Did you know your video has a 'half-life?'

— Josie De Sousa-Reay. Kine Graffiti's Managing Director & Producer. Published on 16/06/2020.

Videos are now an essential part of any marketing strategy,  but did you know your video has a different ‘half life’ for each platform you publish it on? 

A ‘half life’ of a social media post is the point at which your post has received 50% of all the attention it’s going to get. 

Tweets have a ‘half life’ of about 18 minutes, whereas on Instagram, your video’s ‘half life’ will last as long as 19 hours.  

This doesn’t mean your post is useless after it’s ‘half life’, it just means the engagement rates will be lower. 

Think about where you’re going to release your next corporate or digital video and at what time; if your customers are in the northern hemisphere, then publishing a post on Twitter or Facebook when they’re asleep won’t be effective. 

Here are the ‘half life spans’ of other social media platforms: 

Facebook: 30 minutes 

Instagram: 19 hours

YouTube: 6 days

Pinterest: 3.5 months

LinkedIn: 48 hours

Twitter: 18 minutes

Snap Chat: 10 seconds

Ref: Adlabs 2018

Happy content posting! 

Five EASY tips to make your video look amazing! 

— Rui De Sousa. Kine Graffiti's Co-Founder & Creative Director. Published on 01/11/16.

After 25 successful years in the Video Production Industry, Kine Graffiti’s team know how to make a video it’s absolute best. Here is Kine’s Co-Founder & Creative Director, Rui De Sousa, top 5 short tips on making an incredible video.

1.     SCRIPT

Your script is the story you want to tell to your particular audience – it’s your video’s road map and it will guide everyone involved in its production. Making decisions about your program at this stage, rather than on location, will save you time and money.  Do you want a presenter or voice-over or maybe interviews? Perhaps auto-cue? Animation, graphics, titles, logos? Also, it’s the best way of ensuring everyone is on the same page and know what’s expected when you come to shoot and edit.

2.     PREPARATION

      Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

Does everyone know where to be and at what time? Have you checked on what you need to provide? Has the CEO read the script before sitting down to present it? Is everyone to be on-camera dressed appropriately for the shoot and have they all signed release forms? Is there water or coffee and tea? You can never prepare enough – everyone will love you for it.

3.     SOUND

Sound is king, this is a biggie. Find quiet, visually interesting spaces for interviews or on-camera presentations – this will make a huge difference when you come to edit. Music can make or break a production as can the voice-over. Think of your audience when choosing an appropriate voice-over artist, and a good audio (music) track will not only complement the visuals but also enhance and reinforce your story. Audio Network, Pond5 and Shutterstock are good places to start.

4.     IMAGERY

Nearly as important as the sound. Animated titles, graphics and supers will frame your video but it’s the lighting and camera work that will knock it out of the park. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words – make them count. The content of your video – your message – will be lost if your images are rubbish to start with. There’s only so much your video editor can do!

5.     EDITING

Brevity is the soul of wit. Tight, well-paced edits are a pleasure to watch. Don’t burden your audience with text. Keep text for brochures and PowerPoint - there’s nothing worse than large, detailed text screens on videos - they’re boring and hard to read. Let your excellent visuals and audio do the work. If you’re video is going on-line, use smaller files like .mp4. Some filmes (like .flv or .wmv) are too small and will compromise the quality of your video.

Achievement minus angst — our recipe for a productive formal interview 

— Simon Boyle. Kine Graffiti's Co-Founder & Script Writer. Published on 28/09/16.

Witness Tony Abbott's excruciating 28 seconds of silence during his infamous 2011 interview on the death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan, even practiced politicians sometimes succumb to interview induced paralysis. It's hardly surprising, then, that ordinary folks who rarely and reluctantly find themselves immersed in the pressure cooker atmosphere of a formal on camera interview often find the experience so uncomfortable they can only respond in stilted fits and starts.  So how can an interviewer and film crew help to turn this intimidating trial into something that feels far more like an informal and relaxed conversation between unrehearsed equals?  

In our experience, it's by recognising that from the moment we arrive on location, there are some simple and unobtrusive ways to create calm. Deciding on framing and background, moving furniture, setting lights, camera/s and microphones and adjusting levels all takes time, during which we leave our interviewees to their normal and accustomed routine. It's only when we're as set to go as we can be that we call them in. That way, the remaining preparations — adjusting for actual voice levels, seating heights and eye lines — actively engage the interviewee's attention, rather than leaving them to dwell on what's to come.  Having said that, invariably there's still a little dead time while the crew makes some final tweaks and that's when our interviewer starts chatting to the interviewee. Sometimes it starts with a bit of small talk but then, informally, it turns to some aspect of the ground to be covered in the interview. 

In a number of ways, this sort of soft 'pre interview' noticeably reduces the increasing unease interviewees often experience during the last few moments before the actual questioning begins. Firstly, it shows that we are both informed and involved in the subject of the interview, rather than simply waiting to reel off a list of questions, the answers to which are of little real interest. Secondly, it establishes a conversational tone that can segue into the actual interview, making the camera operator's call of 'rolling' a minor distraction rather than an abrupt summons to perform.

To maintain the interview as a conversation — rather than letting it slip into interrogation — we listen carefully to the interviewee's answers and if necessary, change the order of the questions to maintain a sense of logical consistency in what's being discussed.  We'll also come up with an ad hoc question or two if that seems a more fitting response, ensuring that everything that needs to be covered is by steering the conversation back to the prepared questions as the opportunity arises.

Finally if, as sometimes happens, an interviewee loses their train of thought and requires a somewhat extended pause to re-capture it, we don't look on idly as they work out what they'll say next — or offer advice that may be more distracting than helpful.  What we do is to use that 'opportunity' to rejig some aspects of our set up, so the interviewee can can quietly consider what they want to say without the anxiety of feeling they're holding things up and keeping us waiting.

For us, all this has one overriding aim and that's using all of our experience and understanding in helping each and everyone we interview to be the best they can.