10 ways to improve church videos

Amp up the impact and exposure of your videos by using the 10 ideas below. These simple yet very effective tips will help you create engaging content that can be shared across multiple communication platforms. 

1 | Smile. Smiling helps connect your audience and keep's them engaged. Smile when you begin and end your conversation.

2 | Practice Good Eye Contact. Look directly into the camera periodically throughout the message. Use a teleprompter to make it easier to remember what to say while also maintaining eye contact. Create a couple of short videos and then assess how you might adjust the camera distance and angles to get better results.

3 | Avoid sharing dates and times. Think about how the content might be repurposed on different platforms, at different times. Including dates and times in your communications may limit when and where you can use the same content again.  Also avoid using terms such as "today" or "weekend" or words that wouldn't make sense if repurposed for different audiences.

4 |  Be mindful of the background.  Is there anything in the background that might be a distraction, or potentially offensive, or suggest when the content was delivered.  It's not unusual that what's recorded shows more or less of the background you saw  when recording.  Keep in mind the messages you wish to convey and how the background help or hinder that message being what people remember afterwards.

5 | Use lighting effectively. Light that's too bright or not bright enough diminishes the impact of your communications. Use natural light, if possible, and light from multiple sources.

6 | Make sure that people can hear you, clearly.  You may have great content but if people struggle to hear or understand you, you've wasted their time.  Check the sound system, if you're recording, and use a decent microphone.

7 | Be inclusive.  Be mindful that you most likely have onsite and online audiences. Use language that is appropriate for all languages or that seeks to name the audiences you are hoping to reach. Use illustrations that include those who are at or near the church as well as those who may be a thousand miles away.

8 | Pay attention to camera distance and angle. Experiment with using different camera angles and see which ones seem more natural and engaging. Try using two cameras at the same time and then embed footage from both cameras when editing content. Keep the camera shot tight so that the video seems larger than life. Use few full-stage or full-body shots

9 | Orient your speakers.  Inform them about the 8 items above. Give them a basic script on what to say at the beginning and end of the video.  Suggest talking points. Have them complete a sentence about a topic, refer to a prop or image, or  reply to a few questions. Make it easy for them to be successful.

10 | Edit your videos to enhance their impact. Good editing can make a so-so presentation great simply by editing out non-essential content that's extraneous to the primary subject, etc. Build in short pauses in the script that can make edits and transitions easier to do.

Lastly, the quality of your videos will improve by quantity of videos you produce. Practice makes perfect as you learn from your results and make course corrections along the way.