Know your audience

You may notice in the future that this is a recurring theme of mine. But as a… oh wait… 

Hi! Welcome to the first Ardent Film blog! You’re on here now, that means that you’re an OG of Ardent! On here, you’ll find plenty of tips and tricks for your own marketing and video needs. 

You’ll also discover a little about my philosophy and perspective when it comes to how Ardent videos are made.

The very first thing we do? Think about your audience. Who they are. Where they’ll encounter your content. And, most importantly, what frame of mind they’re going to be in when consuming it.

Not that they’re going to be eating your content. But you know… industry jargon and all.

You might be surprised to find that this thought applies to capturing events like weddings and birthday parties - not just advertisements, presentations or corporate about us videos.

So, if you’re going at a project alone, before you even think about a camera, think about your viewers, because a successful video is one that people want to watch from start to finish.

How do you get people to want to keep watching? 

First, you have to match the viewer’s presumed state of mind when they’ll most likely encounter your video. Not many things can turn someone off to a message faster than clashing energy levels. You can encourage a different, more energetic state of mind later. But in the beginning, you want to try to match their mental state.

This mental state will vary from audience to audience AND from outlet to outlet. In other words, the way you connect with someone on social media will be different than how you interact with them on your website.

Breaking it down a little further, you’ll find that people familiar with you will respond differently to the same message as a complete stranger, again coming back to the specific audience and keeping that person in mind.

So the better defined you can make your audience and knowing what frame of mind they’re starting in, the most successful anything you do will be.

What’s next?

The next step - BEFORE - you think of touching a camera is to have a crystal clear idea of what emotion you want someone to experience during and after watching.

Filming a wedding video? You want to push those mushy buttons as much as possible.

Corporate training? As much as you can, shoot and edit to build excitement about the possibilities this new information can unleash.

Real estate footage? Make the viewer feel like they’re on the property and how their life could be living there.

Product or business advertisements? You want to make people FEEL as though you are the solution to a problem, not that you have stuff to sell.

You get the idea. Next time we’ll dive a little deeper into very rough frames of mind for various viewing platforms.

Until then