How to tell a story through stock video
What do you think of when you hear the words "Stock Video". Me personally, I think of an actor sat in a makeshift boardroom, looking directly at the camera. You have to ask yourself, how can I tell a story from that, what can I do to build a narrative. If this was 2015 I'd be telling you, you can't - either it's too expensive, or down right impossible with the type of stock video content out there. Luckily we're in 2020 and the internet has given rise to a few services that are challenging the normal conventions of what we think stock video is.
How to really tell story through stock video
First, you need great content. Artgrid is without a doubt, the highest quality, most polished service when it comes to subscription based stock video. Their content creators are all certified filmmaking professionals with kit that ranges from GH5 - RED cameras, capturing that cinematic, high end feeling.
Great, so you've got the videos, now what. This is where people fall apart and to diagnose it, it's a lack of structure, a lack of foresight and not being able to find this narrative or storyline to form the basis of an idea, that will ultimately influence what clips you choose and where you choose to put them.
Understanding the basics
It helps to take filmmaking back to the basics and consider what someone might do if they were approaching a film. You've got the pre-production process that encompasses scriptwriting, production planning, location etc. Then production, where you consider your scene, find the right angles and shoot your film and post production, where you take this narrative that's been delivered through pre-production, production and now lands on the editors doorstep to create a finished product.
Imagine a film made without consideration for the scriptwriting or attention to detail with the videography, it's probably not going to make a great film. The same applies to creating videos from stock. If you don't have a constant (the narrative) run through the entirety of the process, then you end up with a video that doesn't make sense.
How do I approach stock video based brand videos?
I actually start with the music, because it helps identify and solidify the theme and tonality of the video. It also structures it and paying attention to the structure of the track, the beat, the rise and falls is essential in translating emotion, highlighting the key points of a brand at the right moments and making the video ascend the realms of "stock video". I.e. If someone can't tell the video is made with stock, then you've done all of the above correctly.
Dependant on the brand I'm working with, I either receive a script or am asked to create a script. The latter is usually for shorter, punchier videos and the former, for wordy voiceover based ones. With a script completed, I like to map out the words and match them against visuals ideas, in essence representing words visually. Once I have my idea map I research clips based on keywords and pool together a base of videos for an initial edit.
In Premiere pro, I lay down the music track first, then create the text and spread them out across the track. Starting from the beginning of the track, I follow my notes and ideas made previously about how this track could be used to structure a video and follow the beat generally, so that all the text has its placement. If the track is too long or doesn't have the right ending, I'll splice it with another section of the same track to try and create a timeframe that would work for the video and the text length.
Having text come in on the beat is important in creating stock videos for marketing purposes, because it further emphasises the words on screen and drills a message home more effectively
Once my foundations are laid out, I can concentrate on adding in the clips I already researched. I will first section them against their corresponding script text and should be left with a fairly gap-like edit at the end of it. The next stage is really important, because it makes the difference between a fluid narrative and a choppy nonsensical video. I do something called "associative editing", it's where you look carefully at the gaps between clips and find a way to connect them.
To provide an example:
The above screenshot is from a video I created for Sierra Pacific Mortgage and the clip itself represented "it's difficult breaking away from the pack". With this scene, notice the surrounding area. It looks like it's filmed somewhere in Scotland, with the foliage being golden in colour and the surroundings are misty.
The shot I placed after shows a woman climbing while the voiceover says "venturing on your own". I chose this clip because it represented the wording but it also has visual links to the clip previous. The foliage is similar, the colour scheme similar and it feels like a continuation of the story, almost as though she's climbing in the same environment the horses are in.
Now to be clear, not every single clip in the final video needs to match up, but you do need to have pairings of clips to elevate it.
By observing clips, looking at the details of its composition, environment etc, allow you to find connections between different pieces of stock video and create tangible links that help tell your story.
