Hey entrepeneurs, creators, and all other sweeties!

Catch attention with self-produced explainer videos!

You might not believe it.

But many people miss out on an opportunity to catch attention that is such a low hanging fruit, it's basically sitting on the ground. Yes, we're talking about video content.

Video content like this explainer video here:

Do I really need it tho?

The problem with all that, however, is that video production is quite an effort. Coming up with content ideas, writing out the scripts, shooting the video, editing all that raw footage into a nice concise video, fine-tuning effects, and so on and so forth...

But there's also a middle way: the Flowtapes way. Yay. Where you don't aim at Hollywood level production value with a whole freelancer team for every step. Where you aim slightly below that but nevertheless obtain great promo videos for your product or service. Just with much less headache.

Just know that the type of video that works best with Flowtapes is where you film yourself giving a little talk. So it will have the most value for those who sell a physical product and want to explain and show it in the video, or those with a "personal business" like consultants, coaches etc. who want to introduce and pitch themselves. Software product videos are probably better made with other tools as they usually rely on screen recordings. Which can also be cut in Flowtapes but there will be less of a "wow" effect.

But when there's a pitch or intro or product showcase you can do while filming yourself, go for it! You will need 1-2 hours of time, no equipment except for your smartphone, and you will create a self-produced awesome-looking video for your website and/or social media channels with very little effort.

And this Flowtapes way is what we'll get into here: you will now make such a video yourself. Buckle up, fold up your tray tables, and enjoy the ride.

Getting ready: equipment and the like

Like we said, we want to keep it easy for ourselves. So in principle, a smartphone is enough to get started.

So if you just want to sporadically produce videos you can leave it at that. But what will make a huge difference to the quality of your video is using an extra microphone.Smartphone recordings often sound like you're sitting in a tin can and the rule of thumb is: audio quality is more important than video quality.

The second equipment item that will also greatly contribute to staying a happy human is a tripod. It just helps tremendously for shooting the video as you don't have to balance the phone or camera on a stack of books placed on a chair that sits on a table.

So in order of importance, we could use this extra equipment:

1. External microphone: Can be purchased as low as $30 (and will already make a great difference). We recommend something in the range of $80 to $150 as that provides you with the best cost-benefit value.
2. Tripod: Just makes the whole shooting much less of a headache. Not expensive.
3. Proper camera: Like we said audio is the most important. But beautiful video is nice to have too. And smartphone lenses are just not reaching up to DLSR cameras. But this can get expensive.
4. Lighting, room treatment: Yea well, not really our focus here. Although lighting can also make a big difference and can be purchased for little money.

1. Writing the script

Depending on your ability to speak freely as well as your experience and comfort in speaking into a camera (yes it can feel pretty weird in the beginning), you might want to read from a script. script.

If you're good in thinking while talking and you prefer to just take it on... a few bullet points for what you want to talk about are enough. It's still important to keep a straighforward line in your... . Going left and right is confusing for the viewer.

On the other hand, if you're like me and are either not a native English speaker, or your brain is also not able to multitask thinking about what to say next while speaking, then reading from a script is easier.

I always write out the script word for word, because then I can separate thinking about the line of arguments from the speaking. As always, it helps to start with a rough outline. Bullet points of the statements and topics you want to cover. And then refine the actual sentences, develop the wording you want to use, and add analogies or examples.

For these short pitch videos, the script should be around 150-250 words. One minute of speaking is roughly 150 words and we want to land between 1 and 2 minutes of video runtime.

2. Shooting the video

Probably the most annoying step. So let's make it as easy as possible.

Although it may make you feel like a weirdo to talk into a camera alone in your office or living room, this is actually a very useful skill. It's like practicing arguing for a point

To set up your phone or a DLSR camera if you have one, a tripod is reaally helpful. But I also managed without for half a year, and used tables, chairs, books and any item I could fine to build a tower on which to place the phone or camera. Just get a tripod lol.

If you speak free, that's it. If you read from a script, one trick is to put a laptop directly next to the recording device. If you position the text you read from as just a small window at the edge of the screen your eyes won't be directed too far away from the lens. So it's almost not visible that you look at the text and not directly at the lens.

Then you can go ahead and just read from the screen. You'll have to scroll every few sentences, since the window on the laptop screen needs to be small so your eyes don't divert too far from the lens. You can set up remote control on your phone if it's still free, or you just need to scroll on the laptop. But that's fine, it's not a bad idea anyway to always do 1-3 sentences in a batch and then pause briefly to start again with the next batch.

Lighting - since we want to keep it easy for ourselves, we don't include a lighting setup. The most gorgeous light is available to all of us naturally - it's the sun light. We don't want to be in it directly as sharp shadows don't look pretty. But it looks awesome when we're close to a window, in the indirect shine of the sun light (when it for example bounces off the walls around us).

Position yourself, when possible, that the window is to your side, or even better slightly in front of you so that the light comes in at a 45 degree angle or so.

Try to speak with energy, cameras always take half of the energy away. Smiling also helps tremendously for the video to feel more engaging. Both parts I find difficult to keep in mind while speaking, for others this comes natural.

Don't worry at all about bloopers or stumbles, just do the sentence again. All of this will be cut out by Flowtapes and your own post-correction.

All that's left now is for you to press record and say your piece into that camera. For me it also helps to do it 2 or 3 times, because I get more into the flow after the first take.

Good succcess with your filming! 💪

3. Editing your recording

Awesome! You managed the hardest part! The editing can actually be fun because now you turn your raw recording into a nice and publishable video.

And since we use Flowtapes for that, there's not much to do apart from uploading your recording and configuring the edit. This includes selecting the background music, color grade filter, animation style for the captions, and so on.

If it's a 1-2 minute video, the upload and the automatic editing should be done within 15 minutes. Since no software is perfect, there will most certainly be some post-correcting by a human (you) needed. This you do in the "Editor" view, where you can adjust the A-Roll cut (which parts of the video are cut out) just like editing a text document.

You can also adjust the effects configuration if you want to change something. Re-render the preview to incorporate the changes, until you're satisfied. Then in the "Export" view you render the final, high resolution version of your video. This takes a bit longer (many pixels to process) but once done, download it and et voila - you have a xx!

Here, check out again the before/after of the explainer video at the top of this page:

4. ...aaand publishing it!

So now the only step left for you to do is to publish your just downloaded and edited video.

This can be on your website if it's a product or service explainer video. And/or on YouTube, to increase your reach. Or embedded in a post on another platform like X or Facebook.

The best thing is, since shorts are steadily gaining ground, that you can also create those from your video. Yes, automatically, in Flowtapes, it's just a button click away. Open the "Social Media" tab on the "Preview" page and you'll find a nice and shiny yellow button there, which you just need to gently click.

In all seriousness: Shorts are pretty darn important these days. You will see if you upload one to YouTube Shorts to accompany your main video. Views are (obviously, since they're shorter) MUCH higher and you get more exposure. On Youtube you can link it to the main video so if you hyped people up with the short, they can visit and watch the main video with just one more click.

And since you now have one or more shorts available, why not upload to TikTok and Instagram as well. That's playing the social media game pretty legit!