Very good pointers, as video gets to be more of our business, we must be sure to do it the right way or it will surely backfire! See you like RealBird also, aren't they great people?

Jeremy:  Thanks for the information.  I am just learning to do this.  What program do you use?  Have you worked with Microsoft Movie Maker?

Mr. Jeremy, I really enjoyed your video on your church.  I couldn't take my eyes off of it it moved along and kept my attention.  So you play in the praise band, huh?  BTW, is Sharon your lovely bride?

Thank you for the how to video and now I have something else to work on in my spare time.

Don R.

Great Tips! The tripod really does help and I simply mute background noise and overlay with narration and/or music when editing.

Good morning Jeremy...

You are so right, a properly edited video can be powerful, but a poorly done one doesnt do much too enhance your image. I think that in a rush to get videos online, there is a lot of inferior quality stuff out there. Great tips, thanks.

Thank you for pointing out what a big difference it makes.  Taking time to do it right is worth the effort in the end!

Very good advice.  Love that you show your video of what not to do! 

I need to get going on the video stuff.  I'm just not sure my primary customer is really looking for it.  I specialize in the active adult communities.

Jeremy,

What a difference, the second video is great. I would love to be able to do this type of work on my lisitings. What type of program did you use? Type of camera? etc. This could be a whole new road for my clients.

Thanks, I look forward to hearing back from you.

Jim

Jer - Great post.  I actually thought your video was helpful for a client who was seriously considering the home, but maybe with some music instead of the normal audio?  I liked the church video, too.  I saw you playing bass(or guitar?) and singing there, then speaking, and I think I spotted your wife in the nursery?  I assume that Sharon Blanton is a relative as well.  It looks like a dynamic worship experience.  Kudos to you for your involvement.

Jeremy, What an awesome video for your church. I was tapping my foot, and never got bored!  That was excellent.  Are you a guitar player in your church band?  I think I saw you up there:)  I really loved that video. One of the best I've seen, for keeping my attention.  My daughter would love the music in your younger group. Wow!

Yes, your first video made me dizzy!  I actually have the flip video and bought the small tripod to go with it. It made a big difference!  Thanks for the great tips.

Jeremy, I feel dizzy after watching that :-) Thank you for your posting. You gave some great advice! I will be sure to keep these pointers in mind when I make a video.

Jeremy, what an intriguing comparison, and a very compelling invitational tool for your congregation. If your as not thought of it yet you could mass produce the video and have members share it with their friends, families and strangers as a part of your ministry expansion program.

Have a great day.

Yes your first video made me dizzy, if you would of went a little slower it would have been great. You showed that property and gave great details, being to offer with it sight unseen. You walked me through the whole house!!

Great tips!  I wanted to add one more thought to your list:  film short scenes/clips...  the general public is so used to 60-100 "cuts" per minute on television, that they will be drawn in to your video more. 

All good points. I am way behind on my video education. Maybe this post can be a little motivator to get me going. Thanks.

Thanks for the tips. All were important, but I think that lighting is so key. The brighter, the better!

To answer a few questions,

Yes, that is me playing bass & singing on our praise & worship team.

Sharon Blanton, is my mother who is an assistant on our team!

Thanks for the tips. I am constantly amazed at our technology today. Who would have thought we would be sending clients videos or chatting live via the internet through applications like Skype!

Great points!  We are using video in our marketing efforts and it has been successful for us. I think another good point is that the video does not have to be perfect.  It is amazing to me to see how many folks are watching our videos even though they are not perfect and not "professionally" done.

Video will become increasing important to both buyers and sellers as broadband connections become more and more prevalent.  I would add to keep it simple and use the FLIP portable video camera.  Simple to use, easy to upload to YouTube and AOL.  Great for client testimonials or you simply providing a state of the market address.  Keeping it simple means keeping it short as well -- no more than 3 minutes -- the shorter the better to get the most attention to the video.  Make it a profitable day!

Jeremy, how much editing did you have to do on the 2nd video and what editor did you use? AJ

Jeremy,

Nice presentation of how to and how not to!!! Thanks,   Fran

Jeremy,

Thanks for the great information.  I really enjoyed your church video.  I have been interested in doing listing videos, and would even do a video for our small church, but need to learn a bit more before I do.

Thanks again.

Or you could use www.us720.com

Much higher quality.  John

Great post and some good points, thanks for sharing your knowlege

Have A Great Day

Great pointers! Do you have a camera you suggest? I'd love to have a camera that takes good video and stills. Less to carry is always nice!

Great comment by Scott Hoen!

Jeremy,  Thank you soooo much for all your help! Sandy

Jeremy, those are some fantastic tips! We have been doing video via slide shows with windows movie maker, but are thinking about doing some "real" video as well and incorporating them into our arsenal. Obviously we want to do things right when we do them.

Jeremy great information.  Using video is an important part of my marketing but I have to hire it done or it would look like the first one for sure

David- I do enjoy RealBird!

Mary, I use Windows Movie Maker...it is kinda limited in features, but it does the job.

Don- Sharon is actually my mother!!! LOL

Andrea- those are both great ways of improving your videos.

Richard- that is exactly what happened with the video I placed above...it was a rush for my bro.

Melody- you aren't kidding a little bit extra time adds so much more!

Christina- yeah, wasnt I great at showing what not to do? LOL

Kathy- I think they may enjoy the videos...also, if they don't have the knowledge of how to use them, they have grandchildren to teach them LOL

Jim- the second video was done by a gentleman at our church that does all our media...he used a professional grade camera & he has some media software that was around $3,000.

Jason- I am actually playing bass...and Sharon is my mom.  Our services do rock!

Elizabeth- the tripod will make huge differences in any video you make.

Peter- sorry for the dizzyness...luckily it will stop in a few minutes!

Dionne- we actually give the video to each first time visitor in a welcome bag...with a bag of popcorn that they can pop the dvd in, sit back on the couch and enjoy!

Jeanette- I probably normally would've gone slower, but had 2 things working against me...first, my cameras battery was almost dead and also I had to get it up online for my bro to see before leaving his house within 20 minutes

JB- great I idea, I like it!

Karl- hope this helps motivate...I look forward to seeing some videos soon!

Sugar Pine- lighting is good, but to much light exposure can do the opposite.

Michael- it is crazy how technology is changing!

Team Newington- The videos don't need to be perfect...so very true...just make them look good and you are in good shape  

Scott- those are some great points!  You can have longer videos as long as they are somehting to keep the viewers attention!

AJ- the second video was done by a gentleman at my church(the youth pastor)  he is a genius with that stuff...he has some professional grade editing software.

Fran- as always, thanks for stopping by!

Susan, the best way to get the best videos is to just start making them!  Practice makes perfect!

John- I had not heard of US720, but it looks pretty cool...what is their cost?

Jim- the camera I use is just a regular nikon digital camera....you can take some good stills with it...I would suggest looking at a flip camera for something easy with decent quality.

Sandy- no problem! Glad I could be of assistance!

Stephen- I use photobucket to make my slide shows...goes rather quickly and easy.

Jeff- I think you could do it...it really isnt that difficult...takes some time, but if you give it time and practice it will get better!

These are good tips, Jeremy. What editing software do you suggest, if any, besides Windows Movie Maker?

I use a tripd myself for some videos (I ahve a tall one and the short flexible one), but not for the community videos (for obvious reasons). I agree that keeping them fairly short is really the key - folks' attention spans don't seem to last all that long.

Jeff

Jeff- I just use Windows media player, but Brad Andersohn is a big fan of Mixpo.

Great tips Jeremy, thank you for posting this information.  I agree with Jeff I'd like to know what editing software you would suggest, thanks!

Jeremy,

You forgot about the dancing Vegas showgirls....

Jeremy~ You can make slide shows in photobucket?  Love that you shared what NOT to do, LOL! 

Do you have any dramamine?  My stomach is doing flip flops!  Great post and suggestions!

Thanks for the tips and pointers as this is clearly where the business is going!

Coco

Ana, I use windows movie maker...but I would check out the mixpo software...seems to produce great products

Paul- sorry, no showgirls needed!

Yes, you can Vickie

Sorry for the motion sickness Sara!

Coco- this is definitely where things are heading!

I'm not convinced yet that video is going to be the wave of the future. I believe lots of buyers like to take some time to study photos and you can't do that easily with a video.

What does a church video have to do with real estate? You could use a good real estate video to prove your point. The church video is more of a "Plug" for your own glory; at least that's how I viewed it since that video has zero relevance to real estate.

Jim- That is a good point...some buyers do like to study videos...I would suggest adding a few photos in with your video in your ads.

Yep, that first one looks like a remake of "The Blair Witch Project" where the students filmed most of the movie with a hand held camera.

Jim- LOL- yeah, I did it in such a rush for my bro...he was packing the moving truck and I had about 15 min to get it to him...along with the fact that my battery was dying!

To "Confused" - I always find it telling when someone refuses to log in to post a rude comment.  These types of remarks don't typically survive on my blog at all, if the commenter doesn't even bother to put his/her real name.  Clearly, it didn't matter what type of video Jeremy used here - he made some solid points and got featured doing so. 

Signed,

Irritated

Jason- I am with you...I think the point being made was that as video continue to grow in popularity it is imperative to have quality videos.  Currently, I do not own that equipment yet, so I used the closest video I could to demonstrate my point.  Obviously, someone at Activerain liked what I did...since they gave me a gold star.

Jeremy, thanks again for your tips!

I think I am going to follow all your blogs!