While referrals and effective networking will always be a strong foundation for success in Real Estate, buyers and sellers' preference for the ease of use, variety and research capabilities of the Internet are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Internet users today want transparency. They want to be able to get to know you from the comfort of their desk, in their pjs at 3 in the morning if need be. They want the control of being able to pick and choose in a medium that is convenient for them. They want to be able to see and hear what you sound like, how you move and what your body language is like, just as if they had a personal meeting with you. They want to be comfortable with you and they want to know what you will do differently to market their home especially in today's economy.

Video can be a really effective new tool in accomplishing all of that, especially if you take the time to do it well and brand yourself as a professional who is competent, detail-oriented with a friendly personality that a client would be comfortable with.

Here are a few key steps in creating a beautiful personal profile video that will look like you had a professional shoot it ... or at least may not end up looking like you had your 5 year-old pointing the camera at you.

The 2 biggest factors in poor video are often poor sound quality and lack of a steady hand. A tripod is easy enough to purchase and you don't need to spend a lot of money on a heavy duty tripod. You can get plastic tripods at Best Buy for $25 - $50 that will work great for your needs. This is a simple solution that we will not spend any additional time investigating here so that we can pursue more of a comprehensive approach to getting a great personal profile video.

Sound is a more difficult obstacle, but not insurmountable by any means. If you have't purchased a video camera yet, look for one with an output connection for an external microphone - It makes all of the difference. The built-in mic. on most consumer video cameras is an omnidirectional mic. that will pick up sound from all directions. Unfortunately you pay a price for that convenience in sound quality which can only be described as awful and the hallmark of amateur video.

You don't have to spend a fortune on microphones to see a vast improvement. You can buy inexpensive external microphones at Best Buy for $50 which will work substantially better than the built-in mic. You can aslo order a microphone from one of the many photo/video equipment online sites. I would recommend B&H as the most reliable site with the best return policy and service. Make sure that the microphone has a mini jack on the mic. and not an XLR jack which is for professional level cameras.

Set the external mic. as close as possible to yourself and just out of camera range as you don't want the mic. in the shot. You can duct tape the mic. to a tripod and place it near you or you can just prop it up on a stack of books or a small child and aim it at your wonderful mug. The key here is to get the mic. as close as possible. There is a misconception that an external "shotgun" mic. can pick up good sound from across the room, which is not the case. A shotgun mic. is a directional mic. that is designed to pick up clear sound from a narrow field and discard unwanted background sound that is off-axis.

Once you have the tripod and microphone in place, you're halfway there. Next, you want to create a decent background for your video masterpiece. This step often gets ignored but has a big impact on the look of a video. You want to get as much seperation between you and the background as possible - at least 4 feet, but 2 to 5 times as much is even better.

Too often you see people sitting against a wall that ends up looking like a mug shot and the sound ends up bouncing off the walls creating a tinny echo that distracts the viewer and labels you as a careless hack. It aslo is a bland, boring shot that looks like it belongs on YouTube right after the video of the dog on a skateboard.

So create some separation, use an entire room as a background or move some furniture, floor lamp or vase of flowers into a shot to create your own set. You want something colorful and pleasing in the background and not just a white wall. You can get creative here. Do that much and it will look like a professional interview on 60 minutes. Professional broadcast crews will spend a lot of time moving furniture around in order to create an interesting background. -It makes all the difference. Just do not stand against a wall.

Next, it's a good idea to get the camera as far away as possible (6 to 20 ft.) from you (Only if you have an external microphone and long cord) so that you can zoom the lens in. This will create a reduced depth of field, making the background slightly out of focus and a bit larger and more dramatic. This gives the image more of a film-like appearance and makes you stand out even more. Again this is what professionals do to make their interviews look appealing. Your eye is used to seeing this type of setup for interviews on TV and can quickly spot an exception to this setup. You may not be aware of it but an interview that is set on wide angle just looks "weird".

We're almost done now, don't worry, I won't babble on much longer. For brevity's sake I'll discuss lighting only briefly here, but obviously we could spend several blogs on this important topic for video. The key is to get lot's of light on you. Your camera cannot adjust to lighting the way your eyes can, so even if it looks good to you it will be too dark for your camera to get a good image. It has to be at least twice as bright as what your eyes would require to get good lighting. This is the single biggest mistake most people make in shooting their videos.

The easiest, quickest approach if you are filming indoors is to simply position yourself near a window and use the daylight to illuminate you. You don't want the window in the shot or your camera will adjust the exposure for the bright sunlight and you will end up as a dark silhouette like some criminal who doesn't want his identity revealed - probably not what you are looking for in a personal profile video. You want the light hitting your face at about a 45 degree angle. This is what is called your key light or main light. You could also bounce some of the daylight coming in through the window onto the other side of your face (Called fill light) with a simple white 2x3 ft. piece of cardboard that you can buy at any art store. This will cast a nice soft secondary light on the side of your face that would otherwise have a shadow on it. This lighting set up would be considered 2-point lighting - 1 main key light on one side of your face and a 2nd fill light at half the strength of the key.

If you are shooting indoors and don't have access to a large window or don't like the background behind it you can use 2 of your existing table lamps. Remove the lampshade and place a lamp on each side of you at about a 45 degree angle as close as possible to your face without getting in the shot. 100 watt bulbs are good but 300 watts are even better. 60 watt bulbs are pushing it but are better than nothing.

One caveat to remember is to avoid mixing different light sources. Don't place your light near a window as you want to avoid mixing daylight and indoor incandescent light fitures. If you film near a window then don't use lights and if you are using lights don't film near a window. Your camera will automatically do what is called a ' White Balance ' for every scene it shoots and if you mix the 2 different light sources you will be disappointed in the results.

Daylight is at 5500 Kelvin temperature and indoor incandescent is around 3500 Kelvin temp. The higher the temperature, the bluer the light. The lower the temperature the more orange the light is. If you film near a window with incandescent lights nearby your camera will automatically set the white balance for daylight and you will end up orange. If you have a lot of incandescent light nearby your camera will white balance for the indoor light and the daylight coming through the window onto your face will turn you blue.

So remember, just separate the 2 lights. either use all daylight coming through the window to illuminate you or get away from any windows and light yourself only with lamps. You'll be surprised at how much better your video will look as a result.

I won't bore you with any more details, but follow these basic rules and your video will look dramatically better than your traditional mug shot with awful distant sound. We'll get into how to make easy, effective edits using a free software program on the next post if there is any interest level for it.

Good luck! I'd be glad to help if you have any more questions.

Mark Selmi Chief Operating Officer Avanti Films Beverly Hills & San Francisco www.avantivisuals.com