What Inspires Your Video Creativity?

This morning I sat down to create a video for a new product that Lon and I are launching in a few weeks.  It is called “From Lame to Fame” and we show Before and After versions of videos and techniques. We decided that this time I would design a video salespage instead of the usual long form salespages that take forever to create.

Creating  the Video Copy

My background is in e-learning and creating tutorials  so marketing videos don’t come easily to me. I struggled a lot to create the script- to come up with just the right copy without sounding “salesy” or fake. To get some ideas for my copy I looked at a lot of the salespages that I have kept on file. I looked for phrases that appealed to me and got me excited to buy. I also  skimmed through Alice Seba’s free copywriting swipe file. It always gives me excellent ideas for “Power Words”.

Coming Up with Image Ideas

After writing the script it was time to come up with some visuals. Although I love Presenter Media I really wanted to do something a little different this time with the graphics. I started skimming through the photos over at Istockphoto to get inspired but nothing really hit home. Besides, I didn’t really want to have to pay for photos this time and there wasn’t any client to foot the bill for them since I AM the client this time.

Because I’m so use to creating Camtasia videos for paying clients I rarely get to just have fun and do anything I want. So I started thinking….

I got Inspired

I needed a bunch of pictures of one person showing a range of facial expressions for starters. The company I linked to is great but they didn’t have the kinds of expressions I was looking for.

So I decided to look through some of the photos taken by my 14 year old daughter with her new camera. She has a huge passion for photography. 

And her pictures are really good.

Why not have Danielle create some original photos acting out some of the ideas in the script? This started getting me really excited and inspired. Not just because I would have a video that was exactly what I wanted but also that I could get her excited about the idea of seeing her photos published on something other than Instagram. And that led me to  researching the idea of paying her for her time and possibly having a deductible business expense.

So that’s where it stands right now.  She and I have an appointment to get a bunch of pictures shot for the video tomorrow, giving me:

1. Original photos that will be EXACTLY what I want and not just what I can find online

2.A chance to spend quality time with my daughter while she pursues her passion and I pursue mine.

3. A way for her to earn money doing what she loves

4. A business write off for me

As soon as the photos are done I’ll put a bunch of them in the membership site in case you want to use them in your own projects.

So now I’m curious, what inspires you? Do you have a website or a location or a person that helps get you excited about your videos?