Videography: Reel-ing Them In!

Oct. 10th , 2022

Jessica Goldfarb

Social Media Account Manager

Reels, Tik Toks, YouTube Shorts. Whatever social media platform you’re using, you’ve probably noticed a huge uptick in the popularity of these ~ 5 to 45 second long vertical videos over the last few years. Here’s why you should be making them too.

Apart from being favored by the algorithms, reels are versatile, with different tags taking you to different niches across each platform. You can turn nearly anything you want into a reel! This short video format also satisfies our need for cool and exciting content, while carefully not exhausting our ever-shrinking attention spans.

What’s In a Reel?

As we said, reels are incredibly versatile. They can be vlogs, montages, behind-the-scenes content, and more.

Vlogs or any content where you’re talking to the camera is popular on most short-form video platforms. People want to hear what you have to say, see a day in your life, or just otherwise see your pretty face! 

Photo content may seem counter-intuitive to use in a video platform, but it’s actually one of the more popular ways to make a quick and engaging reel for Instagram and Facebook. A montage of quick shots that are timed to trending music or other audio can capture attention and bring focus to a set of related photos. 

At RedefineU we like to show a lot of behind-the-scenes content from our video shoots in our reels. A bit of a sneak peek into life on the set is always fun to show!

How It’s Done:

The hardest part of making a reel is deciding what to post. The rest is pretty easy. A phone with a camera is all you’ll need! 

On some platforms you can film directly in-app, which is helpful for videos where you need to lip-sync or match your movements to trending audio. For any video where you’re using multiple clips though, we recommend filming everything first and then uploading your content.

A great way to breathe new life into existing content is to turn it into a reel! This is best done in the montage style we mentioned above. Quick photos or old video clips can be timed to music for a whole new take.

The Next Level

Phone video quality has come a long way, but more advanced cameras can get you even crispier footage and overall higher-quality content. Just make sure you know how to edit your footage so you can crop it to the required 9:16 vertical ratio.

You can take your reels a step even further with some more editing knowledge. Adding things like transitions, sound effects, text, and other cool visual effects can really enhance the video. Some of these editing tools are even available in-app, so you don’t have to go buy any fancy editing software. 

The incredible versatility of reels means you can show whatever it is you like and don’t have to follow any rules or guidelines. Whatever you decide to put into your reel, make sure it’s content that reflects you!

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