9 Free resources to add production value to your videos
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Have you ever seen a video course that blew you away?
It didn’t just have great information; it also looked like a real Hollywood production with video clips, music, even graphics.
You might think you need to spend up to $10,000 per video to get professional looking videos like this with graphics, images, and professionally shot video of things like overhead shots of Los Angeles.
Think again.
In this article, we are going to show you how to make your videos look like a million bucks for free by upping your production value!
What is Production Value?
Production value is the technical elements of a video, such as the lighting, background, and sound in a film, that are enhanced to increase audience appeal
In short production value makes your videos look and sound better to your audience!
Why add production value to your Kajabi course?
Watching videos online has evolved very quickly!
A few years ago, merely recording yourself speaking into the camera with a decent microphone was enough production value to keep online course audiences happy.
Not anymore.
These days, especially when someone spends money on your course, they expect to see professional looking videos with some level of production value.
And we're going to teach you to create this high level of production value with a variety of free online resources.
But before we get into that, let’s talk about creating a professional setup to record your high production value videos.
Here’s what you will need:
- An HD video camera. While you can in theory record with your laptop, Ipad or phone’s camera, we don’t recommend it. The Canon VIXIA is a great low priced option that is easy to use. As is Sony HDR.
- A Green Screen. The green screen is the key to high production value as it will allow you to swap out the background for any image you want and will make it easier to add pictures, graphics, and b-roll footage. If you're going to raise the production levels of your video, you MUST start recording in front of a green screen. You’ll also want to make sure that you pull the green screen taut so that there are no wrinkles or sagging as that can show up in the videos when you swap out the background.
- Wevideo. If you already have a professional level of editing experience, you can skip this and use a more professional level editing software like Final Cut Pro. However, If you have minimal editing experience or none at all this software will allow you to learn to make professional looking videos with graphics, royalty free music, background images and more with less than an hour of training time, even if you have never edited a video before in your life. It is by far the easiest and best video editing software on the market for non-professional editors and is relatively inexpensive at only $15.99 a month.
Once you have a professional quality camera, green screen, and editing software, it’s time to get some free video assets like images, b-roll, music and more!
A quick word on why it's important to only use Royalty free music, video and images.
You must use royalty-free music, images, and video if you want to avoid lawsuits! Damages in cases like this can run into the 5 and even in some cases 6-figures and they are very easy to avoid by always using royalty-free assets in your Kajabi course.
Even if you decide to use another royalty-free site not mentioned in this post, be sure only to use images, music, and videos that have one of these two kinds of licenses:
- Royalty Free. This is the most common license online and allows you to use the content in perpetuity for free, without crediting the creator while publishing the content in any way you choose.
- Creative Commons Attribution. With a Creative Commons Attribution license, you can use the content for free in perpetuity worldwide but you must credit the creator, and you are not allowed to sell the clip by themselves although redistribution and sharing are permitted.
All of the resources below provide royalty-free licenses which you can use anywhere for any purpose unless otherwise marked.
Now without any further ado let’s get into:
9 Free Resources to Make Professional Looking Kajabi Course Videos:
Royalty Free Stock Images:
Royalty free stock images can be used to add production value to your videos in many ways.
Doing this is simple once you understand how to use Wevideo and your green screen.
All you need to do is color key out the green screen until it is completely black and then insert the stock image on the video track below so that it goes in the background.
You can also use stock images to emphasize points, keep videos interesting, and get an emotional reaction from your audience.
Here’s where to get royalty free stock images.
- Unsplash. Unsplash is probably the best royalty free image site online. The photographers who submit photos take beautiful high-resolution images, the library of images is vast with a very easy to use search feature that almost always comes up with something great, and updates daily with between 18-24 new photos.
2. Pexels. Another great royalty free image site is pexels, and many people prefer pexels to Unsplash because they offer more candid photos of people and also have a video library. The Pexels search feature is also excellent and easy to use. Between Pexels and Unsplash you should never have to pay for a stock photo ever again.
3. Canva. Canva provides free images, with literally millions of images in their extensive library. But that’s not the reason we added them to this list. The really cool feature of Canva is that it allows you to edit these pictures, apply filters, icons, and text with millions of fonts. If you need to create thumbnails, previews or any other type of images to use with your videos either in your Kajabi course or to promote on social media sites like Pinterest and Instagram, Canva is the place to go!
Royalty Free Video:
Royalty free video or “B-roll” as it is often called is one of the best and easiest ways to add high-quality production value to your videos.
You can use b-roll as an introduction to your video, to illustrate a point you make or just to break up the monotony of having a video of you talking for 30 minutes!
When using B-roll with wevideo, you’re going to want to put it on a separate video track above the footage you shot yourself so that it goes in the foreground of the video covering up your footage if there is overlap.
Here’s where to get an awesome royalty-free video for free!
4. Coverr.co. Coverr.co is a side project from the creative team that built and sold Veed. Veed.me is a marketplace for filmmakers to connect with those who needed video created on a smaller budget. Veed.me was eventually acquired by Fiverr, but Coverr.co is still available as a free resource to download up to 7 royalty-free videos every Monday. The search feature is easy to use, and like Unsplash they provide easy to use group collections such as animals or nature. Coverr.co is dedicated to keeping video resources free as a company value because they know many companies cannot afford to pay for quality footage and they want as much footage they shoot as possible to see the light of day.
5. National Archives. One thing you might not know is that copyrights to videos expire. A few years ago a massive amount of formerly copy-written material including the movie “The Wizard of Oz” became common license. This means that after a certain amount of time footage of everything from old commercials to government videos can be used for free. The national archive works a little bit like Wikipedia for this old B-roll footage. After the copyrights expire, it is uploaded by a volunteer workforce and can be downloaded and shared with a creative commons attribution license. There is even an archive specifically of 35 MM footage that you use as well if you want to add a more historical and old-school feel to your videos
6. Videvo. Videvo is a one-stop-shop for royalty-free video, motion graphics, music, and sound effects. With over 7600 video clips available for free Videvo has a vast library which they add to daily. In addition to the creative commons attribution license they also offer their own Videvo licensed videos which require that you credit the creator.
Royalty free music:
The right music can make or break your video!
Don't understand the power of music when combined with video?
Next time you watch a scary movie or tv show, put your fingers in your ears to block the music and just watch the images in silence.
It will be about 50% less scary if it’s even still scary at all!
And it’s not just horror movies that benefit from the right music; all videos can benefit from adding the right piece of royalty free music from the following sites.
7. Premium Beat. Premium Beat is a Shutterstock company, which provides royalty free music to be used in everything from videos to video games. They offer a variety of different types of audio from sound effects to high-quality original tracks. At the time of writing, there were over 10,000 free tracks available on Premium Beat in a variety of genres from mood music to heavy metal. You can search for music by genre, mood, duration, and even beats per minute.
8. Freesound. Freesound is precisely what it sounds like - an archive of free sounds, like birds singing in trees, whooshing sounds for transitions, and more. While Freesound sound does not offer full tracks, it has almost every sound effect you could ever use in an easy to download and use format.
9. Music For Makers: Music for Makers is a project by Logan Nikelson who discovered how difficult it was to find quality, royalty free music as he recently dove into the world of video and animation. Music for makers allows you to download one free song every week.
There you have it 9 resources for finding 100% free video, images, music and sounds to make your videos look like a million bucks!
Here’s what you should do now:
- Make sure you have your professional recording setup with green screen and editing software.
- Decide on the type of assets you want to add to your video. Do you want to add some B-roll of a city, beautiful images of a lake, or heavy-metal music? The choice is yours.
- Gather your royalty-free assets from the sites I listed above like Unsplash, Videovo, and music for makers.
- Add the assets to your video and start making movies that wow!
Use Kajabi to Turn Your Knowledge And Content Into Products You Can Sell
We know that you have something to teach the world. We also know there are people out there who want to learn what you know.
That’s why we created Kajabi. It’s a full-featured platform that allows professionals like you to create their own businesses from home.
Create online courses, establish membership sites, and sell other digital products. We offer tons of marketing tools to help you spread the word about your products and earn more revenue.
Of course, launching a business represents a huge commitment. We understand that.
To help ease you into the process of creating a Knowledge Commerce business of your own, we offer a 14-day free trial.
Get unfettered access to our tools, templates, and other assets so you can fully explore what Kajabi has to offer.
Are you ready to become your own boss? Now’s the time.
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