Chapter 14 of the Public Relations Handbook: Media and Video

Chapter 14: Media and Video

This is one of the most enjoyable parts of PR; however, it is also the part with the lowest priority. Also, this does not necessarily have to be part of PR; I took it on since I had the camera and the experience (two summers as videographer at a Christian camp).

There’s really no concrete way that this has to be done. I’m going to briefly describe how I did this, and you can decide for yourself if and how you want to do this.

I attended every Upper Room event that I possibly could, and took 5-10 second clips. When editing, I cut these down to 1-second clips to keep the video moving. I removed all the sound (except for concerts where that mattered) and put the audio of a Christian song there instead.

Promotional videos have to be entertaining, but my ideas varied quite widely.

I also recorded worship nights and AIM nights, and put the entire event on YouTube.

At the end of the year I put a compilation of the videos online and show it at the last worship night of the year.

Do not include in the video:

·      Footage of non-UR events

·      Anything that could get us in trouble with the university, if obvious

·      Anything that looks morally questionable (even lots of red cups, bottles that look like alcohol, even if not)

·      Anything where too much of a person is revealed (be careful with icebreakers); including any underwear or anything that should be covered by underwear, or excess cleavage, or bikini swimsuits (don’t want someone watching our videos for the wrong reasons)

·      Homeless people without permission (they really don’t like that)

·      People who cannot be videotaped for legal reasons (witness protection, foster children, etc.)

·      Any footage of someone where they do not want it in the video, and you think they will get offended… or you think they’ll sue

·    Blurry footage or crummy footage