Our Accidental Lesson in Capturing a Memorable Moment on Video

Of all the "secrets" we can share for creating powerful videos, we learned this particular lesson quite by accident, on our first video project for Beyond Measure Media.

It's number 5 on the list that kicked off this new blog; our rundown of eight "Pro Secrets for Creating Powerful Videos," which we presented recently at Portland PR firm AM:PM.

(In case you missed it, be sure to review the first few secrets on our list: We ruminated on the ever-important power of a well-told story, described how sound quality trumps video quality, revealed a secret video editing trick that helps heighten emotion, and we even admitted that the smart phone video camera technology you probably have in your pocket is making a lot of high-falutin' video production cameras obsolete.)

And now we come to Secret Number Five:

Secret #5: Capturing Memorable Moments

Since we first started Beyond Measure Media, Michele and I have always been drawn toward creating documentary-style "stories from the heart."

We think real, unscripted stories that transport viewers into someone else's authentic world is far more interesting to watch than a canned video that's tightly scripted and way too "slick."

Interestingly, we realized this lesson by unwittingly trying to do the exact opposite!

Watch this video to see what happened:

What did we learn from this?

We learned to be perfectly okay with losing control of an interview shoot.

To "go with the flow" and be open to what might happen in a situation we never planned for.

We learned to be present of mind enough to take a chance and pan our camera a little to the right, away from the guy we thought we had come to interview.

We trained our lens on an irreverent, giggling kid who generously created a moment of real human connection.

And it worked.