Think of a buyer who has three hours to kill at a major city airport. He fires up the laptop or blackberry with his legs out stretched. Suddenly he is on a farm in Linneus Maine...walking the fields, hearing the sound of the brook, touring the Victorian home. And meeting the "black and white" actors.

The cows munching, curious and watching you..all huddled together is not a "prop" you see on a Manhattan high rise coop apartment, or on a Florida beach at a condo. The sheer space of an 88 acre farm...is hard for some folks to get their minds wrapped around..that concept and how expensive it would be where they live is so different, unique. Play that card...show the expanse.

As for is there a script...how to make these videos. Remember we are not in a million dollar per home area so we have to time effectively create a production to showcase but not take days to create. We are marketing hundreds of properties not just six or seven. That's rural Maine where I have a 170 listings...just my own listings to herd. And with over 400 videos that include area information from what to do for fun to schools to where to get banking and everything in between. Local events are big from sporting events to high school graduations to summer bands playing in the park. I'm going skiing anyway, show them a Maine small family size ski area..bring the camera along, shoot some loops, stitch them together.

So no script or story board written out on paper..have one in my head that you shoot with careful attention of what the finished product will look like and to minimize edits. You make the video thinking of how the modules go together, how it flows and always always with time a consideration. You need to have this production in the can, uploaded to youtube, realtor.com and a slew of other platforms and then start embeding them in blog posts, social media sites. Every listing sheet exported has a link to the video too...put it there in plain sight..don't make them go looking for it. So think of emailing slow drip programs to all your waterfront buyers, your farmland buyers, your victorian home, your lakeshore prospects..Zing...email with the movie. It's like someone ker-plopped your favorite meal in front of you like grammy with everything cut up and a big piece of home made apple or blueberry pie with ice cream for desert. Just sit back and graze, eat, digest, watch the video and absorb. Videos uses 5 senses. A still image has sight..that's it. No sound of water at a rivercamp, no birds singing, no trees swaying or sound of leaves as the sun sets over a shimmering lake with a loon singing/crying. That is powerful.

The viewer hears your voice, gets to know you Joe Broker talking one on one to them, not at them and it's not Joe Announcer guy reading a script back at the studio with a "way too slick make the buyer uncomfortable approach".

The real estate conveyor belt is spinning and the listing is only for so long. Start out with the basic movie maker on your machine and see if you are cut out for the creative process. I have seen brokers buy four digits of equipment/software and it sits in a box, collecting dust as they don't like it, fight it, don't think it is worth the time. It takes time in the beginning...can you say "learning curve?" Sure you can..I knew you could. If video is done right, it is a stand alone total capsule with the inside, the outside, some salt and pepper audio and eye candy on the area offering and then a healthy dose of branding so the style, the look, the sound, the feel is obvious..oh yeah...this is another Shoe String Production from that Andy Guy way the heck up in Northern Maine. When you google a search and you see that little video snapshot show up on the front page, you have to ask yourself if you don't shoot, post video..why not? Your buyers want it, your sellers deserve it and you end up selling real estate faster, for more money. What's to miss in that scenario?

Also, shake it up. This video  gets the owner's voice capturing the process of clearing the land with his dad, throwing a fishing line in the river for a bass...etc. Even the cat/dog get a cameo...it makes the buyer feel the seller is a normal, down to earth regular guy..just like them. Natural, easy, honest, real. Not spun, not slick...wholesome. That's Maine.

That video was posted late yesterday afternoon and now 110 views and climbing. It's neat to see 2100 views rack up quickly on a property so you know it is working, penetrating and far reaching exposure. The ones that perform better, you study and tinker to see what tags were used, the caption, the audio channel narrative, the graphics..the substance so you can build on that success with the next video. They all have a loose structure..template if you will but the filling of the real estate pie is different, unique...like each property which is like a jewel, very special.

No tripod...if you drink too much coffee..or had DT's from too many Moxies...then floating ball head tripod the deal. In smaller 10x8 room...unless you have a wide angle lens and a professional $4000 and up video camera, it's pretty hard to pan the room that size. Works great on back yard expanses, cathedral ceiling great rooms but that is not the bread and butter run of the mill average joe property that is the bulk of what we cover. You can get a wheel chair, prop the camera in a suspended "box" and do a pretty good job cruising in and out of a room too. The on camera inserts are camera on the back of the jeep with property being videoed in the background or you can use a chroma key with a green or blue screen. That's getting more involved then many would want unless you get a beret, a megaphone and shout "quiet on the set..we have speed in three, two one.." and the other lingo. These are not 40 million dollar Hollywood productions. Have extra Lavalier mic to shield wind and if you really want to do the audio, which is 40% of the production justice, you should have a directional "shot gun"" mic that narrows/boosts the sound you want from the surroundings/you if you are a ways off camera. The on camera mics without wind do a decent job. Read reviews, study forums, do your homework and determine what is your video budget, what you want Santa to bring down the chimney this year if you've been a fairly good boy or girl.

Hey Chris...the black and white to color is a neat trick but like any, use the effects sparingly. Some software can do it automatically...this was a quick homemade version where you deplete the color on a still set of images, decide how long you want that still black and white and then dissolve to color version of the same still and then in the apple orchard driving along sequence where the cows we saw earlier are napping around the trees...it dissolves to video movement with b/w effect to color.  Won't use that same effect for a long time as a slew of other options to make each video "jewel" a little different.

This is another video example of hearing the crickets, walking to the back of a property....shooting at sunset for neat lighting...and then inside when dark to avoid the bright spots of windows/doors messing up the automatic exposure. This video lets the viewer from out of town know how far away the hospital, golf course, etc is. You tour guide the area, brand yourself, show the property inside and out..with live video 30 frames per second...not a few still images and calling it good enough.

I was a broadcaster for a station owned by Howdie Doody and another by a name some of you might know...Stephen King..the horror writer. And I grew up making films, productions and have a degree in film/broadcasting. Depends on your budget. For starters, use the video loops from your good old video camera you capture your stills with, use a tripod, use ms movie and then graduate into $100 and higher software. How much to spend depends on how much you like doing video. If you fight the process tooth and nail, the higer priced, hard to use video software, say $550+ Sony Vega box will sit on the shelf, unused and you will a bitter taste from dipping your toe in the video waters.

Your voice Kevin is super..and you too Vickie. Vickie..if you have a southern drawl...that could help you, make you distinctive, sound like a native...work to your advantage. It's you...you want you on the audio talking one on one like you would to me if we were touring the place you listed together. Same listing presentation except I am eight states away...and because of the video, I decide it is worth travling eight states to see it in personal which is a formality as the video already did the job backwards/forwards. We have folks tell us they watched one ten times, sent it to their mom/dad/kids etc. 

You are in sales, like to talk, are friendly..this is another way to multiple that presentation. Instead of a one on one showing, or an open house, thinking of a 24/7 world wide showing, open house. It really helps you on large acreages, waterfront homes, mom and pop groceries to give the feel of that unique listing. Add

"View my listings on YouTube. Click here"   to all your emails, "bake" them into your listing sheets. You have the videos, don't keep it a secret because not many brokers use real live narrareted videos unless the price tag has many zeroes in it, and they are hired out, store bought not homemade.

I agree Christine...turn the sound off your favorite movie and you get upset. Watching a picture is no way as much fun as seeing 30 frames per second, seeing and hearing and sensing you are there at the property. Why keep it a secret? Give them what they want..what you would want. Everything!

We are all here to learn..grow, be better at what we do at the end of each day than when we started out with some high class coffee..ready to conquer the real estate world. Something you love to do is not work. It's a labor of love. You should feel that way about where you live, what you do for a living and it should just ooze...be apparent in the way you present your work. Video is a tool to do that sooo soooo well because it needs the five senses working, paying attention...not just the eyesball scanning a few images, some so so copy.