TechnoLawyer

Originally published on June 28, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

Watch the Video

TechnoScore: 0.0
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score

I like the beach. I like walking the beach and building sand castles with my kids. I love the views of the water and the wildlife. Maryland criminal defense attorney John Katz uses the beach in this video as his background. He stands close to his camera talking about something, but I can't hear anything. I have to glance up at the title of the video to learn what he's talking about — something about persuasion.

I glance at the video length, 6:25 minutes, and groan. I press play hoping to hear something useful and educational and all I get is his lips moving, barely a whisper of audio, and then tons of ambient ocean and beach noise.

I then expand the description box below the video to learn what the video is about since I can't figure it out from the video. He analogizes criminal defense to war and being fearless. Okay, I get that. What I don't get is the point he's trying to make with a lengthy six and a half minute video.

To be honest, I couldn't listen to much of the video since the sound was just awful, so I have no idea whether the points he makes will help his ideal client recognize that he's the right lawyer for them.

Video Tip #1: Shooting Video Outdoors Is a Challenge

Most amateur videographers believe they can re-create great video and audio outdoors by simply taking their video camera to a nice looking location and pressing the record button. Wrong. One of the biggest problems with shooting video at the beach is wind. If you are using your built-in microphone to record your audio, you've made a mistake from which your video will never recover.

There's no way to protect your camera from the wind hitting your built in microphone. What you get is noise — lots of it.

Video Tip #2: Put a Sock on It

You need a wireless microphone. At the very least, you need a wired microphone to record your audio. Buy a wind sock for your microphone. If you've ever seen a professional boom microphone used outdoors you will see something that looks like cat fur on the microphone itself. That's known as a wind sock. I does an incredible job of cutting down the wind noise when shooting outdoors in a windy location.

Even if you choose not to put a sock on it, you still need a windscreen, which you can purchase at any audio/video or music store.

Video Tip #3: Identify Yourself

I had no idea who I was listening to. There's no graphic identifying the lawyer. He doesn't introduce himself. Rather, it's as if we're listening to his stream of thought while hanging out at the beach.

Video Tip #4: Watch Your Video Before Uploading

With the prevalence of small and simple video cameras, lawyers use their Flip, Sony Webbie and Kodak Zi8 and smartphone video cameras to directly upload their comments and thoughts right to YouTube. The problem is that they don't bother to edit the video or even to watch their video before uploading. Even you try to watch it on your tiny video screen, you can't always judge the quality.

That's why you should never directly upload online. Always pull your video into your video editor to see how it sounds in the quiet of your home or office.

Conclusion

This video earns a TechnoScore of zero because I couldn't hear anything except the wind. Next time, put a sock on your microphone, or better yet, shoot your video in a wind-protected area so viewers can actually hear what you have to say. Finally, if you're going to create a 6:25 minute video, make sure you have great content that your viewers definitely want to learn about.

Till next time, see you on video!

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "I have no idea who he is or what he does. Why? Because I cannot hear him! Someone needs to dunk him in that ocean — what a horrible idea it is to do a marketing video while competing with the wind."

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "Nice beach, lousy video. I can't hear the lawyer. Did he watch this video before uploading it to YouTube?"

Written by Gerry Oginski of The Lawyers' Video Studio.