Originally published on August 2, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.
TechnoScore: 1.5
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score
The first problem I noticed with this video by Houston employment law firm Oberti Sullivan was the "poster frame" (aka "splash image" or "video thumbnail"). This online video term of art refers to the static image that YouTube displays before you click play and in search results.
Professional online video producers often use a specially-created poster frame that isn't even in the video), but YouTube grabs a frame from the middle of the video unless you instruct YouTube to use a different frame. The poster frame image in this video is odd. It shows two heads positioned in the bottom half of the photo — you cannot see or distinguish their facial features.
The headline — Houston Employment Lawyer Discuss The Top 10 Texas Employer Mistakes — grabbed my attention, but I knew immediately from the poster frame on the YouTube search results page that this video likely had significant problems. I clicked play. Unfortunately, my premonition was right.
The video starts with a lively animated graphic introduction that transitions to a URL and then an abruptly stops. "Huh? That's weird." I thought.
Next, you see two lawyers wearing suits sitting next to each other. Their heads are floating in the bottom half of the frame. They are not centered or illuminated. The upper half of the room and the background takes up most of the video frame. It's bizarre. No one bothered to see what the video looked like before uploading it to YouTube.
I was also shocked by the video's length — nearly 15 minutes! Argh. That's a deal breaker. No way was I going to sit through a 15 minute video, even if I lived in Houston and had legal questions about employment law.
You can tell that the attorneys are using a Webcam. Video quality is poor. Nor are they using any supplemental lighting. Another bad move since no one can see their faces. Nor are they using an external microphone, which means their audio is low and muffled.
On the plus side, they know their stuff. They provide useful information that potential clients would find helpful. However, the poor technical execution of the video undermines their legal expertise.
Five Tips to Improve This Video
1. Use a real video camera. Not a webcam or Flip camera or a Kodak Zi8 or Zi10. A real, honest to goodness camcorder. It need not be expensive. Any camcorder will shoot video that is exponentially better than that shot by a webcam.
2. Use a wireless microphone. In this case, you would need two microphones connected to a balancer so the sound is even. Otherwise, one mic may be stronger/louder than the other. If your resources are limited, buy a wired microphone from Radio Shack and hand the microphone back and forth every time you want to speak. That will get you better audio than the built in mic on a computer.
3. Use external lights. You cannot use your fluorescent overhead office lights. They cast awful shadows on your face. If your viewers can't see you, you're just wasting your time.
4. Make sure you are properly framed and that your faces are toward the top of the camera frame. If your face is in the middle of the frame, you've done it wrong. Move the camera down more to fill the frame.
5. Why a 15 minute video? That's just painful. The only time someone might watch a 15 minute video from a lawyer is when (1) it's entertaining, (2) the quality of the video is outstanding, and (3) it's extremely relevant to their legal problem. This hat trick is very difficult if not impossible to pull off. Keep in mind that a network sitcom costing millions of dollars per episode to produce runs about 22 minutes when you exclude the commercials. Instead of creating a long video, break the content up into bite-sized chunks no more than 2-3 minutes long. That's the typical attention span for the majority of online viewers. The two lawyers here could have created 10 videos with much more search engine visibility.
Till next time, see you on video!
The Back Bench
TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "This video is so bad I don't know where to start. The fact that the framed Longhorns T-shirt is more prominently featured than the two lawyers? The terrible lighting that makes the two lawyers look like they're in a cheap knockoff of a Caravaggio painting? The sheer audacity of the 14 minute running length? What was Oberti Sullivan thinking?"
Written by Gerry Oginski of The Lawyers' Video Studio.
How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.
