Start with the questions patients ask
The best clinic videos answer what patients are already wondering. Write down the ten questions your front desk hears most: Does it hurt? How long does treatment take? What happens at the first visit? Who will I see? Each answer is a video.
Add a few videos that introduce people: the lead doctor, the team, the space. Patients choose a clinic with their eyes, and seeing a calm, friendly face before they book takes away much of the worry.
Set up the phone properly
- Film horizontally for YouTube and your website, vertically for Reels, Shorts and TikTok. If you need both, film horizontally with space around the speaker and we can crop.
- Use the main (back) camera, not the selfie camera. It is sharper and handles light better.
- Put the phone on a stable surface or a cheap tripod at eye level. A stack of books works.
- Clean the lens. It sounds obvious, but a fingerprint is the most common reason clinic footage looks soft.
- Lock focus and exposure by pressing and holding on the speaker's face before you record.
Use the light you already have
Face the speaker toward a window, with the window behind the phone. Soft daylight on the face looks better than any overhead clinic light. Avoid standing in front of a window, which turns the speaker into a silhouette.
If you film in a treatment room, switch off mixed lights where you can, so the skin tone doesn't turn green or orange. Consistent light makes color correction easy in the edit.
Get clear sound in an ordinary room
Viewers forgive average video, but not bad sound. Record in the quietest room, close the door, switch off the suction and the air conditioning for a minute, and keep the phone within an arm's length of the speaker. Soft furnishings help; an empty, tiled room echoes.
If you later want to upgrade, a small clip-on microphone is the one purchase that makes the biggest difference. It is optional, not required.
Talk to the camera like a patient
Look at the lens, not the screen. Imagine you are explaining the treatment to one nervous patient sitting across from you. Short sentences, plain words, one idea at a time.
Don't worry about mistakes. Pause, then start the sentence again. In the edit we keep the best take and remove the rest, so you never need to get it perfect in one go.
Respect patient privacy
Only film patients who have given written consent for the video and where it will be shown. Watch for screens, charts and paperwork in the background. If something slips into a shot, we can blur faces, names and screens in the edit.
Send the clips and let the edit do the heavy lifting
Upload the original files from your phone to Google Drive, Dropbox or WeTransfer rather than sending them by messaging apps, which compress the video. In the edit we tighten the talking, balance color and sound, add captions and simple graphics, and deliver versions for your website, YouTube and social media.
If you would like help planning your first videos, book a free consultation. We will plan the shots with you and show you how to film them, then handle the whole edit.