I spent a few hours thinking and working on a promo video for the upcoming Quran conference. I couldn’t afford much time to work on it, so my instinct pointed me to ANIMOTO.
Since it was a Quran conference, I had to think what can be put in the video. The main attraction is surely the great line-up of distinguished speakers, so that’s a major selling point. But just showing speakers is lame. I thought of doing the famous RIS style trailers where they take video snippets of some speakers and mix it in with some captions about the conference.
Since I didn’t have time to find video clips and cut them, I thought maybe simplify it with just the captions. And then came the idea of putting in the 5 obligations of the Quran (Believe It, Recite It, Understand It, Act Upon It and Convey It. The words are quite catchy, akin to Nike’s Just Do It.
Then came the issue of background music. I love the techno beats of Rabbani, but desis (indo-paks) always have issues with music. But I can’t really make an impactful video with no beats. What to do? I consulted some friends, including Kuala Berang’s famous blogger Farhan Wahab, who suggested Ama Zilna of Benami. Its a great song, but I really needed a catchy beat. At last came the rescue of KISAS-MIT nashid star Hassan who handed me Rabbani’s Apa Yang Kau Tahu. It was perfect! It fitted in so well I didn’t bother worrying about desi uncles’ opinions.
Then came the minor technical issues. I had to take out the ANIMOTO stamp at the end of their videos. To do this, simply download the video, use AnyVideoConverter to change from MP4 to MPG so that I can cut out the ANIMOTO stamp with Adobe Premier (you can also use Movie Maker). Then I injected some effects and text with Adobe Premier that Animoto can’t do. Export it into DVD format (PAL/NTSC is fine).
And voila!