Keep it simple dummy!
The importance of simplicity in video creation
Simplicity is something that everyone heard about, everyone knows that it’s more or less desired, but when they start to prepare they own video, movie, trailer, commercial they suddenly forget about it. People think that if you do something more elaborate it is better just by making it elaborate.
Let’s get one thing streight. I am talking about good ideas. If your main idea is not good, you had a lot of problems along the way, making it elaborate and complicating CAN help you. If you find the right amount of visual help you can probably cover all the failures or make even boring stuff visually pleasurable. (of course overdoing is bad in every aspect so you should be wary)
But if you are on right track, you should try not to be tempted by complicating it more. Too much of “visual” help, too many fast cuts and strange angles won’t help you to deliver what you want to say. On the contrary — it can distract the audience in many ways. Sometimes they will notice that something is not right, and sometimes they won’t know what happened, but the reception will be distorted.
Moreover the audience can say that they like your work, you did good. But you should have in mind that you don’t know how would it be if you did not make some strange choices, angles and cuts. If you don’t get any feedback about those — it is possible that they weren’t needed.
As a filmmaker I do see some unneeded visual tricks, that distract me in a way that I can describe and point to. And those are usually in videos that most of people like. Someone who is not “in the business” can’t describe frame by frame what they find attractive and what not. They can only say about the whole experience. In many cases people like “not so good” commercial only because they find music to be a good match. The reception of the music is positive enough to compensate for the whole commercial and their brain mark it as — “good one”. But I can say with the full confidence, that in many cases, reception of the whole package would be better if creators went a simpler way.
I saw many great videos that I liked in every aspect. Those ones are usually praised more by the audience, then videos that most of people find great, but I am able to find some small “over-the-top solution” that are not needed.
My opinion, based on experience, is that if you have a story, want to say something important, you should not complicate it too much. If you get something like: whoa, that angle was crazy. How did they do that? Then you probably doing it right. But if you get just “it’s cool” and you packed a lot of elaborate ideas and visual “helpers” then those helpers did not make a lot of difference. And you are in danger that your initial thought may be lost somewhere in-between the lines.Keep in mind that simple video is easier to deliver to an audience.
What I can suggest is to always think about the rule of simplicity. To always ask yourself if some elaborate way of presentation is really needed. What it gives us and what would happen if you do that in a simpler way. If you do that critical analysis of your idea it is possible that you find most of the ideas are just there, because they “might be cool”. And that’s not enough to mark them as something that should be done. I would rather use only the ideas I’m 100% sure about and keep the rest as simple as possible.
I find making something great is simpler that way.
