How to Make Shit-hot Corporate Videos, Episode 1
I work with Communications and Marketing professionals. You may be one of these people. I hope you are. I make videos for them/you.
Recently I was working with a client on a series of training films. She had some process-driven content to convey, so we were looking at ways to inject some interest into it to ensure the viewers would be best able to take on the board the training being espoused.
We explored some ideas and eventually broke the dry training content down into short scenes, which were woven together with physical action performed by the cast, then layered up with motion graphics and screenshots of intranet training pages.
This process involved writing a colour-coded screenplay that indicated clearly when and how the various elements of the film interacted with each other to convey the film’s messages.
“Is it always this complex?” she asked.
In that moment I suddenly realised that whilst I’m very familiar with the process of filmmaking, my clients usually aren’t. In fact my experience is increasingly that I find myself working with clients who’ve never made a video before - which must be daunting for them/you.
Nothing wrong with that, except that if you don’t know the process then it’s hard to get the most out of it. It’s hard for them/you to know why we’re allocating line items in the budget to certain processes. It’s hard to know why things have to be done in a certain order, especially when animation is involved.
If you’re new to the process it’s hard for them/you to get the best film possible for the money.
So, to put this right I’ve started writing a book. It’s working title is ‘How to Make Shit-hot Corporate Videos.’ It does what it says on the tin. It’s a guide from me to you, to help you in your journey if you’ve been charged with the task of commissioning a video from an agency and you’ve not done it before.
Making videos is a complex business. And my aim is to make it easier for you, as a non-filmmaker, to understand. The outcome, I hope is that you’ll feel more confident in the process and better equipped to make Shit-hot Corporate Videos.
Watch this space for episode 2, where we’ll get into the detail and considerations of the Development process.
If you'd like to be sent notifications of future episodes please email me at alan@alangardner.tv
www.alangardner.tv
