Jodie McLean 0:04
Hey, I'm Jodie Event Manager, business owner, educator and podcast host. I'm an introverted homebody want to be wine master. And I truly believe in the power of events to inspire delight and ignite human potential. Every week, I take you backstage into the wonderful world of business events, and give you the insider scoop on how to take your events to the next level. Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn and listen. Let's get into it.
Welcome back to another episode of the events Insider PodCast. As you would have gathered from the title, this episode is all about videography, which has always been a big part of events, but I feel like it's had a massive resurgence in the last few years. And with the addition of digital platforms, really prioritising video content, I think, you know, it's never been more important for businesses to capture and share video content. Plus, when you're investing so much into putting on events, you want to be able to really extend that and make the most of it by capturing it for use later. So today, I'm excited to be joined by Rebecca Saunders. Now at just 22 Rebecca booked a one way ticket to Sydney with just her laptop and $500 ended up starting a video production company and landed LinkedIn as her first client. She went on to become known as the video ninja and then during COVID in 2020, the business absolutely boomed as you can expect, she has had so much experience with in person virtual and hybrid event videography. And she's super passionate about making it simpler and easier for people to understand and engage with. So I hope you enjoy my chat with Rebecca. Well, Rebecca, welcome to the events Insider PodCast.
Rebecca Saunders 1:56
Thanks, Jodie. Great to be here.
Jodie McLean 1:58
Great to have you. And I know this has been a long time coming. And I'm excited to have this chat with you because I think you have so much experience that can help our listeners. So for anyone that doesn't know you, can you share a little about your career journey. And I guess how you ended up in video production?
Rebecca Saunders 2:14
All that's a big one. So my career journey video production wise, I started my video production company in 2012. And we've now been going for whatsapp 1311 years 11 years now. Yeah. Um, predominantly our work there has been in the event space in the live event space, and corporate content. So a lot of corporate videos, a lot of dealing with corporate slow dealing and filming in hotels and random locations. But they're the sort of falling into it, I guess I'm is not your traditional route. Love that. Not at all I am I moved to Australia in 2012. And as every entrepreneur journey begins with, I'd be a rubbish employee. Turns out that me trying to find a job that would sponsor myself to stay in Australia where I wanted to live was a really hard task. So I thought it was going to be easier to to start my own business to sponsor myself to stay in the country. So that's essentially what I did. And that's how I fell into video production. Because my team at the time, my friends and my ex business partner, back in the day, were Video Professionals, so they were videographers. And I very quickly realised that they spoke a completely different language to the clients they were trying to do work for. Yeah, and so my video production company started because I was bridging the gap between those two groups of people. And from there, it's grown, it's grown, we now operate across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and parts of the states.
Jodie McLean 3:44
I love that I love what you say about speaking a different language because sometimes it honestly does feel like that. And I think it's tricky, you know, as people who plan events, particularly if it's, you know, not our full time job, and it's just part of our role. We kind of have to know, so many different things. I mean, we already have to know so much about our job. But with events, there's so many different areas, and it's so hard to be across everything, which I guess is why I love having this podcast to kind of encourage people to continue to learn and help them know more about the different areas of the industry.
Rebecca Saunders 4:17
Totally, because it's not just knowing it is it's actually knowing what questions to ask so you get the knowledge that you need. 100 and that's half the battle. Yeah.
Jodie McLean 4:25
And you became known as the video ninja, which I just love. And you're really passionate about making video simpler and as you said, easy to understand. So I guess why video Why are you passionate about video? What is it that you see the real potential in it?
Rebecca Saunders 4:43
So this one for me it's very much around connection, right so video provides that connection piece on several levels. And my head will jump back and forwards between the events based on what I'm using video for and so we might need to jump around a little bit and keep up to speed. With my brain because video from an event perspective, when I look at it from creating highlights reels, for example, at the at an event is something that says thank you to guests at the end of it, it's something that goes, Hey, look what we did that was amazing booked for the next one. It's something that you can look back on and go, aka we did that, like, How cool was that. And so the connection piece there around just sharing the the sheer joy that comes from an event perspective, from an event perspective, the joy, the enthusiasm, the experience, the environment. And so, for me, the power of video is that, and then if you start looking at it from another business perspective, you know, you've obviously got all those human touch points in terms of being able to tell a story humans buy from humans. And so if you can get a human on camera to talk about a product or service, an event from stage, whatever it may be, it's that human touch point piece. And it's that almost bringing it to reality, I think is the fun piece.
Jodie McLean 5:55
Yeah. And it's definitely, like, just absolutely grown in the last few years. Video has always been a big part of events. But I just feel like the last few years, especially people have really realised its power. I mean, how has that been for you the last few years.
Rebecca Saunders 6:15
So I say that I'm on with sheer joy and exhaustion at the same time, right. So prior to COVID, we were doing a lot of event videos. So my team, I have a lot of the guys that you'll see dressed in black at the back of the room filming sort of the back of the room. So you've got stage to camera type stuff, stage to screen, and then we were doing a lot of highlights videos. So that would be where we were playing predominantly in that sort of event, corporate space. And then COVID hit and everything went live. So everything then started doing live streaming. So that was massive, like that, for us was huge in terms of we were doing it a little bit pre COVID but at ramped up like crazy, during COVID with the intention of helping corporates run live conferences that they had, you know, suddenly got 600 people going, how do we actually service this conference and talk to our team. And then we were also helping individual business owners as well as EAS pas, you know, anyone and everyone inside an organisation going to do a webinar? How does this work? How do I run it like this? How do I ticket it. And so COVID was hectic, particularly fun, absolutely hectic. But coming out of that and coming back into that you know where we are now, it's almost become a nice, I suppose a nice hybrid between when you need professional video content. And when you can get away with using social content, and social content. For me, just for the definition for our audience. Professional content is when you've got professional videographers coming in with professional care. And I've got the job to do. And that's the one thing to go and do. Whereas social content is something you'd easily get on an iPhone. So whilst you may use professional content for social content, social content, as I'm talking about it is captured on an iPhone.
Jodie McLean 8:05
Yeah. Okay, cool. And as you mentioned, you know, we can have videography, you know, for in person events, we can have virtual events, and we can have a hybrid, you know, which is that in person and streamed online. fun ones. Yeah. I'm curious what your favourite format is,
Rebecca Saunders 8:25
ah, look, I absolutely adored, doing live streamed events, specifically from because in COVID, we had our studio and it was essentially like running a TV show, right? It was so much fun. All the different segments, we managed to get events that would have gone for like a day or two, down to just an hour or two and make the segments really short and snappy. So that was a lot of fun to do. So they're the ones I love. They're the things that I really enjoy creating. And I really enjoy. Because I don't do the filming, or the editing. I personally enjoy being at the events and like enjoying them, whilst my team are doing their ninja stuff and capturing the content. But I have to say my, my pet hate ones, the ones that I'm like, Oh, we have to is the hybrid by people like can we do virtual and in person? You're like, sure. The budget, double the budget? What do you mean? You need twice the amount of people? I'm twice the amount of kit twice the amount of work?
Jodie McLean 9:26
Yeah, and I just think it really impacts the experience for both audiences. So yeah, I have a real a real problem with hybrid, but I do understand it's its place and it can be good. It's just Yeah, pain for everyone involved. Let's talk live events. I think, you know, we often book a videographer because we're like, oh, we should you know, we're putting all this investment into this event. We should capture some of it. But you know, perhaps we don't really think about what we're going to use that content for and we didn't really make the most of it. So how do you think that say we booked videographer, how can we make the most of that content.
Rebecca Saunders 10:03
So there's gonna be several layers to the answering this one because in your bare bones of it, you're wanting highlights footage, right? So you're wanting footage of the the event, the people, the branding, the sponsor stuff, the tables, the deck or the branding of the hotel or location that you're in. So all of that stuff you can create into like a highlights reel of maybe 90 seconds, 10 minutes with is the kind of stuff I was talking about earlier in the chat. And from that, you're wanting to then be able to take virtual, virtual vertical snippets from that. So your videographer will predominantly take horizontal footage, which is your usual 16 by nine footage. But from a social perspective, you're going to want to make sure that you can take vertical snippets from that. And if you brief the videographer specifically on that, they will be able to then deliver you if you asked for it, your highlights reel, and then multiple different 15 30/62 snippets of different things, I call them snippets of vertical pieces that you can then use on social media. So you can then add text over the top of them, you can cut them to different music, you can just, you know add overlay to it in. Or you can do that in Canva. Right? Look, if you've got the footage, you can then have a play with how that content is used. If you then step it up again and say to the videographer, hey, I want to get some audio while we're here. That's something you need to ask them in advance. So they've actually got the right gear to do I say that because the number of people that will just assume it comes as part of the kit. It's not the case. And so you want to make sure that you've got good audio good lighting, if you're going to want to capture audio pieces. And that audio can look anything from audience testimonials to guest speakers saying how amazing the event was, to then having probably bigger cameras at the back of the stage filming what's on stage or what's happening at the event from a, I always think of events as having some form of guest speaker or some form of thing on a stage that people look at. So capturing that content can also be something that if you've got a reason to use that afterwards, great to take that content and turn it into a YouTube video and on demand webinar, or podcast. So if you think about how you could potentially use the content afterwards, that's all the stuff you have to think about before you briefed the videographer. Because they can't just bring a rabbit out of a hat to create your something that they haven't captured? Because you haven't told them.
Jodie McLean 12:31
Yeah. So I guess Yeah, one of my questions was going to be around, like how in advance? Do we need to know exactly all the outputs that we want? Or can it be a case of briefing them on what to capture? And then we can make that footage work afterwards? You know, how much do we need to know in advance?
Rebecca Saunders 12:51
I'm gonna say it depends. The first time I ever said that, right? And I laughed, because my friend Mel uses that all the time when talking about finance, it depends. So if you say to your video, and I say it depends because if you're asking someone to quote you a job based on filming, and editing, they're gonna want to know the deliverables. So you need to know the deliverables in order to get a proper solid quote from them for the work. But on the flip side of that, if you said to them, go back to highlights because it's an easy example. We are wanting to capture highlights videos, with maybe some testimonials, can you please deliver us 92nd video that's got justpayroll and 92nd video with B roll and interviews kind of interspersed. And then I'd love those interviews separately. And I'd love those bit that B roll, edited and graded so that I can use it on social media in these formats, vertical, horizontal square, whatever you want to use. And so if you can ask them that in advance, they'll know to shoot for those deliverables. They won't necessarily have to edit for them. But it's the shooting for them. That's important.
Jodie McLean 13:58
Okay. Okay, so it is okay to ask for say like get one video edited, but then also asked for all of the footage,
Rebecca Saunders 14:06
yes or no? So, yes, in theory, right. Yes, in theory, but you asking for footage is let me think of the right metaphor. So asking for just the footage is like asking asking a chef for the ingredients. Like if you don't know how to make the meal, the ingredients are useless to you. So raw footage, raw camera footage predominantly comes as ungraded particularly professional cameras, it will get captured in a format that's called Raw. And so when you hear the term raw, it's either the footage format has been raw, which means it's flat and can be graded to different colour temperatures for your post content. But raw footage also refers to like just all the footage that has been captured on that day. So you want to be able to have you don't want this the hard drive of raw for it because that's useless to you unless you know how to edit it. Yeah. So what you actually need to ask for is, I'd love all the footage graded in clips that I can use on social media. Perfect.
Jodie McLean 15:11
I'd love that that's super helpful, because I definitely would have just asked for raw footage.
Rebecca Saunders 15:16
Because also, I've I've done that before, and I passed on RAW FOOTAGE early in my career with the, you know, sideline, this is raw, just so you know, this is what you've asked for. And they'll come back going, well, this is crap, like got us this, this is rubbish. Yes, because the clip that the videographer will capture is, say 20 seconds long, but when they're filming it, they're just getting that one, two second snippet of that nice flare or that nice glass shot or that nice smile of someone. The rest of that 20 seconds doesn't matter. But yeah, you don't know that with the raw footage. They know that from what they filmed. And so asking for it graded and available for you to then use later is what you want to ask for.
Jodie McLean 15:57
Perfect. And say we decide, okay, we want a videographer. We know what we're going to use it for. Now, how do we find a good one? This is a toughy? Because I imagine there's such a scale right?
Rebecca Saunders 16:09
Of massively all level? Yes, yes. So there are definite Facebook groups that you can use in terms of finding those, and I can send them through to you. So it's a bit of a cheat sheet on the show notes of this one, because in my head, I want to be able to get them right. So there are places that you can go to to go, I've got this project, this is what I'm looking for. And videographers will tend to come in two baskets, essentially, ones that have been around for a while or that have their pricing down pat, and they're really clear on this is what it is per hour. This is the kit that I've got, or this is the editing, I've kind of packaged it yet, or they give you a solid quote, well, you've got the videographers that are relatively new to the industry, because you can now buy cameras that do all this stuff that go call it 500 bucks, you know, like so I would be looking at doing my research in terms of asking other people for a referral. Yeah, you want to be looking at their past work, and not just the beautiful show reels that they have on their website. Because that's all the glitz and glamour stuff. That's not actually the finished content delivered for a client. And where possible, you want to see their testimonials. But that's the that's the key thing. So finding a good one is sometimes trial and error, but your best starting point is being really clear on your brief. And red flags to me would be if they just go yes. And don't ask you questions or ask for a solid brief. That's a pretty serious red flag. I'd also be looking at seeing when they're available, and when they're going to deliver the edits and what the editing process is like, because asking them that professional ones that you're trusting go, I intend on editing like this. And this is how I give you the drafts. Whereas a bit of a shoddy one might go, Ah, yeah, I've got quite a lot of moments. So I'll try and fit it in here in here. And so you kind of want to know upfront what their process is. And if you ask them the right questions, then you get a little bit of confidence in them. Does that make sense?
Jodie McLean 18:12
Yes, that's perfect. That's really helpful. Thank you. My next question, I'm not sure if you're going to be able to answer but can you give us an idea on what we could expect to pay for a good videographer?
Rebecca Saunders 18:23
Oh, yeah, well, I can actually just be very transparent on the rates that I share and the rates that are industry standard. Yep. So you're probably looking anywhere between 608 $100 for a half day, and 1200 to 2000 for a full day. And I say that because most videographers traditionally will do it by half days than four days, because it's really quite hard to rock up just for an hour sometimes highlights videos. Yes, you can. But it's really quite hard to do. And so that equip the cost will vary depending on what equipment they've got with them. So your camera could be a bare bare bones cost. But if you wanted a teleprompter and some lights, and some audio and a second camera, that's kind of where it starts to go up.
Jodie McLean 19:09
Yeah, perfect. And would that include any editing or that's just there? No, that
Rebecca Saunders 19:13
would just be filming. So editing wise, you'd probably be looking at anywhere from if you're looking at a freelance editor anywhere from say $60 upwards per hour. Um, agency wise, you're probably looking at 100 bucks per hour. But again, I would be looking at previous work and just saying how much is it going to cost me to get the deliverable? Yep. Rather than just agreeing to the hours. Yeah, perfect.
Jodie McLean 19:38
So say we decide crazily that we wanted her in our live event into a hybrid event. What are some things that we need to consider from I guess, a video and production point of view?
Rebecca Saunders 19:50
What kind of event are you doing?
Jodie McLean 19:52
So let's say we're going to hold a half day conference. And there's a bunch of people that wouldn't be able to come in person. So we want to make it available online for people as well. And they combine online ticket.
Rebecca Saunders 20:05
Okay, so there's two levels of that, I suppose. But the bare bones of what you're going to need, you're going to need an AV team in the room that can give you outputs to an internet connection, you know, they need to be able to take. So when you're filming footage at the back of a room with the big cameras, I'm gonna say, just gonna need the big cameras, right? Like, let's just speak like you need the big cameras. And by when I say big cameras, I mean those nice, fancy broadcast looking ones, yeah, that stand on the back on those risers at the back of the room, right there the people that you want yet, because they're the ones that have geeked out on this for years, and know exactly how these broadcast cameras work. And what you're doing is broadcasting Yeah, so they're gonna, you're gonna want big cameras that can do the broadcast quality is to get the audio from the stage, put it into the camera and give you an output into the mixing desk or system that you're using. And then you're going to want at least two computers. And I say that because you want one to run the live stream, and then a separate one to do like all the client chats and stuff like that. So the computer that you're using for the stream for failsafe, I will be making sure that was solely for the stream. And so so that's sort of the things you want to be looking at, I'd find someone that has this gear, it's really hard to do it yourself. I've seen it tried and tested in the room by someone trying to do it themselves on a couple of occasions. And it can get really messy. Yeah. So it is a cost factor. And also, I'd say to your client, you know, if you want to do hybrid, it's double the cost of video, AV because it is double the equipment, and double the manpower to actually make it run properly. So they're the things you're going to need. But if you're on the stage, you actually then need the person presenting or emceeing to acknowledge both the people in the room and the people on camera. And so it's actually part of the project there is briefing them on how to do that, you know, thanks, everyone, you know, tea and coffee outside does not help your virtual people. So they need to be able to emcee to both.
Jodie McLean 22:13
Yes. Yeah, I love that great tips. You touched on sort of handling it ourselves versus getting a professional. And I think that that's a common thing when it comes to virtual events. You know, it's so easy to kind of, I guess, run an online event these days. But I guess, where should we handle it ourselves? And where should we bring in a professional like, at what point do we need to go okay, we might need to engage a professional videographer and a studio and that sort of thing, or a live stream or a live event,
Rebecca Saunders 22:44
like a virtual virtual event? Yeah, I'm gonna say it depends on the calibre of your event, the calibre of your client, and the calibre of their reputation. So it's very easy for you to stick an iPhone up and live stream to Facebook, or to zoom and do very little, like, the perfectly acceptable my experience and expertise is in the higher end stuff. Because I want, I want the people feeling virtual, who are virtual to have a fantastic experience, like the people in the room. And so the conversations I would have with clients around that is on how do you want the virtual guests to feel like it's a it's a reflection of your brand, and it's a reflection of your event. So look at it that way, I think it's quite easy. I mean, if it's an internal event, and you're running it internally within an organisation, then you can probably get away with doing it yourself. And if it's a small thing, maybe people have come and signed up for free or, you know, that kind of thing. Great. That's, that's kind of you can get away with DIY buying it soon as you've got people to pay decent money, they're gonna want you to give a care, they're gonna want to care. And they're gonna want an experience. So I'd be bringing them in if you've got a paid event that people have paid ticket prices to come to you.
Jodie McLean 23:56
Yeah, I love that. Or I guess Yeah, if your brand. Yeah, it's really important to your brand,
Rebecca Saunders 24:01
to look at. Bringing the professionals in is also one of those things, you're not just sometimes it sits there in the stream can run fantastically, and nothing will go wrong. But you're paying for their experience. If stuff does go wrong. It could be up to the wire of that microphones not working. How do we fix it? They've got a truckload of gear that they'll switch it out, or this computer's fallen down. I've got a spare like we're good to go. So it's actually having that failsafe for them. Which again, is that quality control peace.
Jodie McLean 24:30
Yeah. And speaking from experience, you know, you don't want to be the person that it's all on you when something goes wrong. You definitely want a good team of experts around you that they can deal with the things that go
Rebecca Saunders 24:42
that go wrong about full disclosure, when you're dealing with a virtual invite environment. It can go wrong. Yes, it can go wrong at any any point. And so even with the best preparation, the best amount of equipment, the best etc, etc. If the internet shorts out Oh, there's nothing anyone can do. Yeah. Now if there's a power cut, it's gone. And so there, they'll be able to manage 99.9% of all problems. Yeah, there are some things beyond their control, which has to be a line item carry out into any form a virtual event.
Jodie McLean 25:18
Yeah. And so yeah, as you mentioned, there's a lot of things that can go wrong that I guess, are outside of our control. But there is a lot that we can control. And I guess, if we think about event videography as a whole, you know, whether it's an in person or online event, like, what are some of the common mistakes that you see people making, when it comes to event videography?
Rebecca Saunders 25:41
Common mistakes would definitely be assuming that all videographers are the same. And that all cameras are the same. And so they're not right. So if you're wanting specifically, highlights and visuals, that's very different to the very different camera kit, and level of experience, or type of skill, I should say, not level of experience type of skill, to someone who's got the big cameras at the back who's predominantly doing stage to screen stuff, a very different cameras, and it's a very different skill set. As is collecting audio, that's another skill set that when you go through film, school or learning the skills, it's something that has different levels to it. And so if you're wanting, if you've got more than two people, I can push it at three, we've got more than three people on stage at any given time. And you're wanting to collect audio, you either need an AV team who are in the room. And they're the guys that if you've done conferences, again, they're going to be at the back of the room in black behind this big crazy machines with all the buttons. But if you haven't got that, and you're, you're doing it sort of solo, when you're filming, say greenroom interviews or something like that, and you've got more than two or three people, you're going to want a sound engineer, because videographers should be doing just that videoing work. Sound stuff is a different skill set and a different person. So there's going to be a level at which, once you get past two to three people, you aren't gonna want an extra person to deal with that, because that's their job.
Jodie McLean 27:10
Yeah, great, great advice. And we sort of touched on this before, but you know, there's so many different channels now that we can put video content out on and they're all a different size and a different format makes our life hard. How do we capture content that's suitable for all? Or is that sort of not possible,
Rebecca Saunders 27:31
Aww...it is possible.
Predominantly video, as I said before, is captured in a 16 by nine format, which is your horizontal format. And if you took that horizontal format, and divided it into three, the middle segment is normally what the vertical format is. And so if you've briefed a videographer in the right way to say, I'm going to take what you're filming, and I'm going to do horizontal stuff, and I'm going to cut vertical snippets from it. If they framed it with that in mind, you should be easily able to cut vertical snippets for 99% of the content. I mean, it's it's never an exact science. Yeah, great. And then square is just taking off the edges of the horizontal. So it is possible. It's just about helping them first. That's what you want to do.
Jodie McLean 28:21
Yeah, so that they can keep the main stuff in the middle. Is that...
Rebecca Saunders 28:24
In the middle Yeah.
Jodie McLean 28:27
Genius. That's so good. Or I guess you could just get separate people, if it's,
Rebecca Saunders 28:33
or you could write like videographers, one of the things I've started playing with, even at my own events, is because I'm known as the video ninja, as you, as you said, at the beginning, my events when I'm speaking, I will have a videographer doing the big highlights. But I'll also have a social media person running around with a phone. Yeah, because it's also a different eye. You know, it's a different eye to look for different things. And so if you've got the time and the team, and the cash in the budget, you can't expect one person to be an absolute magician at all of it. Because that's not a fair expectation on them. So yeah, if you've got the time and budget, I would be putting different people on different things.
Jodie McLean 29:14
Yeah, absolutely. So for anyone listening who has like an event coming up, or even needs video content for their company, how can they get in touch with you?
Rebecca Saunders 29:23
Yeah, you can find all about my video work at Rebecca saunders.com forward slash video on there. There's a whole heap of checklists and downloads and how to, you know, check you've got the right person and ask the right questions, as well as the stuff that we offer. So you'll find a lot of resources there.
Jodie McLean 29:40
amazing. And I have one last question for you. If you could sum up all of your years of experience into one piece of advice for anyone that plans business events, what would it be? Can be video related or not?
Rebecca Saunders 29:54
Briefing documents and run sheets yeah into the biggest things on the run. She doesn't just end at the event, right? The briefing document doesn't just go Oh, capture this, that and the other. It's actually including the deliverables and the timeframe in which you want the deliverables received. Yeah, I think that's that's the biggest takeaway. Because of the demand we have for social content so much now, people expected almost instantaneously. And you want to be able to make sure that you can deliver that post your event or even during your events. So briefing documents and call sheets are my number one. Yeah, definitely. Things you should have in place for regardless of what sides video you're doing at all. Always has to.
Jodie McLean 30:35
Perfect be super clear. Communication is key. I love that.
Rebecca Saunders 30:40
Yes.
Jodie McLean 30:41
Thanks for joining me on the podcast today.
Rebecca Saunders 30:44
You're very welcome. I love it's been fun.
Jodie McLean 30:48
Thanks for listening to this episode of the events Insider PodCast. If you loved it, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, share with your friends, and I'll chat to you next week. Bye
