Navigating AI Temptation: Enhance, Don’t Replace

The temptation to use AI in content production, whether it’s Google’s VEO 3 for AI video generation, ElevenLabs for AI voiceovers, or ChatGPT for blogs (ahem), is greater than ever.  The tools are increasingly accessible and, due to their ease of use, it’s easy to let these tools just create the content for you – especially as your clients and their audience are ever-hungrier for more content. But it’s important to strike a balance. Where’s the line between creative uses of AI to enhance your work, and creative dilution, where human inspiration is entirely replaced by generic AI algorithms? 

The problem with fully AI-Generated content 

The main problem with 100% AI-generated content is that it fogs viewers’ feeds with indistinct material that feels repetitive and formulaic. If you’ve created a 100% AI-generated video it’ll get lost in the noise. Platforms like Google are growing wise to it – they can detect when something is AI-generated. This matters because if content looks low-effort or generic, search engines may treat it as unhelpful . That means your content could rank lower and get less visibility, and ultimately miss its audience. But how? 

How AI Images and Videos are tagged 

Video and image generators are tagging their content in subtle, invisible ways – like a QR code spread over the entire image, but done so you can’t see it. And because it’s embedded across the whole image, it can’t be cropped out or removed without wrecking the image or video itself. So even if the content comes out flawlessly, it may still be flagged as synthetic and unhelpful and potentially be de-monetised or ranked lower.ranked lower. 

How AI Voiceovers can be watermarked 

AI voiceover is similar. ElevenLabs has its own watermarking system – subtle, repeating timed patterns that are inaudible and sound 100% normal to us. So even if a voiceover sounds natural, platforms can still detect it as synthetic, which can run you into similar problems.  

Why detecting AI-Generated Blogs is more complicated 

Detecting AI-generated text is much more complicated as there’s no ‘watermark’, per se. Instead, platforms look at patterns in the writing itself. For example, AI may choose specific words more frequently across a long article; these patterns can start to signal AI involvement.  

How Google automatically demotes low-quality content 

Google (including YouTube) has opted for a quality rating guideline to assess content and determine how highly it ranks. They look for overuse of generic words, repetition in phrasing, low click-through rate, and other signals that indicate people aren’t engaging. YouTube is reinforcing the rule that “original and authentic content is monetisable.” They’re aiming to demonetise mass-produced, repetitive, low-effort content. 

All of this doesn’t just make Google say, “This is AI, put it at the back of the line.” It looks for consistency, patterns, and whether the source is trustworthy over time. And with being able to see if any content is 100% AI-generated, it’s important to add that extra bit of value and human touch to make your content stand out as high quality, high effort, even if AI was used somewhere in the pipeline. It’s clear that what Google cares about most is whether the content is helpful, not whether it’s AI. 

Where we stand: AI-assisted, not AI dependent 

At Dead Ready, we use AI to improve speed, flexibility, and help our workflow, not to create content for us without any creative input. Every piece we produce relies on human insight, brand voice, storytelling and clients’ needs. That’s the soul of what we do. 

Smart ways to use AI in video 

Have an idea for video content? Write down all your points as bullet points and ask a text model to help turn your thoughts into a draft script. You can even ask it to consolidate the information to hit a specific length, if you only want a two-minute video, it’s perfect for that. 

Want to show an image of people enjoying your very specific brand of crisps, but stock imagery just isn’t cutting it? Generate the image as an asset to be crafted and weaved into your video by your production company. 

Recorded a video where your speaker accidentally said the wrong stat? AI voiceover can step in to correct the error and keep the energy of the original delivery. 

And as there are multiple ways to detect AI-generated content, the best way to stand out is to cut through AI noise.  Although the temptation is there to let AI do all the heavy lifting, it should be used to enhance, and not replace, great storytelling. That’s how you create something worth watching. 

Teams vs Zoom vs SquadCast: Which platform should you use for your remote interview recordings?

A huge majority of the video content we create is underpinned by filmed interviews. Traditionally, these interviews were all filmed in-person by a camera crew, but then in 2020 Covid-19 came along and, for a while, all interview filming had to be done online. 

While thankfully live action filming has since made a resurgence, it’s become clear to us that remote recordings are here to stay. While they will never compete with an in-person film crew in terms of quality, they can be a suitable way forward for some productions.  

This is particularly the case when your on-screen talent is hard to reach or has limited availability, or when you’re simply looking to minimise the costs involved in filming. 

Once you’ve decided to conduct some interviews remotely, a key question is what platform to use. There are a vast number of these available and your choice will impact both upon the recording process and the quality of the final output.  

In this article we’re going to look at 3 of the most common options: Microsoft Teams, Zoom and SquadCast.  

Microsoft Teams

In the last couple years, Microsoft Teams has quickly risen to become the default meeting software for many businesses. This familiarity can make it an appealing tool for many. 

When it comes to remote recording, the simplicity of Teams’ call recording function is both its main strength and biggest weakness. With only a simple ‘record meeting’ option to contend with, there’s little chance of getting bogged down in a labyrinth of settings, and almost zero risk of making any fundamental errors. 

At the same time, there’s no real way to optimise the quality of the recorded footage, and no way to specify exactly which aspects of the meeting to record. This is very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ approach to recording, and toggling participants’ cameras and microphones on and off is the only real way to manage the recorded output. 

When it comes to footage quality, frame rate is a big weakness here. The recordings tend to come out at around 15 frames per second, well below the standard of 25fps, resulting in a noticeably choppy look. 

The only real reasons to use Teams for your recording is if 1) you’re tied to working on that platform, 2) if simplicity of approach is your main criteria, or 3) if you’re recording during a meeting that’s taking place on Teams for other reasons. 

Zoom

When it comes to having control over recording options, Zoom is a step up from Teams. It offers two main approaches: Cloud Recording and Local Recording, both of which provide a number of different settings you can tweak in order to get the result you’re looking for.  

It’s possible to record a full ‘gallery’ view of all meeting participants, an ‘active speaker’ view which flips between whoever is currently talking, or a ‘pinned’ view of one participant – the last one is particularly useful when you want a continuous, uninterrupted recording of one interviewee throughout, without unintended cuts to other speakers. 

In addition, when using Cloud Recording you can also record a shared screen separately, which is great for slide decks or live software demos.  

The option to record separate audio files for each participant also ensures that you have a clean audio recording of each person – so if someone else’s dog barks in the middle of an important soundbite, that can be filtered out when editing the footage.  

In terms of footage quality, Zoom recordings are governed by the equipment people have access to, and crucially – the strength of their internet connection – any connection dropouts will be present in the recording. 

The resolution of recordings is generally 640 x 360, which is a quarter the size of a full HD recording. While resolution is low, the frame rate is 25fps, which is the standard for filmed interview footage, so recordings are generally smooth and fluid compared to Teams. 

SquadCast

SquadCast works in a fundamentally different way to Zoom and Teams. It creates a local recording for each participant on their own computer, before uploading this to the platform. This eliminates the issue of bandwidth and connectivity, providing two key advantages: much higher resolution footage, and no interruptions or dropouts. 

This approach is also shared by various other platforms such as Riverside.fm, Zencastr and StreamYard.  

Being a platform designed specifically for this sort of purpose, SquadCast allows various recording settings to be defined, and gives the meeting host more info and control over the devices being used by each participant. This all helps to give a more polished result. 

While the jump in footage quality is substantial, it’s worth noting that SquadCast doesn’t allow participants to blur their background or use virtual backgrounds, which (while cheesy) is something some people have become accustomed to expect.  

 This does mean it’s critical for your on-screen talent to have a clean, uncluttered background. What’s more, higher quality footage is less forgiving to your on-screen talent, so preparation and performance become more of a factor. 

It’s also a less familiar platform that Zoom or Teams, so interviewees may feel slightly more out of their comfort zone – although the reality is that using the interface is very intuitive and the learning curve is shallow. 

Our Recommendation 

The familiarity of Teams and Zoom mean that many people will immediately lean towards them for their remote recordings. This can be fine if video quality is less critical; for example if your interview will be used primarily as a voiceover and overlaid with graphics or other footage, or indeed if you want to emphasise that the content was remotely recorded.  

There is also the simple reality that sometimes your talent may not be able to use other platforms for compliance reasons. 

However, in In most cases however, a platform such as SquadCcast is going to be the best bet to ensure that you get the besthighsethighest quality results. possible result. Just make sure that background is tidy! 

The Role of the Production Company in Remote Recordings

With all these platforms, setting up and recording sessions and conducting the recordings is relatively simple, and it’s perfectly feasible to do so without external assistance. 

However, working with a production company can help to ensure you get the best possible result. With remote recordings, our role is partly about assisting with technical setup and navigating the platform, but more about helping with talent direction and ensuring best practice is followed during the interview.  

This includes making sure interviewees are positioned correctly, are as well-lit as possible and that the interview content required for an effective video edit is successfully obtained. 

Also, with a production company running the recording, it ensures they have instant access to the footage afterwards. This can expedite the next stage of the process, whether that’s the creation of transcripts or straight into the edit. 

For more information on remote recordings or if you would like to find out more about the animation, photography and graphic design services Dead Ready Productions can offer your business, simply get in touch via the button below or by calling +44 (0)208 339 6139. 

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How To Look Good For Video Conferences

Web conferences are the new normal and all of us are bound to need to collaborate over Skype, Zoom, Gotomeeting etc over the coming weeks/months. This vlog from Dead Ready Director Chris Tongue, offers three tips on how to make sure that you stream/webcast yourself clearly – and look good doing it!

Transcript below:

Hi. With most of us working from home now and all events and meetings taking place online, it’s important to not only know how to look good in a web conference, but to also make sure that you can be clearly seen and understood. This counts double for anybody who is used to presenting at a large scale event, where there might be a whole technical team there to make sure you’re both lit beautifully and can be heard very clearly by everybody in the room.

Online, you’re going to have to get used to being your own technical team, but fortunately, the essentials are pretty easy to get right. So here are three tips on how to look good for video conferencing.

Tip 1.

It’s essential to get your light source falling on your face, to make sure you don’t appear as a silhouette, so make sure you don’t shoot with your back towards a window. Natural light is often most flattering, so try to set your camera up underneath a window, where the light from outside can illuminate your whole face. This isn’t possible for everyone, it’s not possible for me, so alternatively, to increase the light on your face, consider just putting in a household lamp behind the camera. It really does make a massive difference.

Tip 2.

Poor quality audio is arguably worse than poor quality visuals as people have a far lower tolerance for content they can’t hear. Most laptops have built-in microphones, which are usually pretty good these days, but just remember that the further you are away from your laptop the worse the sound quality will be. I’m shooting this video with a professional microphone that I happened to have in the house when the lockdown was announced but your laptop microphone is usually ok. I would just consider buying one of these options if you’re going to be doing this on a regular basis.

Tip 3.

This one isn’t the most important, but a standard approach is to put yourself in the middle of the frame, with a little bit of your shoulders showing. It’s also a good idea to try to keep your camera at eye level, because shooting from a low angle is pretty unflattering.

Remember also to have a look at what you’re capturing in the background to make sure that you’re not capturing anything sensitive, personal or embarrassing. Neutral backgrounds are usually a safe bet, but just try not to put yourself right up against a wall, because it’ll make you look like you live in a broom cupboard.

So there you go, three simple tips to make sure that you represent yourself clearly in a video conference and look great doing it.

Stay safe. We’ll see you next time.

Aerial Drone Filming – 50% Off In June And July 2017

Drone filming has literally taken off over the last few years, meaning that cinematic aerial shots are now a real possibility for all types of video productions. We’re excited to have recently added drone filming to our list of services, and to make it even more accessible we’re offering 50% off any aerial filming and editing* when you book us in to work on any project with you in June or July 2017.

The opportunities for using drone footage are endless – from sweeping shots of landscapes and buildings, to dynamic shots of vehicles and people in motion, even just for simple tracking shots that would in previous years have required cumbersome equipment such as jibs, cranes and dollies.

Get in touch today for further details on 0208 339 6139 or on info@deadready.co.uk, quoting DRAERIAL50, and we’ll be more than happy to talk through a brief or suggest ideas as to how you could use drone footage in your own projects.

*Terms and conditions

50% discount will be applied to any and all aerial filming in project. Non-aerial filming will be charged at usual rate.

50% discount will be applied to a maximum of 2 days editing per day of aerial filming

This discount applies to UK filming only