hard to hear. People are gonna drop off because they're just like, I don't really know. I can't hear what's going on. And it feels less, I don't, I don't even know what to say.

Audio's just so important. What do you, what's your thought about that? Yes, Audio's very important, we've realized that Yeah. Almost more, more important than the video quality. It can be because I mean, you have podcasts, That's why podcasts are so popular as well. Yeah. But yes, you want your users to be able to hear you.

Mm-hmm. If you have the audio right and you know, if you have, if you're filming on a camera and it's not the best quality, you can pick up cheap microphones. Mm-hmm. for less than a hundred dollars. Mm-hmm. , and then set it up and go that route. Yeah. Okay. So to keep this brief and short, I think we covered a lot of things to help you, like bringing video into your media mix and how important it is.

Any final like, thoughts for the audience on tips or tricks or something that they should use, to make something great? Tips or tricks? Good lighting. Again, natural lighting. You can set yourself up by a window. You can even take a lamp and like redirect the light so it bounces off a wall so it's indirect, not harsh.

You don't wanna be super washed out or overexposed in your video. Audio, having, being in a room that doesn't have a lot of echo or bounce will help make that really good. And then a closet. Yeah. It's crazy. Like, Yes. Yes. All that stuff inside of there, like a dam. Yeah. Dan is all the sounding, Jump in a closet, record something.

Great. A place to report audio. Yes, absolutely. And, you don't have to make it super. Produced. So again, be authentic. Try to have a little fun with it, especially if it's gonna be for any type of social media content, and you'll really be able to connect with your users better. Cool. Kirsten, thanks so much for being on the water cooler with us.

Thank you. And thank you as always, and we'll catch you next time. Thank you so much for watching and subscribing to the Watermark Water cooler. We value your opinion and want to deliver the best content possible. To do that, we need your comments and feedback. What do you wanna see or learn? Tools, and techniques behind the scenes.

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