By Mike Kirsch, Director of DotLot, The Buddy Group

In general, what’s best for standard video is best for the web; all the standard rules for overall production value still apply. Get a great script, great talent, great set and lighting design, great editing and great graphics. It’s in the details where web video production diverges somewhat from traditional media.

Planning

The web has traditionally been treated as a digital graveyard for previously produced videos. As more consumers spend their free time and money online, it becomes increasingly important to involve digital content producers at the ground floor of all video campaigns. Users respond to repurposed video, but they flock in large numbers to original content. Planning the production of your web videos to coincide with the production of media for traditional outlets will maximize your investment and save money in the long run.

Interactivity

A major asset the web brings to video is interactivity. No longer is time on brand limited to the length of your video. With proper planning and smart programming, users will spend more time exploring, altering, clicking and replaying your video, elements you just can’t replicate on standard TV.

Framing

The web literally brings new dimensions to shooting and presentation of video. Especially where banner ads are concerned, video no longer just has to fall into a square. Shooting for a specific banner size will maximize the effectiveness of an ad. Framing video properly for a website allows for the consumer to be delivered the message that is cohesive with the entire site.

Speed

As broadband connections proliferate and become the norm, web video gets closer to being able to handle the type of full-motion video we’re used to seeing on TV. Until then however, digital content has to be tailored to the connection speed of the average expected user. This means knowing when to limit pans, zooms, resolution, busy motion graphics and even the number of cuts in a video.

Timing

Scriptwriting is as important online as it is for television, and so is timing. First-response videos must be kept short in order to speed initial streaming times and keep a user’s attention. Secondary and other videos can be longer, but web overall is best served with several short, meaningful videos.

Technology

Knowing not only the technologies to use, but how to use them is critical. The ability to make use of transparent layers with Flash has revolutionized the capabilities of video display on the web. It is also possible and easy to inundate with too many layers and bog down the site performance. Knowing how to balance the technological “cool factor” against current capabilities and limitations can often define the difference between a great site and a choppy site.