A challenge many of our customers face is how to create the right backdrop for their branded videos. A well-made backdrop has consistent features that will make your brand easily recognizable and increase brand awareness. Here are five tips to help you design a powerful, but not distracting backdrop.
Brand your backdrop
Creating a custom backdrop is a great way to make sure your audience is associating your video with your brand. There are a few ways you can incorporate your brand into your backdrop image. Live settings such as landscapes, buildings, and trading floors are a great way to give your audience an inside into your corporate culture. Another way to increase brand awareness is by ding your company logo to your backdrop. The best placement for your logo is over your talent’s left shoulder at eye level. This will guarantee that your brand appears in every shot, even in a tight shot.
Use color wisely
There are certain colors that stand out on TV and others that can make your talent look washed out. Colors that are darker than your talent, like shades of blue and grey, will stand out more than brighter colors, like white, green, and red, which will overpower your talent. Remember colors will appear lighter on electronic backdrops (such as LED and HDTVs).
Test your backdrop image
When you are incorporating photos, you will want to test them to make sure unwanted objects don’t appear in the frame. A great way to make sure you captured the image and angle that you want for your backdrop imagery is to place someone in the desired space and ask them to step out of the frame before you take the picture. This will give you a good idea of how the horizon will appear in the frame.
Don’t be afraid to use video
A video backdrop is a great way to complement your expert and give an inside look into your corporate culture. A video backdrop should be interesting but not too distracting. You’ll want to make sure that the background is not too bright so it doesn’t compete with the talent. Make sure that you film variations of the time of day, weather, and seasons. These should be aligned with the timing of the news segment.
Less is more
Sometimes, too much detail on a backdrop takes away from the talent. This often happens because you are using too many small images. We often see this distracting effect with step ‘n repeat backdrops. If you are ever unsure, remember to keep the backdrop clean and simple. When it comes to simple, less is more.
Backdrops are an important visual element for your live TV performance and for your videos. Remember that backdrops should complement your talent as well as promote your brand. Create a few backdrops for different types of video, and test them with your talent in place before you press record or go live.
Need assistance creating your video backdrop? Contact us to get started.
