Creating a Successful Crowdfunding Video: The Complete Guide

Structure your crowdfunding video like a story within two to three minutes, delivering a clear beginning, middle, and end rather than an infomercial.

Hook viewers in the first 10 seconds by showing what makes your creation unique. Use a thought-provoking question to relate to a common situation and invite viewers to learn more.

Learn to start with the why in your crowdfunding video, sharing a personal story that reveals the problem, your belief, and mission behind the project to spark action.

Uncover the how of creating a crowdfunding video that solves problems and brings value to people's lives. Understand how the approach works and why it opens new possibilities for funding.

Discover how to communicate what you’re funding and how you’ll use the funds, built on a decade of development with frames from Australian and US manufacturers now available for preorder.

Learn how to craft a compelling call to action that asks viewers to support, share your crowdfunding campaign, and express gratitude to sustain your project for the long run.

Learn to flexibly time the hook and other elements of a crowdfunding video, prioritizing the personal story to guide pacing and audience engagement.

Develop a coherent concept for your crowdfunding video by outlining the six main talking points, defining its look, emotion, and tone, and guiding shoot, edit, and music choices.

Learn to structure a crowdfunding video by filming two types of footage: A-roll interviews and B-roll shots that support and illustrate your story.

Learn essential filming gear for this crowdfunding video: Canon 5G or Panasonic GHC, 50mm lens, lavalier or shotgun mic, tripod, headphones, 30-day Adobe Premiere Pro trial, or use iPhone.

Choose an indoor, quiet interview location with a large window to illuminate your message and reveal who you are and what you aim to achieve with your campaign.

Explore cinematography by learning a simple process to shoot beautiful images through lighting and composition.

Position your subject by a window to use natural light for flattering indoor interviews. Choose a spot with even lighting when no window is available, and film early for daylight.

Use the magnification button to zoom in on your subject's eyes and frame the shot, then turn the focus wheel until the eyes are crystal clear.

Set white balance, frame rate, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO before recording, then use manual exposure with frame rate 24/25 and aperture around f/4.

Zoom in on the subject's eyes using the magnification button, adjust the lens focus wheel until the eyes are crystal clear, and select manual focus on your camera.

Plan and shoot B-roll to support your story with establishment shots that set time and place, convey detail, and finish with closing shots to exit smoothly.

Shoot b-roll with careful lighting to avoid overblown or dark areas, film at magic hour for soft, rich color, and keep footage stable on a tripod.

Compare the importance of audio quality to video quality in crowdfunding videos. Learn the essential equipment and how to improve your audio recording space to achieve great sounding audio.

Set up shotgun and lavalier mikes with external recorder. Use wind buffer to prevent muffling, and place lav 6–8 inches below the mouth, calibrating levels to −6 to −12 dB.

Choose a quiet recording space and check for competing sounds before starting your interview; silence windows, doors, appliances, phones, fridge, clocks, and AC to prevent hum in your audio.

Master practical crowdfunding interview tips, including a starting clap for audio‑video sync, avoiding excited noises, placing the subject on a steady chair, and revisiting questions to improve delivery.

Organize your crowdfunding video by creating a project folder and three categories—video, audio, and assets—then in assets, store titles and photos, and in video manage interviews and b-roll.

Write transcripts from your interview to extract main talking points and structure your story for the edit room using Google Docs to automatically save and share.

Create a paper edit by arranging interview talking points into a story with hooks, personal intro, company story, why, how, what sections, and a call to action, preserving honesty.

Learn basic editing operations using Adobe Premiere Pro or other software, and get tips to shape your crowdfunding video’s story in the editing room.

Discover the Premiere Pro CC interface, including the preview window, timeline, monitor, project panel, toolbar, and the audio meter; learn to place, cut, and arrange clips.

Create a new crowdfunding video project, organize folders for video, audio, assets, and slugs, then import interview and audio footage into their respective folders, handling any import alerts.

import your footage, create a new rough cut sequence, and match the shooting frame rate and frame size; drag a clip to the timeline to auto-match camera settings.

Drag interview footage onto the timeline, preview clips, and set in and out points with brackets. Drag separate audio onto the audio channels and learn to sync audio with video.

Sync external audio with your video by placing clips on the timeline and synchronizing. Zoom the timeline and nudge the audio by milliseconds for precise alignment.

Create a rough cut by selecting talking points from your paper and cutting them into a new sequence. Label clips with slugs like personal intro for clear timing.

Enhance your crowdfunding video by strategically inserting b-roll into the a-roll, showcasing soybeans, the farmer's market, and local sustainability, while using the track forward tool to bind scenes with music.

Match music to the video’s emotion and pace, using mood-filtered tracks from music banks like Audio Network, with multiple mixes to enhance the story and proper license for crowdfunding.

Sync your crowdfunding video by cutting b-roll to the beat, aligning transitions with musical cues, and placing talking points to complement the music.

Smooth your crowdfunding video by adding video and audio transitions, such as cross dissolve and dip to black, and use exponential fade and constant power to refine edits.

Balance audio between -12 and -6 dB using waveforms and the pen tool for volume automation. Duplicate interview, adjust levels, and blend music so the voice stays clear before export.

Export your crowdfunding video by marking the in and out points, saving with the H.264 YouTube 1080p HD preset, and enabling export video, export audio, and maximum render quality.

Apply the Ken Burns effect to photos in your timeline by using subtle position and scale keyframes to create tasteful movement.

Learn to smooth shaky footage in Premiere Pro using the warp stabilizer by applying the effect, triggering analysis in the affect control panel, and previewing the stabilized clip.

Learn how to add text or subtitles to your crowdfunding video by creating title cards, adjusting fonts, sizes, and placement, saving them to assets, and inserting title clips for credits.

Study online videos that resonate with your project to learn what makes them compelling and how they communicate an idea that motivates viewers to support.

Express gratitude and distill a roadmap to create your crowdfunding video, inviting you to share your projects on the course discussion site and begin your filmmaking journey.