10 Tips on How to Shoot Appealing Real Estate Videos

With the real estate industry drastically growing in the country, real estate photography is also in demand. And every agent or developer is battling for the homebuyers’ attention with the best real estate photos and videos. Here are a few tips that could help;

Sep 26, 2021 - 19:54

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10 Tips on How to Shoot Appealing Real Estate Videos

An image of the interior of a kitchen. Photo/Courtesy

1. How to land real estate gigs

First thing as a real estate videographer, drive around your neighborhood or even a different one, look for a "for sale sign" contact the agent and make your deal by telling them what you do, giving a demo, and what your charges are.

Don't forget as a real estate filmmaker, you need to have a strong demo video on your portfolio. Even if you are the smoothest talker or the best filmmaker but if your work is not good nobody will hire you.

A strong portfolio with a good demo video is what helps in landing high-end real estate clients. Your work should always be good and do the talking. Be aware though that most real estate would not be able to pay a lot of money for filming unless they make a very good commission that's why it is recommended to always target high luxury real estate markets.

Most agents for luxury real estate markets like hotels and lounges in most cases have the budgeting for their listing videos which you as a real estate videographer should tap into.

Remember always to include what the agent wants first before being an all you in someone listing video, don't forget that you are just a filmmaker, not an agent.

2. How much to charge

Time and skills are what determine the price of your film services. Basically, most real estate videos take four to five hours to shoot and if you are experienced in film making and videography, roughly Ksh 18000 Kenyan shillings would not be bad for a start. You can bargain for more or less depending on the workload on the table too.

3. Preplanning

When an agent reaches out to you to shoot their project, begin by coordinating a work plan, ask them to send you the pivture of the project so as to be able to figure it out the size of the home, which direction it is facing, and how long it will take you to shoot the whole video.

Schedule the time accordingly, and once you get to the project site, let the agent walk you through the whole house to enable you to determine which angles and shots you are going to take, what to include in the video and what not to shoot.

4. Camera gear.

This is a common question to beginners mostly as one would ask themselves what is the miimum number of cameras I need to shoot professionally? Well, the cheapest gear one can acquire and still do a professional shoot just requires a set of one professional camera, especially if you go for a Cannon with a wide range of lenses that will make the homes look bigger than they actually are.

Well if you can get yourself a drone, it will be as good as it comes with especially for real estate shoots.

5. Camera setting

Camera resolution should be kept at 1080 p, a shutter speed of 1 | 125. lighting should be as low as possible or you rather adjust depending on the room lighting, frame should be 60FPS with a standard picture profile.

6. Composition

Always use widening lenses that show the whole room and another tip too is to always capture straight lines as it reduces distorion. Don't point too far up or too far down rather keep your camera on an average level. Always film between eye and waist level and use foregrounds a thing that is easily achieved by walking through doorways.

Dont feel neighboring components, you can show how the compound is too big but dont go extra on mountains or lakes in its borders or even neighboring properties if an agent dont ask you to.

7. Focus

How do you achieve your focus for real estate videos?

you can use autofocus that comes with most cameras and if its a manual camera always set the focus manually for each shot

8. Camera movements

The best camera and drone movements o use in real estate in most cases for drones is push and shoot looking straight to the property to give a good overview especially for intro and outros or even to give the measurements of the piece of land that the property lies on.

9. Shooting order and how long does it take to shoot.

this brings in the golden hour, 4 to 5pm always time to shoot the exteriors once you are done with covering the property interiors but on an average case a day dedicated for shooting one project, wont hurt.

10. Best time of the day to shoot.

on an honest note, each room can be shot at a different times of day ranging from twilight to the crack of dawn. as long as you are receiving average lighting you are set to keep the camera rolling.

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