Matt Gemmill of 9Rooftops On 5 Things You Need to Make Compelling and Powerful Videos

An Interview With Guernslye Honoré

Guernslye Honore
Authority Magazine
Published in
13 min readDec 7, 2023

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Limitations can be your best friend.

In today’s digital realm, videos are more than just visuals; they’re stories that captivate, resonate, and leave an indelible mark on viewers. From journalism and activism to education and marketing, video content has emerged as an indispensable medium that engages audiences like no other. But what does it take to create compelling, resonant videos in an age where nearly everyone has a camera in their pocket? Crafting a powerful video involves more than just technical skill; it demands an understanding of storytelling, the subtlety of editing, the emotional impact of sound, and an innate ability to connect with an audience. In this interview series, we are talking to content creators, video editors, sound designers, and digital storytellers to share the “5 Things You Need to Make Compelling and Powerful Videos.” As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Matt Gemmill.

Matt has been in the TV and film business for 17 years in LA, NY, Vail, and New Orleans before landing in creative content advertising at 9Rooftops Marketing in Hilton Head, SC, as their Senior. Producer for the Studios division. His time capturing real stories for Animal Planet, AMC, and SpikeTV challenged him to visualize narratives developing in real time; honing his craft every day in the fast-paced word of new media advertising.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up? Can you share some formative experiences from your upbringing that shaped your creative instincts?

Thanks for chatting with me! Growing up in Charlotte, NC was pretty normal. Spent most of my time drawing, playing sports and watching movies that were probably beyond my years … which was awesome. Movies were always a big influence on me. My first job was pretty much to feed my addiction to accumulating DVDs from the bargain bins around town. In movies, I got to see fantastic visuals that just spurred my imagination and dreamed of creating my own to get them out of my own head. Always dreamed of making my own horror film. My mom loves telling a story about in second grade my “Dream Job” occupation assignment at school was “to make scary movies. I think people like scaring themselves, so I want to scare them.” Unfortunately, I never got to make my schlock horror film … yet.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

This one is simple. Family. In the TV series or film world, it’s feast or famine and it’s common to be on assignment away from home for months at a time. When my wife and I were expecting, it was time to find a new career with less time away from home. Advertising had always intrigued me, since it is such a psychologically tactical form of media that has so many challenges and a width breadth of variety to be creative. Luckily, 9Rooftops was looking and they’ve allowed me to be part of some inventive and challenging campaigns.

Who or what were your early influences in the field of video creation or storytelling

There are probably quite a few. Trey Parker and Matt Stone for their immensely irreverent humor, the hack frauds over at RedLetterMedia for their “cynical” deconstruction of films, Werner Herzog for his absurdly contemplative search for the human experience in documentary and Japanese films, which have such depth in subject matter and extremely sharp aesthetics.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Over a lot of different productions, you tend to get into some interesting situations. For one, on an indie film in NY I showed up to meet the director on the first day as a PA. Went up the elevator to help him load up some props and by the time we got down to his car, I was promoted to line producer, or maybe the production manager, or location manager? Technically, I don’t know, had to wear a lot of hats on that gig, haha. Apparently, the other person just quit so I had to act quickly to conduct casting, create the shoot schedules, hire crew, secure locations, act as an AD and everything in between.

Another little anecdote: Working as a PA on “Django Unchained, “I was tasked with enforcing one of Quinten Tarantino’s set rules … no cell phones. So, I had to post up at the entrance to set and politely take the phones from the cast and crew. Got a bit of grief from folks at the time. The next day, I was getting bricked Nokias or cordless phones handed to me.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Man, there are a few. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made was double punching. For those that know, they know. When you call cut on a great take or just wrapped a rich interview, you reach back to the camera to stop the recording only to find the green light is on … your heart drops.

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

Well, thank you, that is quite the compliment. This year has been pretty good, and we’ve been very fortunate to work with brands that are pushing the envelope. We’ve been able to create some compelling ads for brands where we mixed live action with CG to really exaggerate the smells coming out of your household appliances. We had a shaggy, smelly dog transform into a washing machine and an oversized rotting fish fall out of a dishwasher. It was fun to marry fantasy with live action.

We just recently wrapped up a big campaign shoot for a client where we took the normal talking head interview and turned it on it’s, well … head. The idea was to do a single take pull back and composite in practical and CG elements from across their industry and the state. The concept required a full motion capture rig, so we could capture practical elements separately and be time-code accurate. It was a real challenge to manage the high-profile subject’s limited availabilities and set up the motion capture rig in locations that were in proximity. I can’t wait to see the first assembly cut to start seeing where everyone’s hard work starts paying off. It’ll be a marathon to bring it to the finish line but I’m excited to see how the final spots turn out.

Okay, let’s now move to the main part of our interview. Can you help articulate why video is such an important media form to master today?

10 years ago, Google search was something like 97% of the search queries on the internet. Today, YouTube is the second most popular search engine behind Google. What that tells me is that video is king. You have billions of hours of content on the platform that covers nearly any subject you want to research AND since it is heavily preferred on mobile, you always have access to it. The trick is to make yourself or brand distinct, unique or bring information to the audience in a different way. YouTube hosts your content for free and provides you such access to target an audience that would actually be interested in seeing what you made.

What are a few of the most common mistakes you have seen people make in their videos?

I’m not one to call out anyone taking the chance to create a video. It’s not simple or easy. One thing that is nearly always a killer, bad audio. Nothing kills the user experience quicker than garbled audio, environmental noise, low/high levels and intrusive music.

What do you think sets apart a great video from a good one?

As a producer, my favorite response is … it depends. On social, we’re inundated with endless content as we scroll or click to the next recommended video on the side. What I think makes a great video, or something that doesn’t want me to click SKIP, is something pertinent and clever, or has its own personality. Something that stands out consistently is being informative while keeping it concise and not droning on and on with needless filler. Get to the point AND be relevant while still telling the whole story … with good audio!

This is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need to Make Compelling and Powerful Videos” and why?

1 . Limitations can be your best friend.

Utilize the resources that you have at your disposal and learn them well. Someone much smarter than I said something to the effect, “A blank canvas is an artist’s worst enemy.” Limitations and parameters counter-intuitively give us more motivation to be creative when we’re shown what we CAN’T do. Learn them well enough to know their limitations and be creative about how you employ them. Whether it be the camera that you are using, or the editing platform, know how it works and play with its limits. I’ve worked in a lot of different parameters and have always found that the more restrictions, the more engaging the final product.

For example, during a recent campaign we had a lot of restrictions with subject availability, environment, and budget. Since we were locked into short windows with our high-profile subject, the team toiled with dozens of ideas to maximize the creative output. We thought about just recording the audio and animating on top. It would have been new for the category, but it’s been done before creatively. Ultimately, we landed on a dynamic concept with the subject delivering the script in a single take as the camera pulls back. The scene around the subject gets enveloped in practical and CG plates of robotic arms, construction workers, mascots, a cargo ship sailing through a mountain range or anything relevant to the script. This satisfied the limited time we have with the talent, utilized the available locations and kept our days from going into too much overtime. I’m not sure where we would have landed if we didn’t have those limits.

2 . Draw out the emotional core.

Every story, picture, print ad, even digital banner elicits an emotional response from the viewer. Each is informed by an infinite combination of elements that shape our own human experience. In advertising, we tend to narrow this down into common archetypes like the Hero, the Outlaw, the Lover, the Everyman, and others, all represent different parts of our personality which we can relate to. The imagery and audio marry together into something elevated. It’s just a matter of mixing the right combination to trigger more parts of your brain. Laying out sticking imagery, intense camera moves, or dramatic lighting only go so far. Without the right music or the right sound bites in unison with striking visual aesthetic, you might just be tickling the brainstem of the viewer instead of striking an emotional connection in the cerebellum or stimulating the cortex in a fashion to trigger memory.

Early on in my career, I struggled with interviews while working on docu-series shows where we had to recap something that happened on or off camera to give perspective on what was going through their mind. Normal people don’t package up their statements when they are asked about abnormal situations. I would ask too many questions and ones that yielded descriptive accounts, but nothing emotional. They were stilted or clinical. Not the best for engaging TV. Seeing the dailies, I had to figure out a different approach. A lot of great producers on the show helped clue me into a formula for getting natural, emotional responses. Style the interview like an endearing conversation with a friend, then hit them in to HOW it made them feel, or why they chose to do that. It made a world of difference in their delivery. It was easier and quicker to get responses that struck an emotional chord. You could see it in their face and the timbre of their voice when they were recounting an event or action they witnessed. Who, What, Where and When are the journalistic questions. The emotional core is How and Why.

4. Cut the fat.

Don’t let the spot be filled with dead time or time that is not servicing either your brand or your story. As creative people, we always want to show and tell as much as possible. Sometimes too much. What makes a strong video is getting to the point and don’t blabber on too much. Early in my career, I used to think the more you show/say the better your piece would be. That wasn’t the case. You quickly learn that you can get your poignant message or aesthetic across with fewer elements and not overload your audience. This also helps with the pace of your piece to not have low points or lulls in the meat. Back in my first docu-series, I got excited to capture a storyline and write-up the story notes in excess detail and try to shove in all the beats in the segment proposal. Once the series was finally cut and aired, I would see how much the editors would condense the beats to what was necessary and kept the emotional engagement of the view. After the first series aired, I could see how to make those segment proposals more streamlined and focus on the key emotional tone instead of the minutia.

5. Audio is the soul of video.

Clean sound bites, sound design and appropriate music. I think audio is a key driver for setting the emotional tone of your video. We connect with human voices. Music creates and the mood. Sound design subtly builds out the world you are crafting. Take music for example, just try to take a scene from a dramatic film and change the music. If we swapped out Hans Zimmer’s composition in Interstellar with a Guardians of the Galaxy-esque soundtrack, it’d be unrecognizable. Remove the composition altogether, then you lose the soul of the film in silence. Sounds design can impact your video in the same way. It’s a craft to drop in the right sound effect and at the right levels. The balance of all three of these is key. Over-index in the wrong one, you’re lacking a smooth video. You don’t want a great music track to make your speaker inaudible or the sound effects hit so hard that they become distracting. Early on in my career, I was working on a piece under a deadline and didn’t give the time to the audio mix. It was a fun piece about the history of beer. The music track worked well and there were plenty of clean sound bites, but I didn’t spend the time bringing the music up enough when the speaker stopped talking and the b-roll took over. I thought it sounded fine in my headphones. The piece had to ship to make air and when I saw it go live through the TV speakers, I was mortified. Couldn’t understand the VO over the music. I was lucky since we pulled the piece to recut before it re-aired, but it still went live. Learned to never take a good audio mix for granted. YouTube’s preview before publishing would have saved me some embarrassment.

6. Play and time:

Our goal as creative people is to reach perfection. But, in the real world of fast-paced turnarounds and short attention spans, don’t waste time. Perfection is the goal, but being a perfectionist at 98% perfect, bringing it to above 99% could just be wasted effort or not worth the overall goal of your project. We all want to put out the very best representation of our creative integrity, but sometimes the real world plays a strong role. You need to ask yourself, is the additional time spent on the minor details going to convert more of the audience because of the attention to detail or is longer time in market better overall? Naturally, putting out a piece or spot that has glaring mistakes or issues will be detrimental to the film or ad. The key is to get to a perfect timing point in the project where the spot is great, hits on your message and aesthetic; on time for delivery to maximize the furthest reach while still being relevant. I’ve worked on many projects that come up to delivery time where there are elements that me and my CD see in the background that WE think are unacceptable, but the audience may never notice. If there is time and budget to make those parts perfect, go for it. If you’re on a deadline and the adjustments will take another week or two, factor that in. Is it worth it?

What are your favorite software, or online tools you use to make amazing videos?

Motion Array is fantastic. So many creative people develop captivating templates that you can use to plug and play to elevate your piece.

Are there any hidden gems or underutilized features you’d recommend?

I wouldn’t say that AI is a hidden gem anymore, but there are so many creative algorithms out there to fix bad audio, scrub unwanted elements from your footage, outline your script, generate additional ideas you may not have thought of in the moment, or just create swipe to inspire your concept or form your storyboard.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Be true to your own personality and trust your gut.

Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?

You can find more on our compelling work from 9Rooftops at:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/9rooftops/mycompany/

https://www.instagram.com/9rooftops/?hl=en

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.

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Authority Magazine
Authority Magazine

Published in Authority Magazine

In-depth Interviews with Authorities in Business, Pop Culture, Wellness, Social Impact, and Tech. We use interviews to draw out stories that are both empowering and actionable.

Guernslye Honore
Guernslye Honore

Written by Guernslye Honore

Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as "Gee-Gee", is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm.

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