Create The Best Pet Adoption Video for Your Rescue

I want to help you make the best pet adoption video you can.

Shooting great video is a skill you can achieve and you don’t need to be a Hollywood director to do it..

If you want to do the best for your rescue, invest a little bit of time in sharpening skills you already have from using a smartphone.

This is all done one ‘paw step’ at a time.

Top Cat Video Tips

First of all, don’t stress about fancy equipment. You do not need fancy videography equipment if you are a beginner. You do not need an expensive DSLR video setup, just grab your smartphone. Be fearless, get out there and tell an adoption story, or a rescue tale.

I have been placed in two BlogPaws® Nose to Nose Finals using an iPhone to shoot movies. If I can achieve this kind of attention, so can you. I created those videos on my own with no extra help, so keep trying.

You may be a blogger with close links to a rescue – use those links.

Get a story idea down on paper them try to tell it as a movie. It’s the best way to practice. Try a puppy getting adopted video, or cute senior cats at a local adoption event.

Use your unique selling point to brainstorm a short video to introduce your rescue family to your readers. Spotlight the beauty of adoption of a disabled pet, show a hopeful future.

Need some ideas? Give five rescue top planning tips, introduce a local volunteer, or show how to cope with finding an ‘abandoned’ kitten. Create a small pet adoption commercial for social media and who knows, you might end up featured on the Dodo funny animal videos.

Create an Inspirational Cat Video

With your skills improving every day, why not start a video project for a rescue. This can spotlight a pet, the cattery block or rabbit family. You can record an event that inspired you as BlogPaws® inspired me. Watch this.

Whether you are shooting video indoors or outdoors, at home or a rescue. Just remember, have confidence. With a few video camera skills, you can focus on telling an inspiring story.

We make this sound easy, don’t we? Let’s say it’s easier when you have a few intentions in place to guide your progress. Try these:

Focus on your subject. What is it? Who is it?

Plan a simple story. If you need a structure or list of shots you must have used our printable sheets for the UK or the USA.

European A4 StoryBoard pdf

US Letter Size StoryBoard pdf

Now go and make a movie. Remember to shoot a little more than you need so you have wiggle room and maybe save some of your extra shots as a ‘B reel’ to add to your story.

Edit your movie. Keep it simple, join clips together. Add a little bit of text.

Remember: Your videography techniques will improve with every movie you make – keep working at this.

Feel Lost? Develop a Movie Concept

I scribbled down a movie idea for a spring film with one of our cat family Miranda the tuxedo. I hoped I could capture how much fun she has in our garden. It’s the perfect way to her cat personality.

I added some licensed music to give it a cheerful vibe. If you want music AudioJungle has a range of prices, each with an official licence.

Miranda from The Dash Kitten Movie Crew on Vimeo.

TIP: A video can also include static images of a cat. If you have printed pictures, these can be scanned into a computer then you utilise the ‘Ken Burns‘ effect.

Let me tell you a bit about this simple but clever video tool.

The Ken Burns effect is a type of panning (moving across) and zooming  (moving closer) effect used in video production. It helps you create the best pet adoption video for your rescue candidates by giving pictures a sense of movement and flow even when a photograph is included.

The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American document maker Ken Burns.

IDEA: Create a Cat ‘How To’ Video for Pet Parents

If you find an issue is coming up again and again, work with other volunteers to create a short video for your Facebook page and other social media.

• Use a printable for your website and list valuable tips on a specific topic. You could create a movie on keeping community cats warm, try raw feeding, handle a lost kitten.
• Do a short promo for a favourite Rescue’s longest resident who needs a home. Keep it short. If you do, it will work on a lot of social media channels who require your video to be less than a minute.

NOTE Our Movie Help section is packed with tips and advice if you need extra help.

How Do I Edit My Pet Video?

Editing takes a bit of practice but if you can do it on your computer if the phone screen seems too small.  Look at your clips. You will see what ones you like, drag those to your timeline and start fooling around.

If you need editing help YouTube has lots of videos so there will be one for your smartphone app. Just take it slowly. No-one was born knowing how to make movies so don’t be hard on yourself.

When You Need It Now

When you need a short video very quickly, our favourite instant movie secret weapon iMovie’s ‘Trailer Template’ function or the free version of Adobe Spark app.

A post on feline probiotics used up the time I had so I used a short iMovie trailer template for extra sparkle. The template consists of a pre-assembled sequence of placeholders for video and still shots. There is space for text inserts and an uplifting track perfectly timed for the template.

For a rescue volunteer, a movie is something you can plan, and incorporate into your schedule when time allows, or when you have an event to spotlight.

OK, I’m Ready What do I do?

Step One: Check our video shooting basics for the skills to get you up and running. This is a really helpful post packed with nitty-gritty advice given in a non-scary way.

We have smartphone app advice for beginners here if you need them too.

Our best advice ever?  Just get out there and film stuff. Learn to hold your smartphone as a camera, and how to keep your rescue pet centred in the frame. See if you can do a close-up. Have fun and laugh when you get it wrong, then try again and do it better,

TIP Your video is not Gone with the Wind (3hrs 58mins) it is a message to your potential adopters and fosters. A short and meaningful message you can share on your social media channels can make a big impression.

Making inspiring animal shelter adoption videos gets pets into homes! So, tell me, what kind of rescue video are you going to create today?