The use of video as a sales tool isn’t a new concept. After all, we’ve seen commercials used to sell products our entire lives! But sales video production is no longer reserved for TV commercials; it’s less expensive or elusive as it once was for a number of reasons.

First of all, you don’t need to buy air time on network TV.  Sales videos can be posted online and create just as big of an impact. Secondly, a sales video production no longer requires a Hollywood studio-sized company to produce it. Now more than ever, professional video production is accessible and affordable.

A professional sales video production company is necessary if you expect your videos to look professional. The following are four of the professional techniques that a video production company will use to create professional sales videos for your company:

1. Lighting Techniques

One of the easiest ways to tell a professional sales video apart from an amateur video is by whether the subject was properly lit or not. A sales video that uses poor lighting can result in footage that is flat, dark and often grainy. Proper lighting helps to do several things for your video, including:

• Put an emphasis on the subject within the frame to help draw the eye of the viewer.
• Make sure that the viewer doesn’t have to strain their eyes in order to see what’s going on because the content is too dark.
• Provide depth to the image that makes the video more aesthetically pleasing to watch.
• Make your products or people look as appealing as possible.

Lighting your sales production video is a lot easier said than done. A lot of equipment is required to properly light just a single shot; and different angles or shots can require completely different lighting setups that take time and expertise to properly execute.

For example, lighting an interview probably doesn’t seem that difficult. However, a professional will use a 3-point lighting setup at the very minimum. This setup uses three separate lights – a main light, a background light and a fill light – in order to provide depth to the subject.

But if you’re shooting a subject that’s moving around, more planning and coordination will be needed. In addition to needing more than a few different types of lights, you’ll need c-stands, flags, gels and a generator to power your lights.

2. Sound Recording Techniques

When recording a sales video it’s important to keep proper sound recording techniques in mind. If the sound is captured through the camera’s internal microphone, the result can be flat, distorted and often barely audible.

A professional video production company will use numerous techniques to ensure that the sound they capture is of high quality. First of all, they’ll most likely use several sources to capture sound, such as a boom mic and a lavalier mic.

They’ll have an on-set mixer to ensure the sound is being captured at the right levels. A professional location sound engineer will also do the following while on set:

Record ambient sound

Ambient sound, which is the sound of your location recorded while everyone is silent, allows your video to have more consistent background sound, thereby adding depth and continuity.

Pay attention to background sounds

Poor quality sales videos often have distracting elements in their sound, from airplanes passing overhead to nearby traffic. A professional will help ensure that you get a good take during shooting that’s not marred by loud background noises that no one else notices.

3. Filming Techniques

Someone who’s not familiar with film-making in general will most likely just point the camera and shoot. If they’ve put enough thought into it, they may even set the camera up on a tripod so that the video isn’t shaky.

A professional production company can use a number of different visual techniques to give your sales video a unique and appropriate look. Two ways professionals can create a visual style that others videos may lack include:

Lens choices

A good production company has access to a wide selection of lenses. Different lenses do different things, such as make a shot look wider or closer than it is or create a shallow or deep depth of field. Lenses are chosen based on whether they are appropriate to the context of the shot.

Movement

A professional company will often employ movement within a shot to create a more dynamic look. Instead of doing this handheld, they will use specific camera equipment, such as sliders, steadicams or jib arms (which are small cranes).

4. Post-Production Techniques

There’s a lot more involved in post-production than just editing – and even that is more nuanced than most people realize. Editing requires technical skills to use editing software, but it requires artistic skills and an understanding of pacing and visual communication, which can help maximize the engagement of viewers.

Post-production also focuses on sound design, which helps to clean up any sound flaws as well as lay in the proper soundtrack or effects. Additionally, an editor may also perform color-correction to your footage.  These techniques help make the footage look as good as it can look and to eliminate any flaws in color picked up by the camera.

These are some of the professional video production techniques that a production company will implement to ensure that your sales videos are produced at the highest possible quality.