PROFESSIONAL TALENT VERUS EMPLOYEE VOLUNTEERS IN PRODUCT VIDEOS
Weβre often asked for our recommendation regarding who to use when hosts are needed in a product video. Here are a few things we consider when asked this question.
KNOWLEDGE OF MATERIAL
If your video deals with industry specific content, employee volunteers make a great option because they know the product the best. They can speak about your product with a familiarity thatβs hard to fake.
Professional Talent come in cold, and may trip up on specific phrases or acronyms, weakening their position as an authority. This particularly is true in product demos. And while itβs a good idea for the Professional Talent to familiarize themselves with the product prior to the shoot, often times scheduling and logistics prove impossible.
Simply put, thereβs no substitute for someone who knows the product inside and out, and has demonstrated its use many times before.
Advantage β Employee Volunteer
DELIVERY OF THE SCRIPT
While an employee should be more familiar with your company and product, they probably donβt know how to memorize a script, or read off a teleprompter. Sometimes Volunteers struggle to keep the material engaging, as they simply arenβt used to delivering informational material.
Professional Talent can help keep βboringβ content energetic and βmundaneβ material engaging. Look for a Professional Talent with prompting experience β you donβt want it to look like theyβre reading. But still send the script ahead of time so they have time to familiarize themselves with the content.
If thereβs a lot of technical elements to your script, you consider using a Teleprompter. That takes a ton of pressure off your Host.
Advantage β Professional Talent
ON-CAMERA COMFORT
Professional Talent appear in front of the camera for a living. Odds are your employees donβt. Your Host should feel at ease delivering material in front of a crew. Make sure your Host is engaging, and offers a variety of expressions that keep the piece moving.
Too often, the βgoofyβ office jokester thatβs a βnaturalβ freezes when the camera turns on. Your Host needs to connect with your viewer, keep them entertained, and deliver as an authority on the content.
Advantage β Professional Talent
BUDGET
People that act for a livingβ¦ need to be paid. You can try and coax them to work a deal if your product is amazing, and you can promise that there will be plenty of future activity for them if it goes wellβ¦ but theyβve probably heard that before.
You want them to be invested in your product, so invest in them. We wonβt get into Union v. Non-union Talent in this post, but be prepared to pay at least few hundred dollars for good Talent.
Employee Volunteers should be βfreeβ, but donβt forget to calculate how much time they spend on the video. Remember β your company is paying them for their time.
If you want to encourage company engagement in the video, consider using employees as background extras.
Advantage β Employee Volunteer
TIME LIMITATIONS
If youβre running a tight schedule, you want as few takes as possible to keep the shoot moving. Tight schedules mean thereβs more pressure to deliver lines fluidly. Professional Talent shine here.
But not only does this save you time in Production, this also helps during Post Production, as less time is spent cobbling together multiple takes and searching for the best take from a Volunteer as they need a few takes to βwarm upβ.
Advantage β Professional Talent
With these thoughts in mind, here are a couple extra ideas to make sure your shoot goes as smoothly as possible.
HOLD AUDITIONS
Whether you use Professionals or Volunteers, hold auditions. Set up a camera and a light, and see how that person does with a group of people watching (i.e. judging) them.
Donβt give them false hope either. If youβre positive Johnny is perfect, and would be a βnaturalβ on camera, wait βtil after the audition to tell him. Donβt back yourself into a corner or create an awkward situation if Johnny bombs.
Professionals are used to auditioning, so bring them in. See first hand what theyβd be like to work with and know if you can trust them to learn the material. Plus, they often donβt look like their head shots. Pay attention to if they come early or late, and if theyβre prepared. If they treat the audition seriously, theyβll most likely treat your shoot seriously.
POSITION TO SUCCEED
At the end of the day, trust your gut. If the office jester isnβt any good on camera, donβt use them. If someone knows the material cold but has the on-camera personality of a shoe box, donβt embarrass them. There are plenty of reasons you can tell them as to why they arenβt the right fit.
Also keep in mind the office jester might be hard to corral on set. He might joke around too much, and cause your shoot to slow down. They might get nervous, and take a while to get through the material β if thatβs the case, kill them with kindness, and help them get through the material. Never let them think theyβre doing a bad job.
Professional Talent are used to all sorts of different directing styles, so you should have more freedom here. They are there to do a job. Youβre paying them, so there (should be) a professional relationship there β so donβt feel bad if you keep asking them to repeat something.
These are a few of the few of the things we tell our clients to keep in mind when selecting a Host for their video. Anything else we should add? Let us know!