Fifteen Points of a Great Recap Video

A recap video is an important investment in your event. Once the event wraps, it’s essential to continue communicating with attendees, and a video helps keep the experience going. By capturing the highlights, key moments, and atmosphere of your event, you can remind attendees of their experience. The video can also entice those who missed out to come to next time, and showcase your achievements to stakeholders. 

So, what makes a good recap video? In this post we’ll offer you 15 practical tips for strategizing, filming, and editing your recap video. 

Building Your Strategy

1. Start with a clear purpose. Don’t wait until your event is over to begin planning your recap video. Before you hire your videographer amd you’re building out your event, identify a theme and purpose that will be displayed in your recap video. 
2. Keep your audience in mind. Who do you want to see your recap video? What do you want those viewers to do after watching the video? What do those people actually care about? All of these are great questions to ask the team before filming takes place.
3. Select which channels you want to use in advance. Recap videos are very versatile. They can be used on social media, as ads, or even as a hero on your event homepage. Informing your videographer about where the video will be shared in advance will help them think through the length, structure, and timing of your video. 
4. Plan filmable moments. Picture-perfect moments don’t always happen automatically — sometimes you have to create them. Let video subjects know when they will be filmed so they can plan and dress accordingly.
5. Find the right videographer. Support your strategy by finding someone whose work reflects your brand style. 

Directing Your Videographer

6. Create a storyboard. Before your event, build a shot list for your videographer. Focus on the most memorable aspects of your event, and instruct the videographer to keep shots short to keep viewers interested.
7. Ensure visual consistency. Ideally, all your video clips from the event have consistent lighting and other setting elements, but that may not be practical at your event. While you may not always have the same lighting, you can maximize visual consistency by using similar colors, shapes, lines, and textures throughout your event.
8. Capture smiles on video. Facial expressions communicate a lot about your event. Show future and past attendees how enjoyable the event was by filming attendees smiling and laughing. 
9. Leverage thought leaders. Do you have an important industry leader coming to your event? Whether your VIPs are speaking or just attending, point them out to your videographer so they can be sure to capture them on camera.
10. Capture behind-the-scenes footage. Good storytellers build intrigue by providing context to scenes and characters. You can do the same by showcasing the people who pulled your event together.

Editing Your Recap Video

11. When in doubt, cut it out! Remember attention spans are short for videos. Keep your recap video between two and four minutes, and stick to a single song as the soundtrack. If you include quotes, keep them short and memorable. 
12. Get your money’s worth out of your content. It’s likely you’ll only use a fraction of the video that your videographer has captured for your recap video. Consider asking for the rest of the video footage to keep on hand for other marketing purposes. 
13. Ensure music is well-timed. The tempo and beats of your music speak louder than words. Placing an important moment at the high point of a song is one way to draw attention to that scene. Match the selected music with your overall brand and the tone of the event. 
14. Be responsible with the music you select. Ensure you have the rights to any songs that your videographer selects. Ask how long you will have permission to use the song. While most music vendors don’t limit music usage beyond purchase, there are a few who do.  
15. Edit all text included in the video. Confusing wording, a misspelled name, a stray typo, and other errors can distract from your video’s message and prevent it from looking as polished and professional as it should. 
16. Don’t forget to incorporate your logo. When viewers watch your video, they should be able to easily identify whose event they are seeing. This association with your brand can help drive traffic to your future events, corporate website, or social media profiles.

By following these 15 best practices, you can craft a captivating video that tells a compelling story, connects with your audience, and leaves a lasting impression. Creating a recap video not only preserves your event experience, but also can extend the impact of your event. For an example of how we’ve put our own recap video to use, visit rainfocusinsight.com.