Minimalist Mastery: The Power of Simplicity in Video Design

An Old Man

The character’s age makes him instantly sympathetic. Most of us have grandparents we care about, and old characters can remind us of them. Moreover, the old man can lose things, which is an easily solvable problem. And characters that are old can just learn a simple lesson in a short period, which can be their character arc.

Now that the criteria check out, let's ask the final question: does that character have commercial viability? Since elderly care and products have a huge market, there is definitely a commercial advantage in featuring an old subject in your videos.

You can market insurance products, medicines, comfort products, and even easily giftable items with videos that feature an old subject.

A Child

Kids inspire instant empathy, so they are the obvious favorites for minimalist storytelling. Their objectives can be simple and easy to accomplish in a short duration. A child might really want a chocolate bar he can't have or a toy that's already sold out.

These are major problems from the subject's perspective but can be solved quickly with less than four objects. Finally, kids can be commercially viable protagonists because parents are a huge demographic.

That said, matters regarding kids are sensitive, so you have to be careful with your storytelling. Avoid emotional manipulation, as it can ruin brand trust in the long run.

Adult In Distress

Apart from the old person and the child, the only remaining character group is the adults. But unlike kids and the elderly, adults are not inherently sympathetic. So, when you feature them in a minimalist video, they must be in visible distress.

This requires creative plotting. Because only with plot can you create a problem that makes your adult subject sympathetic. Plus, it needs to be easy to solve with as few objects and characters as possible.

Since plot is that important, it only makes sense to discuss that next. Different creators have different plotting processes. You don't need to alter yours. You just have to start it right after you select your subject. This will help you determine the essential objects to feature in your story.

Loss/Absence

For your story to be compelling, someone needs to lose something or someone. Alternatively, there can be an absence that creates an intense desire for a certain outcome. For instance, an orphan does not get toys for Christmas.

He hasn't lost any toys, but still, the absence is painful enough to make getting those toys essential to the story. From a commercial perspective, such an absence or loss creates an opportunity for your brand to be positioned as a hero.

Perhaps the child gets free toys thanks to your give-back initiative. Or, in case of a loss narrative, your return and exchange policy allows the protagonist to get a new product in place of a broken one.

Selfless Gain

People have an easier time rooting for someone trying to gain something for others than for someone trying to get it for himself. So, a selfless gain narrative is an easy way to get immediate audience investment.

Selfless gain also creates a halo that associates your brand with positivity.

That said, selfless achievement can become a complex quest. And as a creator trying to produce minimalist videos, you have to keep plot complexity to a minimum. Make sure your subject's selfless gain can happen using less than five objects.

Development

The protagonist cannot remain unchanged after a video. If he does, then his story has no point. A good story leaves its characters changed in significant ways. There is an arc for every important character.

In a minimalist story, you can limit the arc to just one character, your protagonist. He can learn something, gain status, or enter a different wealth bracket.

Surprise

Finally, your video's plot must have something surprising. If it is predictable, then the video itself isn't satisfying. To keep your audience interested, you have to pepper your plot with surprises. Or at least have one big satisfying surprise towards the end–a plot twist.

So, how do you combine loss/absence, selfless gain, development, and surprise in a tight, minimalist narrative? Layer your story elements.

You can sandwich loss and selfless gain just like you can develop your character with surprise. Let's take the example of a child who doesn't have toys for Christmas.

The plot could be as follows:

1. Loss/absence - An orphan doesn't receive any gifts for Christmas.

2. Selfless gain - He decides to steal from a store to get toys for his younger siblings

3. Surprise - When he sneaks into the toy store, he finds it empty. He comes home to find toys and learns that the store owner, Mr Claus, had taken all the toys to give them out for free.

4. Development - He feels guilty for trying to steal from such a nice man and instead decides to help him. Mr Claus gives him a job.

As you'll notice, all elements are tightly woven together. The selfless gain and the initial absence are of the same object (toys). The surprise (store owner’s generosity) directly causes development.

One could storyboard this narrative in a maximalist style with all types of Christmas decorations and a huge toy store. Or one could approach it with a minimalist lens and subtract the inessential. What matters is that only the essential remains.

There are two approaches to plotting that serve this goal. And you can pick whichever suits your temperament.

The first is to plot with the essentials in mind. And the second one is to plot freely and then adjust the story to make fewer objects essential to the story. Either way, only the essentials must remain when you begin storyboarding, which is discussed further in the next section.

The Second Opinion Protocol

As a creator, you're biased in favor of every word in your script. So, you're more likely to assign essential status to things that can be removed. When you get a second opinion or a third-party editor (even better), you erase your bias.

Because the other editor hasn't created the script, he is not biased in favor of it. For minimalist videos, script editing has to be ruthless, and such ruthlessness is hard to muster for one's own creation.

The drawback of this method is that it affects your voice and authorship. If you're the kind of creative who wants exclusive credit, then bringing other parties on board might not be an option you'd consider.

You would also not want other parties involved to maintain secrecy. As a video marketer, you might be contractually obligated to keep client briefs and related deliverables strictly between you and your client.

If, for any reason, you cannot get a second opinion from anyone else, then your next option is to give yourself a second opinion.

The Distance Edit Protocol

Reducing your bias towards your own work is possible with the help of time. Time creates distance, which is why it is easier to laugh at one’s past follies. When you begin to edit your script immediately, you might find it hard to discard anything because of how close you are to the work.

As time passes, your mental state shifts, and a sense of objectivity sets in. You are not as close to your work and can see flaws. More importantly, you can see what can be removed and separate it from what must be kept.

This approach offers secrecy and credit exclusivity. You do not have to worry about leaks or plagiarism. However, you need a lot of time. And that's not something every video marketer has.

The more you wait before editing your script for length, the easier time you'll have removing its non-essential contents. For the distance edit to be effective, you need a distance of one week at a minimum. Ideally, you should wait a month before cutting your script to size.

But what if you don't have weeks of waiting time? Try the next approach and force your own hand.

The Mathematics Protocol

Mathematics is the language of objectivity. The sum of two and two is always four, regardless of anyone's opinion. Since the problem with editing your own work is your subjectivity (self-serving bias), you can use mathematics to make your edit more objective.

Mathematical constraints you can use include the following.

Word Limit

By setting a hard limit on the number of words in your script, you give yourself no option but to remove a portion of its contents. The tighter this limit, the more minimal your script is.

Object Limit

This is a limit we recommend for minimalist video design. By forcing yourself to abide by a limited object allowance, you give yourself no option but to remove excess objects. This minimizes what shows up on the storyboard.

Scene Count

Finally, you can set a hard limit on the number of scenes you'll shoot. This, when applied to a large project, can force you to remove entire scenes.

Chopping Block Quota

If you want to get serious about minimalism, you should create a quota for the number of elements (words, objects, characters, or scenes) you must remove. Feeding that quota forces you to put more on the chopping block than you would have otherwise.

With the inessential out of the way, you're ready to proceed with your project as normal. You still need to keep visual minimalism in mind, but not to the extent you have thus far.

Minimalist Content Multiplication

Content repurposing workflows can consist of five to seven apps. How about some minimalism? If you want to turn your long videos into multiple bite-sized clips for different social media platforms, then ContentFries is your minimalist content multiplying solution.

It lets you turn one piece of video content into 36+ pieces in different formats. You can use it to generate quote cards, turn videos into blog posts, and make audio podcasts out of talking head videos.

Visual Minimalism

Use the white color to essentially erase portions of the frame. Our eyes focus on color and symmetry, so as long as there are a few objects with color and they are presented symmetrically against a white backdrop, the resulting frame will appear minimal.

Use AI To Erase Background

Finally, one way to add minimalism to any existing video is to use Canva's AI-powered background eraser tool. Canva has a range of AI effects in its Magic Studio, one of which is a background eraser.

As long as your video is under 90 seconds long, you can use Canva's background eraser tool on it and turn it into a minimalist video. For this to work, the background should not be essential to the story.