How to Create Nonprofit Video Stories Using Your iPhone

By Amanda L. Cole

This year, 87% of online traffic is expected to be 100% video, Matt Carpenter, story architect at Beard & Bowler, said. But a video doesn’t need to be extremely polished and professional to get attention and make an impact.

Carpenter and Jason Ellinger, producer and director at Beard & Bowler, led yesterday’s session, “You Need Video! This Is How.” at The 2023 Nonprofit Marketing Summit from Community Boost. There, they shared why nonprofits need to start telling stories with video now — and how to do it with limited resources.

As a writer, it hurt Carpenter to share that people will be reading less content this year, and he expects the divide to become bigger as the younger generations age.

“The painful thing for this writer to tell you is your written words are becoming much, much less effective in moving the needle to get people to an action … whether that’s to like, to follow, to donate, to buy,” he said. “Words are not cutting it as much. However, video is seeing a higher and higher increased conversion rate. That’s not the wave of the future, that’s the wave of the now.”

In addition to high conversion rates, Carpenter noted emails containing a video experience 400% higher engagement.

“Even if it’s just a cellphone video, people for some reason are drawn to this content,” he said.

“This is your best piece of video equipment that you have access to,” Ellinger added. “Any iPhone in the last five to 10 years has a 4k camera, some of them have these wide-angle lenses [with] optical zoom … and it’s in your pocket. Audio is pretty solid, too.”

So how can you get started producing video content without big-budget equipment and crews? Here are five tips they shared for how nonprofits can begin to tell intriguing stories with iPhone video.

Steady Your Phone

Unsteady hands are easy to fix. There are two affordable ways to steady your videos.

Stabilizer. This will steady your phone during active shots, including walking and running, to increase production value. Ellinger recommended the DJI Osmo Mobile 6, which costs $160 and is compatible with most mobile phones (opens as a PDF).

Tripod. If that’s out of your organization’s budget or you’re aiming to produce stationery videos, find a simple phone tripod, like this one that runs about a sixth of the cost of the stabilizer.

“It’s just convenient to have,” Carpenter said of the tripod. “You can place it on your desk, film with it a couple of times … and ask [your executive director or director of development] to record a personal video.“

Improve Audio

Unlike video, viewers need quality audio — or they’ll tune out.

“Your eyes will tolerate a bad or out-of-focus shot, but we just can’t physically tolerate bad audio,” Ellinger said.

Carpenter added that viewers are 10 times more likely to turn their attention away from poor audio or distracting background noises than blurry, unclear or uninteresting video.

Rode Wireless Go II, a dual channel wireless microphone system, costs $299. But even a more simplistic microphone that plugs directly into your iPhone with a Lightning cable will improve sound quality.

Find the Perfect Lighting and Camera Angle

Ellinger recommended Aputure, which offers color hues, small LED and tube lights. However, light prices can add up, so take advantage of natural lighting to save money.

“What I recommend to do is try to get a window in front of you,” Ellinger said. “Even if it’s not your desk setup, make sure that window is in front of you and it’ll give you a nice, soft lighting source.”

When it comes to angles, they say something. Below eye level is more of a powerful angle, while above eye level diminishes the message, Ellinger said.

“The best is eye level, just slightly above,” he said. “ That’s where I keep my angle when I shoot.”

Ellinger also noted turning on your iPhone camera’s rule of thirds to ensure your subject is centered, in the right third or in the left third to create the best shot composition.

Develop Rapport With the Interview Subject

Making your interview subject comfortable is also an important step. Ellinger creates rapport during the process of setting up the interview. Between back and forth for scheduling and a 45-minute pre-interview, there is a certain camaraderie by the time the shoot day happens, putting the subject at ease.

“A lot of times people that we interview have two and three jobs, so it’s one of those things where it takes a lot to contact them,” Ellinger said. “So I’ll be emailing, I’ll be texting, I’ll be calling. And by the time we get to interview one … we’re already like ‘Hey, John, how’s the wife and kids? How’s this going? How’s that going?’”

The interviewee’s answers won’t be perfect, so overlaying the a-roll, the interview audio, with b-roll, alternate program shots, allows you to edit the audio as needed.

But if they’re still nervous or uneasy. They offered four ways to calm them down:

Set up the camera on an angle. It can be unnerving to speak directly into a camera when you’re not used to it. “What we’ll tell people is, ‘Look at me. This is just a conversation — you and me. Don’t even worry about that right there. My job is to make sure your story comes off as powerful and you’re empowered by it, and other people can be empowered by it as well.’”
Fake an audio issue. Ellinger stopped the interview briefly before to put the subject at ease. “‘Sorry, we have an audio issue, guys. Can we cut real quick?’” he said to the crew. “And you’ll see [the interview subject] just like [exhale] and it gives them a chance to recenter themselves.”
Find their passions. In the pre-interview, take time to find what the subject is passionate about to have the opportunity to talk about those subjects to get over nerves. “If they spend the first 20 minutes of the interview talking about football, by now you’ve got them open and now they’re a bit more comfortable because it’s a passion subject.”
Protect them. Make sure you don’t exploit the subject by being a coach or a cheerleader to make sure they’re phrasing their story in a positive light. Have them repeat their story multiple times, if necessary, to ensure you have what you need in the editing room. “You know the right language that’s not going to be defeatist or going to add to negative stereotypes and things along those lines,” Carpenter said.

Hire Someone to Edit Your Video

You can save money by utilizing free music in YouTube Studio’s audio library, using free online video editing software and more, but if all of this still sounds like too much, shoot the video with your internal team and then hire someone to edit it on Fiverr, Carpenter said. The added cost might save your team many headaches. The duo noted they hire someone specifically to do video captions.

“There’s a lot of incredible talent out there and this is what they do,” Carpenter said. “It’s not that expensive to utilize and it’ll save a substantial amount of time.”