3 Steps to Create Compelling Video Content for Your Choral Organization

By Barry Peterson, United Filmworks

With the advent of smart phone video cameras and the option for most anyone to post videos publicly, this post is a chance to learn some basics about video content from a professional. Have you created choral videos yourself? What tips can you share?

This past year my company worked with Angelica Cantanti, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, to create some new video content for their organization. We filmed one of their spring performances and had edited several of the pieces that were planned to be put on Youtube. Being close to Mother’s Day, we realized that one of the pieces, Lullaby by Daniel Elder, would be a perfect piece to send out as a way to help celebrate the holiday . It was published on YouTube and their Facebook page the day before Mother’s Day, and they immediately starting getting views.

One of the mothers who has several daughters sing in Angelica Cantanti posted this: “My dear sweet children-Well I’ll be . . . It’s 12:27 a.m. and I received this beautiful Mother’s Day gift from someone whom I have never met but who recorded and shared this video recording from last week’s concert . . . . Motherhood is a journey. Thank you for making mine a first class ride. Love, your adoring fan . . . Mom.”

Here is a link to that clip. It is now up to almost 1.8 K views.

Why do I share this particular story? I think that it illustrates perfectly the first step to creating compelling content for your choral organization or business.

1. Make Your Content Engaging and Timely

By specifically referencing Mother’s Day on the Facebook post, Angelica Cantanti helped make the content more engaging to the audience. The more timely your content is, the more compelling and engaging it will be. If it had been shared after Mother’s Day, I don’t believe it would have been nearly as successful.

In addition to posting the Elder piece, we created a short film for Angelica Cantanti to educate high school students about their organization. It can be viewed here.

2. Define Your Audience

When we first start working with a music organization, we ask a whole series of questions designed to make sure that the content we will be creating is on the mark. We ask questions like the following: What is the purpose of the video? What do you want the video to achieve? What is the primary message you are trying to convey? What music best fits with your message? What length do you feel would be optimal? All of these questions are important to answer, but the most important, and the question we ask first is, Who is your audience?

Defining your audience is critical to the effectiveness of your content.

In August 2017 we completed a project that was a year in the making for ACDA- Minnesota. The objective to create a Three-minute film designed to encourage attendance at  an event called Summer Dialogue. In working with Bruce Becker, Executive Director, we narrowed the audience to choral directors throughout Minnesota who would benefit from attending Summer Dialogue. We interviewed well over 20 choral directors from a wide range of backgrounds and choral environments who were attending the event. Here is a link to the end product.

In addition to the interviews, we asked each choral director to look into the camera and state why they attend Summer Dialogue. Each of these became stand-alone pieces that were posted to Facebook starting about two months prior to the event.

3. Tell a Story

This is perhaps the most important ingredient in creating compelling content.

Stories can help you connect with your choir members, audience, and patrons. There is power in a story. Best-selling author Seth Godin said that” marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.” Video will become an increasingly important tool for telling those stories. Forrester Research says that “Video will become the new business norm for communication and collaboration over the next five to ten years.”

Well-crafted stories connect on an emotional level. None of the facts and figures matter until you have some type of emotional connection. Stories are a great way to connect emotionally.

My company has worked with the Minnesota Boychoir for almost 15 years. As part of their most recent spring concert filming we created a short online film that told the story about one of their alumni who loved singing in the choir. When he reached the age where he needed to leave the choir, the alumni choir was a great way for him to stay connected and continue to sing. This made for a great story. You can find the piece here.

Author Christina Baldwin, in her book Storycatcher: Making Sense of Sur Lives Through the Power and Practice of Storytelling, wrote “Story is the song line of a person’s life. We need to sing it and we need someone to hear the singing. Story told. Story heard. Story written. Story read creates the web of life in words.”

So there you have it, three simple steps for creating compelling content. The next time you decide to create video content remember, make your content engaging and timely, define your audience, and tell a story.

Author’s Note: Special thanks to Audrey Riddle, Executive Director of Angelica Cantanti, Bruce Becker, Executive Director of ACDA-MN, and Anna Keyes, Executive Director and Mark Johnson Artistic Director of Minnesota Boychoir for their support in making these projects possible.