I want to make an interesting product introduction video on a bootstrap budget. I could obviously just screen capture and talk, but I'm hoping somebody has some interesting insights on inexpensive ways to produce something like this better. Do you have any tools you use? Are there any product introduction videos you've seen that you really liked? What do you think makes a good product video?
I get inspiration from Adam Lisagor, his videos are online at http://sandwichvideo.com/. He uses people in his product videos, not just the product. They have a very personal feel, which definitely reaches me. Of course, he has more than a bootstrap budget, but if you want to try filming people, check out The Frugal Filmmaker's blog for tips on setting up lighting, etc. on the cheap http://filmflap.blogspot.com/. Good luck!
How did sandwichvideo integrate the Youtube videos into the site so well? There are no controls, no borders, no nothing. I know you can customize some of the embed parameters, but I've never seen it done like that.
Yes blank screen and talking is fine enough. Check out the above link. Its best to tell a story, something along the lines of the problems in your target customers life without your product, then how much better it gets once he has your product.
Keep it short <2 min and just cover main benefit/feature.
If it need to look more flashy for an investor or something use an adobe after effects template from http://videohive.net/ and you can prob find someone on fiverr or similar site to edit it for you.
Remember it just has to be interesting to your target customer, so don't make it about your product make it about them!
What kind of product you have? There are several start-up video types, depending on the type of the product. Making real life videos (humans in video) is always easy but to be explanatory you have to make extra addition, with 3d or 2d video video editing softwares, if it's software or hard-to-understand SaaS etc. If you don't want to bother with these editing softwares like adobe after effects, final cut pro, 3ds max etc., making cartoon videos are always a good idea. Just look at dropbox's first video, how simple it is.
