Everybody likes videos of animals.  Some of the most popular online videos feature animals, usually in a pose of incredible cuteness.

Videotaping animals can be tricky though.  They usually do not want to cooperate!  My best trick is to create a situation that makes good pictures, then videotape them while they enjoy the environment naturally.  The camera HAS to blend into the environment so the animals do not notice it.  Wild life photographers often shoot from a blind.  That’s not always practical of course.

I made the video below for a friend of mine who owns a small horse ranch.   She had tried to take video herself but was unable to get any good shots.  The horses wanted to do nothing but lick the camera!   Read on to see what tricks I used to get tons of quality video.

DISTRACT THEM!

First, full disclosure.  I am a critter-lover from the word go, so videotaping animals is a total pleasure.  Even if you step in goo.  Just keep that in mind when you get dressed!

The lady who owns Land Run Curlies, Adena Warner,  happens to be one of my best friends in the world.  We have been tight buddies since we were three!  I made this video as a Christmas present to her so shhhh, she doesn’t know yet!

She could not get any good shots of her horses because they look to her for treats.  They just knew there was something tasty inside the camera if they could only get to it.

Most domesticated animals will react this way to a camera, even if it is held by someone they do not know.  Even if you stand back, most domesticated animals like horses or cows will continue walking up to you to lick the camera.  It’s kind of fun really, but not real productive.

That’s why I always get somebody to feed, play with, brush, or otherwise distract the animals.  Then I take video of that activity.  Shooting off a tripod, I can get nice steady close-up shots using the zoom lens.  I shot a lot of Adena’s video hand held though, see if you can tell!

I videotaped Adena while she did her daily chores and training activities with her herd.  I did this on several occasions since I spend so much time there anyway.   I happened to be there when the horseshoe guy came so I videotaped that too.

The more variety of activities you can videotape, the more visually interesting the final product.    Getting lots of footage also allows you to use just the most spectacular.  I had over one hour worth of raw video to choose from when I edited this 3-minute video.  I had a lot more video than I could use, but the best videos are made out of nothing but spectacular shots.  In order to do that, you simply have to have a high shooting ratio.  (Not that I consider this video spectacular, I don’t.  But it is pretty good for a quickie.)

To make this a functional marketing video for my friend, I added several  interactive clicks inside the video.  One of them lets a viewer email her directly or visit her website.  As much as she loves her horses, she is willing to sell them to a good home.  I also added links to two registries for curly horses when the narration mentioned them near the end.  About 1/3 of the way inside the video, I used the interactivity to embed a word document article with extensive history of the curly horse.

I use Veeple for my video interactivity and I have become a firm believer in the functional power of interactivity for online video.  Not only does the interactivity make the video a more functional marketing vehicle, it also gives additional information to those viewers who are interested, thereby increasing the value of their experience.

If you have not yet read the in-depth White Paper I did on interactivity and how it relates to online video marketing, go pick it up here.

Now here is another trick I am going to use this video to market her website and increase her traffic.    I not only put this video on my site, I blasted it out all over.  Fortunately, I can do that at Veeple.  Most of you reading this know Traffic Geyser. I love T.G., and they have a bigger distribution set-up than Veeple, but Veeple has a fairly large one.  (They partner with Tube Mogul.)

Plus, I like the interactivity so much I have grown to use Veeple more than Traffic Geyser, although sometimes I use both.

When I use both Traffic Geyser and Veeple, I take advantage of renaming the same video and distributing it to different accounts under different names and file formats.  This is an SEO trick that works wonders.   Plus, Traffic Geyser lets you send out the file multiple times automatically and will automatically re-encode it for you.  That is an incredible feature if you need that much link juice.

Keywords like Oklahoma horse ranch, horses for sale, rare horse breeds, and curly horses do not have much competition so it is not necessary to get hundreds of back links to rise to the top.  So the distribution I get through Veeple and their partnership with Tube Mogul is enough.

Adena and her Great Dane, Big Girl.

So there you go my friend Adena, Merry Christmas!  I love you like a sister.  Trust me, this is a MUCH better present than another tube of skin cream.  An interactive online marketing video with basic SEO and four backlinks.   May it inspire Google to love you like I do, you curly-headed wonder you!   I especially love the shot of you and Big Mamma and your own curly locks are right next to hers.  You are the one and only, original Okie goddess.

Thanks to everybody for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula