I’m Josh, founder of Buttergun. In other words, I’m the tall ginger guy in the corner of the front room at work.life, with a loud voice and who runs a production company. Below I’ll offer a little advice which will apply to any videos (or for that matter any other forms of storytelling) you want to make in the future:
1. Have an objective and target your audience
If you say, “to go viral and get everyone watching it,” you probably shouldn’t make a video.
2. Use emotion
Tap into values you share with your audience. Too many people sell a product or say how brilliant their company is. Trouble is NO ONE CARES. It’s like being at a party and starting a conversation off with someone by saying “Hi, I’m Dave and I’m awesome”. No you’re not Dave, you’re actually a douche.
3. Be genuine
In a world where if you put a foot wrong someone can Instagram a #nofilter of it to their 100k followers, don’t pretend to be something you’re not. You will get sniffed out.
4. Find a hook
If your film is 2mins long, make it in the first 5-10. It’s something that teases you about what the rest of the film is about. For instance, in our Star Wars super-fan films (shameless plug), we made sure the opening sequences were mysterious and left you questioning who the person we were filming actually was.
5. Build tension.
The Lightsaber Master was awesome to make. However, it would have been even better had our hero been working towards a sword fight against his arch nemesis, or was learning a new trick that had never been completed before. So, with the next story you make, think about how you could fit some tension in there…
There’s tonnes more I could say, but I guess if you can nail the above 5 rules, you’re on your way to one helluva film.
Otherwise, if you’re struggling, feel free to hook me up.
The tall ginger guy, josh@buttergun.tv
