Washington DC Music Photographer & Filmmaker

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The 3 Parts of Creating Content with Emotion

Last week, for my client, I was tasked with creating videos that told the story of one of our big projects. When I was shooting, I had to think not only of the shot that was in front of me, but how that shot would work once I brought it into Final Cut Pro X to edit. The key to doing this is storytelling. To show this off, I shot a personal project at the same time, which I’ll use as an example for this post.

Creating A Feeling

One of the key parts of making a great video is creating a journey from start to finish. For this video, I wanted to explore the exterior features of the Mazda CX-5 at sunrise. While timing is a big factor, color grading is a big part of making a video feel a certain way. It’s why superhero films use the well known combination of orange and teal to create a dynamic effect. For this, I added a light yellow-orange color grade to add warmth to it.

Capturing the Details

With capturing footage, it’s important to capture the details from all angles. Showing the subject as a whole and then focusing on the smaller details in tighter shots helps to build how the subject works, whether the subject is a car or its a commercial space. In the case of this video, I wanted viewers to see how big the cars are, while getting the tighter shots of

Audio

Audio is critical is creating emotion in a video, whether it’s picking the right sounds for the video or the strategic lack of sound. Using a song that fits the mood of what you’re trying to accomplish can help underpin the whole video. Be strategic about what you choose to get the best results.

Bringing It All Together

Using all the above elements together, it’s possible to make a visual project that combines them all into a emotionally driven piece that connects with your audience.

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