In this session, video expert Cheril Clarke joined Ashley MacQuarrie and Michael Barber for a discussion about how charter schools can use video to raise awareness and document what makes their school special. They spoke about how schools can get started by using what they have and not worrying about producing overly complicated content. Watch the video or read the transcript below to hear how to be consistent, have good lighting, and a clear plan. You’ll come away with a better understanding of how different types of videos can be used to showcase a school’s culture and environment.
Join the experts as they answer all your questions live on Thursdays on YouTube at 10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET. Charter School Capital – YouTube
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Michael B:
Well, hi everyone. Welcome back to our weekly Thursday, YouTube Live on all things enrollment marketing. My name is Michael Barber and I am joined by my fearless co-host, Ashley McQuarrie. Ashley, how you doing?
Ashley M:
I’m good. How are you, Michael?
Michael B:
I’m well, thank you. We’re also joined today by another member of our Enrollment Marketing team, Cheril Clarke. Cheril, thanks for joining us today.
Cheril C:
Absolutely. No problem. I’m happy to be here.
Michael B:
Thanks. We appreciate you being here. We’re going to hop right in and talk all things video today. So if you’ve got questions related to video, please feel free to pop them in the chat. If you’re on a desktop browser, it should be on the right-hand side of this video. I don’t know which one’s right or left on your screen, but hopefully it’s over here wherever I’m pointing. And if you’re on mobile, on the YouTube app, it’s just below the fold. So drop in your questions if you’ve got them. Otherwise, let’s just get started.
Let’s talk about basic video best practices for schools. I’m going to turn this over to Cheril. First, tell us, Cheril, what do you got for tips for school leaders, for basic video best practices?
Cheril C:
One of the first things that I think I would suggest is to try to be really approachable and not overly complex because I know that as academics and educators, it can be easy to slip into being more technical and academic and you need to be for general audiences. So really being super approachable, not using overly complex language and just everyday speak, but still getting your message across, using everyday speak. That would be one of the top ones.
Another best practice would be keep in mind how long your actual video content is. So maybe two or three minutes, maybe enough, depending on what you need to talk about before people start tapping out. That’s not to say that you can’t do longer videos. You can do longer videos, but if you do publish longer videos, you maybe find ways to change what’s on screen frequently. And that doesn’t mean you have to have a whole bunch of cameras in a big setup, but just maybe zoom in, zoom out, find another way, pick up a prop, do something. Depending on what you’re talking about, you have one available. Change what’s on screen somewhat frequently for longer videos so that you can keep people’s attention.
Michael B:
Yeah, such good basic tips there. And for those of you just joining us two minutes into our chat, we’re talking all things video today for our weekly enrollment marketing Q&A here on YouTube live. Feel free to pop into your questions. We just talked a few seconds ago. Cheril had some basic video best practices and mentioned approachability.
I think that’s such a good tip for school leaders not to overthink the quality of their videos. You look at what’s resonating on TikTok and Instagram, it is the approachable, real world unrehearsed content that people find interesting. And I don’t mean to take away from the overly produced videos, those have a time and a place. But when we’re talking about what’s resonating with people right now, it certainly is being more approachable. Ashley, anything to add there on basic, best practices? Say that five times fast.
Cheril C:
I know.
Ashley M:
No, I think you both, you covered it perfectly. Yeah, just being authentic, that’s really what’s resonating, those kind of short videos. And thinking, I guess about maybe the goal and the audience of who you’re talking to. You can have different types of videos, so you might have a more unscripted kind of live like this, or you might maybe put together a little outline of what you want to talk about, not necessarily script it. But have something in mind about what the goal of your video is and what you want people to walk away with at the end of it, while still being yourself.
Cheril C:
Yeah, absolutely, the audience, I can’t believe that one didn’t pop up first. I concur with that, the audience, keeping them in mind is probably the most important thing. That will determine what you say and how you say it because you’re going to talk to a certain group, a certain demographic, maybe a little differently than you would talk to another demographic. So it’s all about keeping in mind who are they, what’s top of mind for them, what are they most concerned about? And then you can address those things as quickly as possible. Because if your audience members have specific concerns that they’re nervous or worried about, they’re not really going to hear much of what you’re saying until you get to that. So if you can anticipate what people are curious about or have questions about and address those first, that would be amazing.
Michael B:
Yeah, I think you’re touching on different strokes for different folks. The words you’re going to use maybe the platform that you’re on, right? You’ve got to make sure that when you’re thinking about that audience, it may be being on a different platform, it may be doing something that’s live or unscripted versus scripted. So some things to consider there for sure.
What about some simple how-tos, any best. Any simple how-tos for how schools can get started with video? Whether it’s on social, whether it’s building video for their website or a blog post. Just some simple how-tos, and we’ll start with Cheril.
Cheril C:
Yeah, sure. We can kind of circle back to something you said earlier, just it doesn’t always have to be overly produced. I forget who originally said this, but someone said, start where you are with what you have, because what you have is plenty. So you can just start with whatever phone or camera you’ve got. Try your best to make it well lit, because of course, the quality of how you look, it matters. No one wants to watch a 1980s looking grainy video if they don’t have to. And minimize the background noise. But it’s just really being in a clean environment as much as possible. If you’re in school, of course, it’s probably going to be colorful, that’s fine. But the less busy your background and audible stuff around you is, the better. So having a set space would be great, like if you can have one corner or one area where you always film, so you just go and turn the light on and sit down or stand up.
That’s always easy. Then you don’t have to worry about resetting everything all the time. So that could be helpful. Having some sort of outline, because if you’re on a time constraint, you know you really only want to do a one or two minute video. At least have some bullets off so you don’t go all around the world before you get to the point. So having some sort of an outline. It doesn’t have to be a whole speech written out, but a couple of bullet points that you want to get to. Having that ahead of time. And let’s see, what else? I know there’s some more things. Ashley, you want to jump in and then I’ll come back in with some more.
Ashley M:
Sure. Yeah, I love that. There’s different kinds of videos. So there’s the kind of video where you might be speaking to students or families live or talking about your school as a little introduction to your school from the principal kind of thing, or interviewing a teacher. There’s also definitely just value in showing your day-to-day and video and sharing short clips on Instagram or YouTube or whatever.
And with those, again, it’s the authenticity and it’s thinking about the words that you would use to describe your school. And then trying to capture scenes, clips that show that. I’m reading one that we just did for a school where we said, this is one of your clients, Cheril, we said the school is artistic, fun, family, challenging, in the community, outside the box. And so we wanted to capture video of students painting, playing in the outdoor classroom, building a robot, playing chess, reading books, listening intently to the teacher, engaging with each other. That’s kind of what we wanted to look for when we send a videographer in to capture video. And teachers and administrators, you can capture those things too, because it’s just happening.
Cheril C:
That’s great. And that you just reminded me of that school. So also think that if you’re doing something a bit more polished for the school where you have a professional team coming in to record that, the visuals should really accentuate what you’re saying. So if you’re talking about the beginning of school or start of school and shots of walking into the doors of the school. And as Ashley mentioned, all of it doesn’t have to be super professional. You can capture what’s called B roll, which is just kind of, no one’s actually talking, but maybe it’s footage of the kids playing in the outdoor garden or footage of the teacher writing on the board. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in elementary, but whatever they write on. I know everything has changed, it’s much better than when I was in school. But just capturing those moments.
And going back to being approachable. If there are moments where the students are being greeted by handshakes or hugs in the morning, someone can just grab footage of that with their cell phone, because those are the visuals that’s going to convey this is a fun school, this is a school that doesn’t just focus on academics, but emotional intelligence and total wellbeing for the students. So capturing heartfelt moments are always great because they can be dropped into different videos over time. And it’s okay if the style doesn’t match. It’s okay if some of it’s shot with a professional camera or drone and then you have some cell phone footage. It doesn’t matter because the editor is going to bring it all together in a nice way anyway.
But most importantly, it’s capturing those moments that make parents feel like this is a place that I want to send my child. This is a school that I trust to make sure my child is safe when they’re there. Safety, that’s another one too. Can you get just a quick shot of the school safety officer? It doesn’t have to be a long thing, just half a second to inject in a video. All of these things will help tell the school story in a better, more engaging way.
Michael B:
So I think I heard a couple good things I want to recap, consistency. You’ve got to be consistent with video, find the space, find the timing, sort of like what we do here every single week on a Thursday, and it’s the same space. Ashley’s in her office, I’m in my office, Cheril’s in her office. It’s that consistency of finding that space where you’re comfortable.
Good lighting, obviously really beneficial. If you look at Ashley and I, when we started this journey in December, neither one of us had great lighting. We’ve improved that over the last few weeks, and schools can do that as well. If you’re going to do something that’s face front, you talking and having a conversation via video, lighting is important. Otherwise, someone’s just not going to feel engaged. One thing you both touched on is if you are going to work with a professional videographer, a fancy way of calling it is make sure they’ve got a brief to work on.
What are the brand attributes that you want to come across from the school, in the video. You spoke to that school specifically about being art forward, personable, approachable, those sorts of things. Your videographer wants to understand that that’ll change how they shoot that video. What’s the pacing of that video? What’s the background music? Make sure you’ve got a shot list for that videographer. You want to make sure, “Hey, are we doing drone footage? What do we want from the drone?” If we want this open door shot, let’s make sure that we capture that.
And one last thing I think you both touch on is that this does not have to be an expensive investment for a school. Everyone has these lovely things. Well, mostly everyone has these lovely things in their pockets, these cell phones. And an iPhone 10, 11 or above at this point, which has been around for several years, or your Android devices, we’re a Mac, Apple company, so that’s why I have an iPhone.
But regardless of the device these days, whoever you’re buying it from, some of these devices have full 4K capturing ability, which is essentially what you’re getting at a Hollywood level production. And many of them have cinematic mode in how they capture. And you can do that sort of very professional in focus front with blurred out background. So it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive for schools to start to capture this video. And they can use the phones that their school leaders and their teachers and their advocates and their parents have at their disposal.
Ashley M:
Yeah, absolutely. Oh, go ahead, Cheril.
Cheril C:
No, I was going to say, no, you’re absolutely right. There are so many settings in the camera that some people probably don’t even notice that are there, slow motion. And you can just get a really, really low cost handle for your phone so it’s not shaking when you’re filming it. But those are like 10, 15 bucks. So it doesn’t have to be a really, really expensive production. You can capture a lot with the phone.
The only thing to keep in mind is the audio with the phone, because if you’re shooting something outside, that’s going to be problematic. So maybe you only shoot B-roll outside and then you drop a voiceover that was filmed or recorded elsewhere where it was quiet. Then you drop that over that. So the only thing that you would need to keep in mind for outside would be the noise, but you could definitely get some really good footage of staff student interaction and the facility that the campus and so on.
Ashley M:
Yeah, that’s a great point. It’s always a bummer. We’ve gotten really great video of kids talking about their school just filmed on a phone. And then it’s sometimes a little hard to work with when there’s wind or cars or kids playing in the background. You want some of that kids playing maybe for some ambiance, but when it’s really windy or something like that, it can-
Cheril C:
There are some low cost lights. I’m not using one today, but I do have one. They’re like 20 bucks. And I can email it to you guys to fan out to everybody else, that you can just plug into the phone and then you just go in the microphone settings of your phone and click external mic. And then just clip it to the kid or the student, whoever. So that way you can get some stuff outside, but you can get a low cost microphone for your phone, for about 20 bucks on Amazon.
Michael B:
Yeah, for sure. And they even are little clip on Bluetooth enabled as well, so you can find a lot of different options that can work for you.
Cheril C:
[inaudible 00:14:01] outside.
Michael B:
Yeah, exactly. One thing I wanted to touch on that I forgot in that recap was something you both mentioned or touched on is just be forewarned, not every video works for every platform. So this gets in length and framing and whatnot. If you’re doing something for an Instagram reel or you’re doing something for a TikTok or a YouTube story or short, excuse me, that’s portrait mode, right? The preferred format is that it’s full screen on a smartphone, on a device. So doing that in portrait mode, that’s preferred.
But let’s say you want, Ashley and your team, you work with a lot of schools that do like motion behind the major headers in their websites, you’re going to want a landscape version of that because obviously you need to be able to get off to the edges of the screen. So depending upon the needs of the video, just make sure you’re capturing the framing of that video correctly for either the usage of that video or the platform that it’s going to as well.
Ashley M:
Yeah, that’s such a great point. And it’s changed so fast. Two years ago when we worked with a school and we said, “Hey, go take some video.” We said, “Turn your phone. You have to turn your phone horizontally.” We need this.
Michael B:
It’s landscape, landscape, landscape, right? Yeah.
Ashley M:
Exactly. And now, yeah, it is all square or portrait for sure.
Cheril C:
You’re right, changes very quickly.
Michael B:
Yes it does. And staying on top of that can be tough, but that’s why school leaders have got us as resources. Hopefully we can keep them up to date on what those changes are.
But hey, we are 15 minutes in and I want to be mindful of both of your time and also our audience’s time. So we are going to wrap it up. So I will just let everyone know we’ll be back next week on Thursday. We may change the time ever so slightly next week. We’re working on figuring out just some schedules. But we appreciate you all being here. I’m going to make a call to action to if you’ve got questions on all things enrollment or digital marketing, although this is backwards as I always refer to it, we have our digital marketing guide available on our website. You can head over to charterschoolcapital.com to grab that.
And just want to say thank you, Cheril, for joining Ashley and I. We really appreciate you being here. And thank you for bringing such a… You’ve got perfect lighting, perfect framing. So if there was a good example for our audience, it’s the individual who came to talk all things video. So we appreciate you being here. And I will say a big thanks to my co-host, Ashley McQuarrie, and we will see you next week. Thanks for joining us, y’all take care.
Ashley M:
Thanks.
Cheril C:
Thanks.
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