A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s also a great way to start a video- thumbnails! Today on The Slanted Lens we are talking about the need to shoot stills for thumbnails when you shoot video.

The Importance of Thumbnails

No matter what you are filming, from interviews to marketing videos, you need to shoot stills! Why? Because everyone is going to need a thumbnail- a way to introduce their video. Thumbnails are used all over! They are used on private websites, on YouTube, everywhere! Thumbnails are incredibly important to clients because they are the very first thing that people see. 

So as you are shooting video, take the time to shoot a few nice stills of the person smiling, doing whatever they were doing that day, and just looking pleasant. This way you don’t have to fight through the footage you have shot in an attempt to pull a thumbnail out of the video.

If you don’t have a camera with the capability to shoot stills, at least take the time to shoot some video of them smiling nicely. Why? Because whoever said that pulling stills off of 4K video is easy lied! When you go back through the footage of someone you interviewed attempting to find a decent still, they are all going to look awful because we all make weird expressions when we talk!

The Added Bonuses of Shooting Thumbnails

So do yourself a favor and prepare those thumbnails in advance! As an added bonus, if you shoot stills throughout the day as you are shooting video, there is a chance that your client will come back and ask you for copies of those stills as well! You then get the opportunity to say, “Why yes, and for ‘x’ amount of dollars we can give them to you!” By shooting stills you have just increased your profits, as well!

You can also go back and use those stills to remind you how you lit and setup your scene. You have an image you can keep on you phone so you can reenact exactly what you shot the first time.

All in all, shooting thumbnails is a great way to ensure that your work is presented in the best way possible, and it may even give you a chance to earn more money in the future! What’s not to love?

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Keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’!

-Jay P.