Category: Case Study

  • Defining Genres — Music Videos

    Defining Genres — Music Videos

    Music Videos Good music videos are deceptively complex, and the styles run a huge gamut. They are part commercial and part promo in practice, but these goals are not intrinsic to the genre. The juxtaposition of the sound and the image form a critical relationship, and this is where we should focus our attention, as […]

  • Defining Genres — Review

    Defining Genres — Review

    Review Review videos are anything where a subject is speaking directly to camera as themselves. The feel here is that the person is speaking authentically to the audience, and there are usually stylistic trappings that should be observed, whether it’s in the “rant” style of a speaker doing a walk-and-talk with an obediently following camera, […]

  • Defining Genres — Factual

    Defining Genres — Factual

    Factual Documentary, editorial and journalism videos use the real world as subject with varying degrees of objectivity. I would shy away from journalism proper, as this is a very specific tradition with a burden of balanced perspective that is probably best left to someone trained in that area. Documentaries wear a veneer of objectivity but […]

  • Defining Genres — Internal Communications

    Defining Genres — Internal Communications

    Internal Communications Larger companies need videos created for all kinds of internal communications, whether it’s a CEO delivering an annual “state of the union” speech, HR updating staff on best practices, a departmental presentation or a visual opener to a gathering. These often feature a lot of talking heads, stock video and whiz–bang graphics, and […]

  • Defining Genres — Branded Content

    Defining Genres — Branded Content

    Branded Content This is the classic commercial “online video” that people think of, and that advertisers can’t get enough of. It may look like a spontaneously created video, but it’s really some branded content — content that a brand has paid for. Cue food recipes that go great with Brand X crackers, and Extreme Sports […]

  • Defining Genres — Brand Films (Part 2)

    Defining Genres — Brand Films (Part 2)

    Brand Films Part 2 Thank you for continuing this look at the brand films. Last week we began our look at the scope of the genre and the first few examples. Let’s continue— What is a platform – IBS Brand Film This film follows a familiar pattern for brand films — a stirring monologue that […]

  • Defining Genres — Brand Film (Part 1)

    Defining Genres — Brand Film (Part 1)

    Brand Film A brand film is generally a higher–end budget film where a client is trying to define their brand characteristics to the viewer rather than feature a specific product. The convention is that brand film is brand–focused, not product–focused, which offers its distinction from a typical commercial. So unless the brand is a single–product […]

  • Defining Genres — Training Videos

    Defining Genres — Training Videos

    Training On the face of it, training and tutorial videos are the most functionally–based of all the genres, but don’t forget their use as a sales and marketing tool. Clients love to show these as both a user–friendly, benevolent feature as well as an additional, subscription–based bolt on to the original cost of their product. […]

  • Defining Video Genres — Event Films

    Defining Video Genres — Event Films

    Event Films Event films are commonly a document of a moderated panel or a product launch. The former doesn’t offer much room for writing, as the camera crew and editor will largely be “following the puck”, but you may want to consider what context needs to be established in an opening sequence. What sorts of […]

  • Defining Video Genres — PSA (Public Service Announcements)

    Defining Video Genres — PSA (Public Service Announcements)

    PSA Public Services Announcements (PSA), or Public Information Films in the UK, are traditionally commercial–length messages created to communicate a message of social benefit or interest to the public. These can encourage certain social behaviour, like “don’t text and drive”, or inform the public about the existence of a charity that specialises in helping people […]

  • Defining Video Genres — Promo

    Defining Video Genres — Promo

    Promo Genre In Two Weeks! Next Week! Thursday! Tomorrow! Tonight! Up Next! Any bit of content can use a promotion to tell your audience that something is (or will be) available that should interest them. The promo genre stems from broadcast where you want your captive audience to know about something else on your channel, […]

  • Defining  Video Genres — Commercial (Part 2)

    Defining Video Genres — Commercial (Part 2)

    Commerical Genre Welcome to part two of our look at the commercial genre — part one is here. Last week, we considered the ‘product and service’ focus which is the hallmark of the category and discussed how distribution of commercials outside of traditional on–air broadcast has offered a great deal of opportunity to the form. […]

  • Defining Video Genres — Commercial (Part 1)

    Defining Video Genres — Commercial (Part 1)

    Video Genres Just as there are endless styles of feature film or television series, there are a great many different types of video that you can encounter out in the world. Not to be confused with the format, the medium or the distribution method, the genre reflects the overall purpose and context of the video. […]

  • Case Study: In–Store Visuals… The Method Masquerading As A Genre

    Case Study: In–Store Visuals… The Method Masquerading As A Genre

    In–Store Visuals At first glance, In–Store Visuals sounds like a genre of video. We can all picture the sorry little product display marooned on a plinth by the escalator of a busy department store, back when staff had to keep an eye on rewinding the VCR tape if they weren’t lucky enough to have an […]