If you’ve committed to making video a part of your campaign, whether for TV or online, you may be wondering what your best practices are for making sure the footage is professional and useful. At Victory, we’ve shot thousands of hours of candidate footage for numerous winning campaigns, so here is our guide for getting the most out of a film shoot.
Hire A Professional
Video content is a competitive market, and you’ll want yours to stand out. Hiring professional help ensures high-quality footage, editing, and final production that is cutting edge and polished. A friend with a DSLR might be able to throw a few videos together, but your campaign depends on your ability to tell your story effectively. At Victory, we consistently deliver high quality content that engages the audience and wins votes. Having experts on your team makes all the difference.
Plan Your Content
Being prepared for your film shoot requires planning. Understand your message, the overall narrative of your campaign, and lay everything out in scripts. Working with a script writer ensures efficient delivery and helps you feel more confident on the day of the shoot. Don’t feel pressure to memorize everything. We have teleprompters to help you deliver every line perfectly, and our director will coach you through a great delivery.
Plan Filming Days
Maximize the days you film by packing them full of locations, extras, and scripts. For most candidates, we film a variety of content over one or two days, so we need to ensure we’re making the most of each hour. We’ll help you identify settings or scenery that would add to the video, but you’ll know your area best so we count on you to pick out places to film. Multi-purpose locations, like parks, downtowns, and farms, can meet the needs of many scripts. Additionally, ask friends and family to serve as extras. Once you have the locations and people, we’ll work together to plan a schedule for the day.
Stay on Course
It can be tempting as the campaign goes on to derail your messaging to respond to your opponents. Perhaps they have a critique of your campaign or are emphasizing different messaging than you. Remember that the content created was based on a campaign strategy. At Victory, we use recent polling to determine the most effective messaging for your campaign and region.
Making the most of your video content really levels up your campaign and ensures you get the most mileage from every shot. Video is one of the most engaging and comprehensive mediums for campaigns to tell your story, so you’ll want the right people on your team. To help bring all your video content to life, connect with your consultant or reach out to me at ben@victoryenterprises.com to get started.