You’re going to Word Alive! Use the opportunity to make a custom promo video for your CU to get people along next year. If you have absolutely no experience of making videos and have no special equipment, that is absolutely ok. This guide is designed to help you produce something you can use even if you have never done anything like this before. So give it a go! Film a promo and use it to launch Word Alive in your CU in the autumn.
Why bother making a video to advertise Word Alive to your CU? Word Alive is an amazing time when you can gather with your CU and with other Christians of all ages. Everyone there receives great teaching, enjoys worship with loads of other Christians from across Britain, and it’s an amazing opportunity to sharpen each other as you grow together. But everyone has a unique experience across the conference.
How can you encourage more of your CU to go so you can grow together as you gather around God's Word? The best-placed person to think about that is you. What do you love about Word Alive? What made you want to go? What are you most looking forward to?
Making a promo that is custom to your CU is a great way of encouraging your fellow CU members to sign up. It gives them a snapshot into what to expect and builds hype, all in a way that resonates with your CU.
A good promo will be short and snappy, and will have a clear focus, really clearly communicating what it’s about and what people need to do.
Less than a minute is great for posting on social media. Remember this is about getting people hyped, not a full explanation of Word Alive (they have a website that does a good job of that).
It's tempting to try and show everything but that can end up either confusing or really long, neither of which you want. Use footage you've captured at Word Alive and remember to focus on what will resonate with your CU. Whether that's a particular part of the conference or just a general vibe you want to capture, keep that at the front of your mind when putting it together. Show the main highlights to give an overall feel but don’t let that detract from the focus.
Use music (make sure it's royalty free) to set the tone. An upbeat song can lift the mood and get people excited, or a more chilled lo-fi beat could communicate a less hectic experience of hanging out with your friends. Think about what will appeal most to your CU.
Using text on the screen is a great way to make it accessible to people who don't have headphones in. If you have people talking/a voiceover remember to put subtitles on it.
Think about how you're going to share the promo. Are you going to be sharing it in CU meetings or on YouTube? Film it in landscape. If you're going to be sharing it on social media (i.e. Reels or TikTok), then do it in portrait.
The video should capture people’s attention quickly and be obvious what it’s about. An ending that has the details i.e. ‘Word Alive 9-14 April 2022. Talk to you CU Staff Worker to book’ is a good way to make it really clear what people need to do.
You'll need more footage than you think once you edit it down so capture, capture, capture while at Word Alive this year!
Make a list of your must-have shots. Keep the focus you've chosen in mind e.g. if you want to showcase after hours stuff, you'll need more footage of that than other things. You can always delete footage later but you can't go back in time and film things you missed.
If you want to have people speaking to camera, make sure both the person filming and the person or people being filmed are prepared before you go. Have a script written and agreed, and make sure the people being filmed has had a chance to read it. When you get to Word Alive, loads of stuff will be going on and you don't want to miss out, after all you’re not just there to film a promo. If you're really prepared and know what you want to capture before you go, it'll leave you way more time to get stuck in to everything else that's going on.
In terms of camera equipment, you don’t need any special equipment. Most newer phones will do a really good job filming video. If you or someone in your CU has a camera that shoots video, even better but, if not, find someone who has the best phone camera. You're not filming the next MCU movie, you don’t need 8k for Instagram!
If you're recording people talking to the camera, a mic is really helpful especially when it's noisy around. A lapel mic works really well, as does a shotgun mic so if someone in your CU has one, use it. If you don't, you still have options to get good audio. Filming in a spot that's quiet and isn't windy will really help you to get good quality audio. The other option is to record a voiceover, which you can do inside in a controlled environment. Remember to check the audio, listening back with headphones before you move on, it's so easy not to notice something while filming that comes back to bite you later. If in doubt, do multiple takes.
Remember to check your equipment before you go. If you're unsure how to get everything working together, don't leave it until you're at Word Alive. Spending even just a few minutes checking everything and doing some tests in a low-pressure situation can save you a huge amount of stress. Check cameras, mics, make sure you have enough memory cards/space on your phone.
So you've got all your footage, you have your audio recorded, so now you need to put it all together. For that you will need some software. Windows has an app called Video Editor, or if you're on a Mac then iMovie is free and easy to use. If you want free software that has a bit more oomph then DaVinci Resolve is a great option. I won't go into huge detail on how to use each of these programs because there are thousands of amazing YouTube tutorials that go into the mechanics of each one. Fundamentally, however, they all work in roughly the same way. Here is the typical layout you’ll be faced with:
First off you need to import your files. Get your video and audio files into the software and label it all. The more organised you are at this stage, the easier it is for you later on.
Get rid of what you don't want. Some of your footage and audio won't be usable for whatever reason so get rid of it. If you want to save it (because sometimes we get funny moments on camera) you can put it in outtakes folder or label it such.
Put the clips you do want into the timeline. This is where you put the video together. You can move your clips around, cut the bits that you don't want, and generally get things in order. When you first do this, don't worry too much about how long it's getting, it will almost always be far too long at this point!
If you're using a voiceover, add it now. That way you can make sure your video lines up with what's being said.
Cut more! You have all the clips in the right order but (if you’re anything like me) it's still too long. Remind yourself of the purpose of the promo at this point. What is your must have in the video. That takes precedence. Everything else can be trimmed or deleted entirely. Think 'what is this adding to the video?' If it's not adding anything, ditch it.
If you have talking in your video, now is the time to add subtitles. For the specifics of how to do that in the program you’re using, Google and YouTube are your friends.
Add music. Put your royalty free music into your video now. You can time transitions to the music to make it really slick, but only if it actually works in your video. Make sure the music doesn't drown out any talking. Get other people to watch it and make sure the level is right because it's easier to hear what's being said when you know what's being said. It'll be less clear to other people.
Add any graphics/text on your video. Again timing things to music is great but not essential.
Render/export your video.
Check it! Watch it through at least a couple of times to check everything and make any corrections. Get others to watch it too because you might have missed something. Once you’re happy with it, you have yourself a Word Alive promo that is unique to your CU.
Can we set cookies? We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We’d also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. More about cookies.
By clicking the Accept button below you are giving your consent for us to set cookies.