A Comprehensive Masterclass on How to Create Engaging and Influential Short-Form Videos with Ease.
Introduction:
Video continues to be the most engaging and influential format in digital marketing. Short-form content now shapes brand discovery and builds audience loyalty, and drives measurable results across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Creating video content for social media can be enjoyable and rewarding. But if you’re a marketing manager, social media manager, graphic designer, or other marketing professional who doesn’t have dedicated video training, it can be challenging, too. Do you need a new camara? Can you use a smartphone? What are you supposed to do in pre-production? What software is best for editing? How and where do you post your finished product?
While new tools, including AI, have entered the space, the foundation of impactful video has not changed: strong ideas, thoughtful storytelling, and a clear creative vision. Technology can support the process, but creativity remains human. If you’ve got a lot of time, not much else on your plate, and are willing to wade through a ton of YouTube videos to find the ones with useful advice, you can try to figure it out on your own. But if you’d like to get to the good stuff faster and more efficiently, this is the course for you.
Award-winning film educator Sa-Ra Zwarteveen has created this four-module Masterclass specifically for marketing pros. You’ll skip the trial and error, and get expert, step-by-step guidance, training, and instructions while exploring how certain AI tools may assist with time-consuming steps like auto-captions. You’ll practice, too, and get expert feedback while you plan, shoot, and edit short-form videos during this interactive course. By the time you finish, you’ll have the knowledge, skills, and confidence you need to produce professional videos for your social media and marketing content needs.
Module 1 of this course will cover the role and importance of video in social media and marketing, video content strategies, visual storytelling, and how to plan a video.
Module 2 will focus on technical aspects of video production, whether on your smartphone, tablet, or DSLR/Mirrorless camera.
Module 3 will help you gain editing skills in Adobe Premiere Pro for your laptop and CapCut for your smartphone or tablet.
Module 4 will cover the last stage of the video process: distribution and sharing your video with the audience you want to reach.
Key Takeaways
- Gain hands-on experience in planning, shooting, and editing short-form marketing videos for social media.
- Introduction to video content strategies and platforms.
- Understand pre-production: storyboarding, creating shot lists, and writing scripts.
- Practical experience in using camera angles, shot types, and camera movements to convey a brand story.
- Understand technical camera aspects such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and white balance.
- Basic editing techniques and principles, including adding graphics, captions, sound editing, and color correction, using Adobe Premiere Pro and CapCut.
- Exporting video to different specs for different social media platforms.
- Exposure to AI tools that support efficiency (captions, resizing, transcription).
- Confidence to produce high-quality social video from idea to publication.
Video Editing Software We’ll Be Using in This Masterclass:
We strongly recommend that you download the following software before the start of the workshops, as this is what the demos will be focused on:
- Adobe Premiere Pro for your laptop, this is a professional-grade editing software. There is a 7-day free trial available at: https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/free-trial-download.html
- CapCut for your smartphone/tablet is a free editing app.
- The Adobe Premiere Rush app for your smartphone if you plan to film on your smartphone instead of a DSLR or Mirrorless camera.
Flexibility to Fit Your Schedule:
Can’t make it to the live sessions? No problem. We’ll send the workshop videos, workbooks, and supplementary materials shortly after recording so you can catch up, revisit, or reinforce your learning.
Module 1: Storytelling, and Pre-production.
Description:
The first step in making a short-form video for social media and marketing is to understand how social platforms prioritize video and how audiences consume content on different platforms. This will then help you with the next stage in the video-making process: pre-production. Translating your idea and written copy to video requires an understanding of video terminology, language and grammar: what can a close-up convey? And how can you make your audience relate to the message in your video? In this module, you will learn about the different aspects of visual storytelling and put this knowledge into practice by starting pre-production for a marketing video.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn about different video content strategies and short-form video trends across social media platforms.
- Learn about the importance of video in marketing through compelling figures and statistics.
- Learn how to identify and repurpose content to target audiences.
- Understanding video language and how to use this to tell a story visually.
- Learn about shot sizes, camera angles, camera movements, and composition.
- Practice writing a short script for social media and marketing that feels authentic.
- Experience in writing shot lists and storyboards, with examples of how AI can provide assistance.
Module 2: Shooting on Your Smartphone or DSLR/Mirrorless Camera.
Description:
Once the plan for your short video is finalized, you can start on the production stage of your video making process. This is when you would shoot all the footage that you need to tell your story coherently. In this module, you will learn how you can elevate your video and make your footage look polished and intentional, no matter your equipment, by understanding and practicing technical aspects of your camera, as well as understanding how to set your lighting and record sound professionally. During this module and before the next module, you will shoot your own footage that you planned in the previous module.
Key Takeaways:
- Practical experience in shooting different shot types, and camera angles.
- Understand technical fundamentals such as shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance, and manual focus.
- Learning how to use Adobe Premiere Rush on your smartphone to shoot video, and how to use the DSLR/Mirrorless camera effectively.
- Understand the importance of lighting and sound in video.
- Practical experience in shooting interviews.
- Learn about the importance of a-roll and b-roll footage.
Module 3: Editing Your Video and Exporting for Social Media.
Description:
After shooting all the footage for your video, you would progress into the next stage of the video-making process: post-production. It is important to edit your footage into a coherent story and ensure the message you want to convey is clear. In this module, you will learn about professional editing workflow and fundamental editing principles by editing the video you shot in the previous module. Adding titles and graphics, editing sound, and correcting color can elevate your video to make it stand out on social media. During this module and before the next module, you will edit your footage into a short marketing piece and receive feedback on your edit during the next module.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand professional editing workflow and fundamental editing theory.
- Video editing for continuity.
- Montage editing.
- Edit sound, correct color and add transitions.
- How to add titles and motion graphics.
- How AI tools can support repetitive tasks in editing like auto-captioning, and audio cleanup.
Module 4: Distribution and Tips and Trends in Video Marketing.
Description:
The last stage of the video-making process is distribution: this is where you will share your video with the audience you want to reach. You will gain an understanding of the different social media platforms, and what the audience’s expectations are for videos on each platform. You will also learn how to repurpose footage for landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) videos to suit the social media platform. We will also look ahead to the future and discuss tips and trends in video marketing. In the last module, you will share your work and receive feedback from the course instructor.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand social media platforms and audience expectations for video on each one.
- Fundamental knowledge of aspect ratio, ideal video length, and video dimensions
- How to repurpose footage for multiple platforms
- Human-driven tips and trends in video marketing.
- A look at emerging digital tools and AI, and how to approach them.
- How to stay adaptable as platforms evolve without sacrificing creative integrity.
How to Convince Your Boss Why You Should Take this Class:
- Competitive advantage: video is at the epicenter of modern digital life. Having high-quality content that cuts through the noise will distinguish your brand from competitors.
- Positive return on investment: 92% of marketers report that video marketing produces a positive return on investment. Doing this to a high level will increase that return.
- Highly skilled workforce: a highly skilled workforce in video marketing means fewer outsourcing costs and better professional development for existing staff. The skills are there when you need them without extra costs.
- Brand awareness: 94% of marketers report that video has improved public perception and awareness of their brand or service. Video content will build bridges between your identity and that of customers/clients.
- Expert-led: With an instructor from the world-leading British Film Institute, your employees will be learning from the best.
The Presentations:
- This workshop series gives the participant hands-on video-making practice with feedback from the instructor at every step of the video production process.
- Step-by-step instructions in numbered lists with the links so you can do this yourself.
- Included are lots of illustrations and examples.
Download Material:
- Recorded video of the presentation with slides and audio.
- PDF of the complete PPT presentation.
- Digital handouts on shot sizes, exposure triangle, and 3-point lighting.
- Digital templates for shot lists and storyboards.
- Motion graphics templates for Premiere Pro.
- Color grading LUTs for Premiere Pro.
Who is the course for?
Marketing professionals at a range of levels and those working in social media, communications, design, and related fields.
The Presenter:
Sa-Ra Zwarteveen
Sa-Ra Zwarteveen teaches the Video Production for Social Media Masterclass for the Direct Marketing Association of Northern California.
Sa-Ra is an award-winning film educator and specialist in digital media, culture, and education. She works as a film educator and education programs coordinator at the British Film Institute. Sa-Ra also works as a lecturer at University College London, teaching film production to undergraduate and postgraduate students at the Institute of Education.
Her previous experience includes working at the Stedelijk Museum and EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, where she programmed and delivered engagement and education events. Recent film education projects include the Chartered Institute of Marketing, London Film School, Cambridge University, Durham University, England and Wales Cricket Board, the Singaporean Government, and the Saudi Film Council.
Sa-Ra has extensive experience providing digital marketing and filmmaking courses for professionals in the UK and internationally. She is dedicated to film education and visual literacy as a discipline that can empower and drive creative experience.
Social media: www.linkedin.com/in/sarazwarteveen.
Sa-Ra was incredibly knowledgeable and professional in her presentation. She articulated everything in a way that was easy to follow and understand, and engaged with the class to make all participants feel welcomed.
Great workshop that can be applied to many different roles.
The first module of Video Production for Social Media was very informative and the 2-hour class flew by. Excellent instructor.
I am exited about the Video Production for Social Media Masterclass. Sa-Ra is doing a great job with explanations and examples of the concepts that she is teaching. The Types of Videos, Filmmaking Stages and Film Language topics are covered well and exciting to learn about.
Sa-Ra did a fabulous job breaking down really complex subjects about filmmaking and video content strategy!
This course does a great job introducing step by step of filming and social media.
Workshop dates and times:
WINTER 2026
Module 1: Video Marketing Strategies, Introduction to Filmmaking, and Pre-production.
Prerecorded online.
Module 2: Shooting on your smartphone or DSLR/Mirrorless camera.
Prerecorded online.
Module 3: Editing your video and exporting for social media.
Prerecorded online..
Module 4: Distribution, tips, and trends in video marketing.
Prerecorded online.
