What your video needs

Why the film is there

Someone has read your page and is deciding whether to phone a stranger about something that frightens them. The film exists so they hear you before they do.

It is not a commercial and it is not a summary of your page. It is the closest thing to sitting across from you that a page can carry.

What you say

The arc is four beats, roughly fifteen to twenty seconds each.

• Who you act for, in one sentence.
• What is usually happening to them when they call.
• What the first conversation is actually like.
• What you want them to do now.

Write it in your own words and do not read it word for word. Notes at eye height beside the lens are fine. A teleprompter is not.

How it is framed

Landscape. Chest up, camera at eye height, you a little off centre with the space in front of you rather than behind. Look at the lens, not at your own picture.

Behind you: a quiet wall, or a room deep enough to fall out of focus. Nothing on the wall with a name on it, and no logo or backdrop belonging to a firm, including one you have left.

The light

Soft and in front of you. A window a few feet away, facing you. No overhead light on its own, no lamp behind you, no direct sun.

The sound

This is the part people get wrong. A quiet room beats an expensive camera.

Close the door, turn off anything that hums, and get a microphone within a foot of you if you have one. Phone earbuds with a microphone are better than the camera's own.

Recording it yourself

The rear camera, the highest setting the phone offers, propped so it does not move, and someone else pressing record if possible.

Start recording several seconds before you speak and leave several seconds at the end. Do it three or four times and keep them all.

Send the original files, never a copy saved from a message or an upload.

If you would rather not

If you would rather not do it yourself, I can refer someone. You engage them and you pay them directly. It is not billed through me and there is nothing added to it.

They are being asked for one thing: a clean sixty to ninety second piece to this brief, and stills from the same setup for your portrait.

After you record

You see the footage before anything is edited. You get one reshoot if you want it. The edit is a trim and a caption pass, nothing else.

Nothing appears on your page until you approve it in writing, along with everything else on the page.

What the film will not say

The same list your page follows.

• No claim about a result you will get for anyone.
• No superlative.
• No ranking or award without its source.
• No comparison against another lawyer or firm.