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VIDEO

Best Practices

General Best Practices

  • Whether you’re filming people in an office or socializing at an event, your footage should be both deliberate and cinematic.
  • Determine the purpose of the video. Is it designed to build brand awareness, draw traffic to your website, create
    conversions or something else?
  • Be clear and concise. With average attention spans now down to 8 seconds, it’s best to keep the overall length of videos as short as possible. A good ceiling to stay under is 3 minutes with an optimal length of between 90 seconds to 2 1/2 minutes.
  • Curate your location and consider the background.
  • Avoid too much clutter in the background.
  • Use shallow depth of field.
  • Consider the rule of thirds when framing.
  • Use backgrounds to highlight the environment in which the story is taking place
  • When shooting indoors, the subject should be well lit.
  • Keep camera at subjects’ eye line or slightly below.
  • Keep people within frame, never crop their heads.
  • Avoid using jaunty angles, jarring cuts, or filter effects.
  • No artificial lens flare effects.

 

B-Roll

  • Focus on clean, well-balanced compositions.
  • Take advantage of the available natural light.
  • Get close, medium, and wide shots of the same subject.
  • Hold your shots for 8–10 seconds.
  • If you have to move the camera, do it deliberately and slowly.
  • Don’t pan or tilt aimlessly. Pick a subject, and land on it.
  • If you are using a dolly, gimbal, or drone, keep it simple.
  • Commit to your framing even if you’re not sure it’s the best. If your camera is hunting around, your footage will be useless.
  • Don’t film people looking miserable, sleepy or on their
    devices instead of interacting with each other.

 

Wardrobe

  • Wardrobe should be bold, solid colors.
  • Formality of clothing should match the mood and tone of the
    piece.
  • Avoid clothing that is overly revealing.
  • Avoid showing corporate logos on clothing, accessories and
    devices.

Interview Language / Dialogue


City National Bank: Dialogue should refer to “City National” or “City National Bank.” Never use “CNB.”  


Partner: Never include the word “partner” in scripts when speaking about the bank’s relationship to clients or prospects. “Partner” is permissible if a non-colleague interviewee uses it spontaneously to describe their relationship with City National. In scripting, substitute “team,” “advisor,” etc.


Products/Services: Do not mention by name any of the bank’s products and/or services (i.e., mortgage, loan, deposit, investment) unless the video is specifically about that product or service. If products and/or services are mentioned, be aware that additional disclosures will be required in the video.


Superlatives: Avoid “puffery,” which is defined as words or phrases that overpromise (i.e., “prevent” “protect” “free” “guarantee”). Use qualifiers, such as “help protect” or “reduce your risk.”