1VIDEO CUTDOWN BEST PRACT ICES PLAYBOOK

2

VIDEO CUTDOWN BEST PRACTICES PLAYBOOK

This guide is designed to help you create attention-grabbing short-form videos that highlight some of the strongest features of your Pulte community. As a general rule of thumb, a 30-second video has about enough time to highlight 6 or 7 of your community’s strongest features. In the pages that follow, you’ll find some suggestions to help make editing your longer community videos into 30-second cutdowns as easy as possible.

Scene from: Pulte Life Tested® Living Space

Scene from: Homeowners Inspire Pulte Life Tested®

Scene from: Pulte Planning Center®

EXAMPLE Screenshots of Previous Project

“As a general rule of thumb, a 30-second video

has about enough time to highlight 6 or 7 of your

community’s strongest features.”PROTIP

30-SECOND VIDEO

The unique 30-second video you’ll create will entice

potential buyers to visit your community’s website,

where they can watch your community’s long-form

video and get the whole story. Your videos can be

used in banner ads, pre-roll video, online listings

such as Zillow, for sponsored or promoted social

posts, in email marketing, at sales kiosks and, of

course, on your community’s website.

THE 30-SECOND VIDEO: 2

Title Cards (front and end – 2 seconds each)

3-4 Community Shots with Supers as Needed

(3.0-3.5 seconds each)

1-3 Home Shots with Supers as Needed

(4 seconds each)

1 Music Track

3

elements of

TITLE CARDS FRONT & END

Title cards are crucial frames added to the beginning and/or end

of your video to inform viewers which community is being featured

and provide additional information such as location, website and

phone number.

Create your title cards by choosing one (A) front card and one (B) end card from the options provided. See examples for guidance.

A. Example of Pulte Front Title Card

B. Example of Pulte End Title Card

EXAMPLE

Carolina Walk at Towne Center Located Near Charleston, SC Vs. Community Name Mt. Pleasant, SC

“”

One thing to consider while creating your title cards

is how to approach listing the city or town your

community is in. Some communities choose to mention

the largest nearby city instead of listing the smaller

town that people might not recognizeby name.

PROTIP

4

5

A FEW QUICK SHOTS

Now you’ll create the main content of your video. These shots are

meant to strongly convey what’s great about your community, so it’s

important to carefully consider what you want to call out.

A good method is to review your existing community video and

choose 3-4 community shots and 1-3 home shots that highlight your

community’s standout features and benefits. Remember, since this

video is only 30 seconds long, your favorite shots will appear for only

3-4 seconds each. Useful editing “cut points” might include:

• A “pan” shot across a busy family park or nearby school

• Close up shot of a hamburger being flipped on a grill

• Wine glasses “clinking” in a toast

A helpful guide for editing very short scenes like these

is to always edit for action.

EXAMPLEWe recommend choosing 3-4 community shots and 1-3 home shots to clearly and quickly show what makes your community special.

“ ”PROTIP

A. A strong community shot might include highly-rated schools in the area.

B. A strong home shot might include a clear look at a beautiful home exterior.

FPO Subhead copy

CREATING SUPERS

You can increase the impact of these short scenes by adding supers,

onscreen type that appears alongside the footage to describe community

and home features in more detail.

When placing supers over a particular scene, consider type legibility.

For instance, light-colored type over a background that’s very brightly

lit results in a super that’s tricky to read, especially since the scenes

will only appear for a few seconds. Some easy solutions to this are

adding a colored bar behind the type that makes it pop more, or

adding a border to the type.

Example A

Example B

make sure any supers enhance the message, instead of

simply stating what’s being shown in an obvious way,

and be careful not to overuse this technique.

EXAMPLE

Supers over particular scenes in a video

“”

6

PROTIP

MUSIC

The right music is the ultimate finishing touch of any compelling

video, so you’ll want to choose your track wisely. For our purposes,

the music you select should have an upbeat tone that captures and

keeps the audience’s attention.

Lastly, you’ll need to determine, based on the scenes you select, if

dissolves (fast or slow) work better than hard cuts between scenes

and between title cards.

One good editing tactic is to lay down the music track

first and cut your images around it to match the beat.

Talk to your editor about finding a track that best

complements and drives the action.

E x a m p l ePutting the finishing touches on a video by laying down the music and vocal tracks.

“”

7

PROTIP

CUTTING SCENESTOGETHER

Once you’ve selected your title and end cards, main video content

and your music, it’s time to bring it all together into your finished

product: a compelling and impactful video that quickly and clearly

brings out all the best features of your community.

Since these videos are more focused on highlighting the features

of communities than showcasing home amenities, it’s a good idea

to lead with your strong community shots and follow up with the

standout home shots.

After you’ve followed these quick tips, your 30-second video should

be ready to go!

Be sure to hold on the final end card for at least two

seconds, to give the viewer long enough to take down

the contact info for your community.

E x a m p l eBringing everything together to create a captivating community video.

8

“”

PROTIP

9

:02 Card | 00:00 - 00:02 :03.5 Community | 00:02 - 00:5.5

:04 Home | 00:20 - 00:24 :04 Home | 00:24 - 00:28

:02 Card | 00:28 - 00:30

Build Your Dream HomeOpen Floorplans

:03.5 Community | 00:12.5 - 00:16 :04 Home | 00:16 - 00:20

Life Tested HomesCommunity Playground

Highly-Rated School District

:03.5 Community | 00:09 - 00:12.5

Nearby Shopping

:03.5 Community | 00:5.5 - 00:09

Minutes from Irvine

30-SECOND VIDEO: AVK Can you please write some copy explaining that

this page is showing theelements/recipe for

the 30-second cutdown video

2

Title Cards (front and end – 2 seconds each)

3-4 Community Shots with Supers as Needed

(3.0-3.5 seconds each)

1-3 Home Shots with Supers as Needed

(4 seconds each)

1 Music Track

Original Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2oxBr0gRnA

Pulte Cutdown

10END CARDS OPTION 1Pulte

11END CARDS OPTION 2Pulte