The Sad State of Event Videography

I’ve worked in video production and event videography for a decade and a half and have had a front-row seat to revolutionary change in video. When I started in professional video as a moonlighting intern at a documentary production company in Washington, DC, digital video was in its infancy — “high end” 3-chip video cameras recorded to VHS-C videotapes, Avid video editing systems started at $25,000 and took up entire offices, and YouTube topped out at 720p resolution…although most people’s internet connections were so slow that it took 5, 10, possibly more than 15 minutes to load 720p YouTube videos. There wasn’t much “event video” to speak of at the time, mostly because niche audiences for such content simply couldn’t be reached. It’s not like an organization would be putting event content on broadcast TV. That wouldn’t have made sense financially or otherwise. 

A (very) brief history of digital video

As film technology got physically smaller, more powerful, and dramatically cheaper, savvy organizations were quick to jump on the video bandwagon. Big brands and SMEs alike began to realize video projects which used to take a ten-person team and a 2-ton truck full of film equipment could now be planned, filmed, and edited by a talented duo or even a solo video professional with equipment that could fit in a couple cases the size of large carry-ons. As internet video distribution caught up, many brands began making “about us” videos for websites, recruitment videos for in-person and company intranet use, and industrial films for training and other purposes. 

All of the sudden video was everywhere — blogs turned into VLOGs, online news began pairing articles with video summaries, Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms began their transition to the video-heavy, trend-driven, short-form content hubs they have become today. Video capabilities on cell phones became commonplace, and turned everyone with a smartphone into a potential content machine. 

The democratization of video was led by numbers. As attention spans shrunk, video became the preferred format for information by consumers and professionals. These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find a website that doesn’t have a video somewhere. And of course major advertisers flocked to meet audiences where they live — glued to their cell phones. 

Video quality exploded. A new, fresh era of video creators with innovative approaches and high standards for excellence in audio-visual fidelity brought filmic quality to the mainstream as viewers demanded higher resolutions, faster load times, and just plain better work. Before the digital video revolution a video was still a novelty, so audiences were more than willing to sit through long intro sequences. If you want proof, just watch an old (meaning 1990s or before) movie. In most cases there are about 5 minutes of credits and intro imagery before the first line of dialog. Compare this to now-a-days, where best practice dictates that if audiences aren’t “hooked” with an exciting bite or curious image in the first 5 seconds, they will find something else to do. Even novice video creators are abundantly aware that they need to hook their audience immediately, often, and generally in 4K resolution with video editing being done on a laptop or even a smartphone. 

Quality has gotten so good that a small, DSLR camera can now shoot video which is of equivalent quality to that of a 50 pound camera 30 years ago. And for about 1/30th of the price. 

So the question is not “will this guy ever get to the point with this article?” But rather “why then, is event video so unwatchably bad?” 

Bad event video does more harm than good

Event videography is plagued with terrible audio quality, speakers who are so small in the frame that you can’t even see their mouth moving, slide presentations which are constantly referred to by on-stage presenters and nevertheless go completely unseen by video viewers. And who could forget the ubiquitous backs of heads of in-person attendees filling up the entire bottom ⅓ of the shot. In a world filled to the brim with high quality video, why do organizations publish event video content which in no way, shape, or form matches the value they ask audiences to equate with their brand? What an oversight! As a veteran video producer myself, I’m baffled. As a human being, I’m tuning out and possibly never coming back…even if there is a hook or nugget of extreme value for me buried somewhere in minute 13, I’ll never see it.  

The Scorsese effect

When filmmaker Martin Scorsese was first embarking on his now legendary career, he directed a series of live concert videos. Fresh out of NYU film school, Scorsese landed himself a gig filming the Rolling Stones in concert. Up until that point, concert films were treated much like the event videos of today — low quality, single-camera affairs which were about as exciting for the viewer as watching paint dry. 

Scorsese revolutionized the art of the concert film by taking what was already commonplace in broadcast television and applying it to the concert setting. He used multiple cameras and his famous camera crane — which was a very long, extended crane arm that supports a “floating” camera and seated operator which are held aloft, above the crowd, and moved around up there to capture stage action cinematically and up close. While it probably was pretty annoying for the in-person audience to have their view obstructed by a big object with a human being and large camera system attached, the filmed result was groundbreaking and changed the idea of what a concert film could be, forever.  

What Scorsese did was think about the experience of watching a concert film from the at-home, not “live” audience’s point of view. He must have asked himself, “how do we make this not suck?” And then went about creating something which was not only watchable, but of extremely high value to loyal, paying fans who were hungry for a type of filmed content which hadn’t been invented yet. 

Event videography should follow the same exact model — we should ask ourselves, “how do we make the filmed experience just as good (or perhaps even better) than being there live?” Imagine an annual event that’s structured and filmed like a scaled-down Super Bowl. And why shouldn’t an annual event feel like a mini Super Bowl? Events could be jam-packed with content that at-home viewers will find exciting, and I’m willing to bet that innovative event professionals already know what their niche audience will find exciting. We just haven’t invented the type of event video which allows us to give it to them yet. 

How can we make event videography better?

Event videography needs its Scorsese, or at least its Scorsese moment. Apple is innovating in the space by adopting a hybrid event model which mixes pre-recorded components with live-streamed segments. I note, however, that recent Apple events including the one linked above have completely abandoned the good ole’ fashioned stage show. By doing so, Apple misses out on a lot of magic which happens live in the room. Apple has characteristically chosen total control of their event over an openness to magical, unplanned (and thus undeniably authentic) things happening — for example, totally unhinged screaming fans who are perhaps the best living testimonials Apple could ever hope to capture on-camera — these over-hyped fans are living, real, zealot-level brand ambassadors for Apple. They also work completely for free, although what they do for Apple could quite frankly never be bought with money.

I imagine swooping camera moves as presenters take to the stage, smooth shots and tight edits that cut from camera to camera to keep the at-home audience on their toes. There is no reason why event videos can’t be wrought with charged musical transitions, crisp audio, shallow depth-of-field action shots like the NFL uses for its on-field camera systems which get right in the action when a player scores a touchdown, sharp motion graphics that feel like they belong at a sporting event, and smart, keen video editing to remove any and all bites which drag the audience down even a little bit. 

The case for better event videography

Events cost organizations a ton of money and are frequently the largest marketing expense category an organization carries — travel, hotel, and meals for leadership, staff, and stakeholders, venue fees, I’ve even seen an estimate from one of the most prestigious hotels in the world which included $80,000 for internet over a 5-day period! (As a side note, we recommended our client not pay that.) 

While event videography of the Scorsese ilk isn’t necessarily a cheap or low-cost endeavor, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to budgets for even small events. So, as if there weren’t enough rhetorical questions already in this article, why aren’t organizations investing in video production which looks, sounds, and feels just as good as their brand? My hunch is that they just don’t know what’s possible — what’s possible being to create video content that niche audiences actually want to consume. They’ll want to consume it because it’s made explicitly for them.  

If an organization is going to take the time, and spend the money, to gather all of its most important people in one place, it should also seize that opportunity to capture all of the amazing ideas, innovations, core messages, themes, and “magic” on video. When done right, event videography allows any event’s value to live on and expand long after the name tags have hit the recycling bin. Otherwise, all that event value is tied up in a handful of conversations which carry on after-the-fact. 

Bringing it home

High quality, strategically-planned video takes the very best of an event and reformats it for online audiences. It isn’t being done right and represents an untapped gold mine for organizational marketing and online engagement. We’ve had clients fill out their entire annual content pipeline with segmented, re-edited, and intelligently designed video content that was captured in parallel with in-person events. We’ve also popped up on-site green screen interview rooms right next door to event stages for thought leadership video interview sessions with, you guessed it, entire C-suites and available board members…who of course were already attending the big event. And I’m convinced we have only scratched the surface of what’s possible.

If you’re picking up what I’m laying down here and would like to chat about how video can be properly leveraged for your event, feel free to drop me a line at benjamin@metamer.io. I look forward to speaking with you — this is just about my favorite topic. 

And if you wanted to check out some juicy info on our company‘s event videography offering, click here.