Please stop saying video is important.
Because something else is getting forgotten about completely.
“Video is becoming an important part of your company’s marketing strategy…”
This phrase is still being shared on business and marketing websites. Seriously, Google it right now and results from 2018 populate the first page. This tidbit of advice would maybe have been helpful 10 years ago, and I’m not exaggerating: 2008 is when the popularity of high-quality online video began. This rapid change in the video world has created the ability to turnaround video projects in record time. Unfortunately, in all these articles no one is talking about the most critical piece of the whole project that is often being neglected during production: the script.
A brief history:
2008 was the year Canon released the 5D Mark II, a high-end (but still affordable) DSLR camera capable of capturing high-quality HD video. It was the first camera of this style that was able to do this. It’s small size and attractive image spread like wildfire to consumers and professionals alike, it was used in TV, indie films, and of course corporate video. Fun fact: This camera is what started the movement or revolution of what’s known in some buzzword-y places as the democratization of filmmaking.*
It also created a shift where videographers need to be the jack-of-all-trades in a lot of cases, from ideation through to final delivery. Being so closely involved in all steps of the way, these videographers especially know the value of having a solid, locked-down script.
You the business owner, the one paying money for this video, should know it too.
What does this mean:
Over the last ten years video marketing has become an affordable option for many individuals and businesses to spread the word. It’s a great way to show your product or service in an easy-to-consume format.
With the ability for a one-man or one-woman team to produce a slick marketing video, the appearance of speed and efficiency (therefore, cost-savings) is enticing for businesses. However, this lust for savings can lead to issues on both sides, when not enough care or effort is put in pre-production (aka the birthplace of the script.) Show me a script, and I’ll tell you if your campaign will succeed or fail, long before the record button is pressed. But it’s much more than that.
What is a script?
A script is the plan. It’s a semi-living blueprint that defines the project and its scope, including expectations, requirements, and outcomes. It survives from project creation to project close. I say ‘semi-living’ carefully, because I don’t want to give an impression that you can call an audible the day of filming and choose to shoot atop the Himalayas rather than in your humble office, however, it is not so rigid that there can’t be adjustments the day of filming. Heck, even in Hollywood a common saying is a movie is written three times: once on paper, once in the camera, and once in the edit. Things like dialogue or some action may need to be adjusted due to logistics or a hundred other reasons, but remember, if there’s a disagreement on whether to follow the script or an inspired idea on the day of filming, the script wins out. Why? Sticking to the script prevents scope-creep, and it ensures that there will be no issues when it comes to editing.
Speed is the nature of the game:
I get it, time is money. But you will save a lot of money if you put the time in the right place — the script. Here are my tips if you’re looking to get a video made for your business and want to avoid a lot of issues down the line.
Get approval from the right people
Before you set out to help produce a video for your business, make sure you know who the gatekeepers are. One example comes to mind when I was working on an animation with 200+ man-hours invested into it (in simple terms, lots of animation = lots of money). I sent the final version to the client and they were very happy. Great, another successful project! The following week, I received an email that the script would need to be rewritten. It turns out that my point of contact never ran the final script by their boss. This meant that two-thirds of the project had to be re-voiced, re-animated, and re-timed. The lesson is simple: if you’re not in charge of the final sign-off, make sure you know who is and get it done!
Collaboration is great, design-by-committee generally isn’t
I love collaborating. Nine times out of ten, more brains working together leads to more creativity and a product that is generally more effective than the fruit of just one person.
However, that ‘one-out-of-ten’ time is when it becomes a design-by-committee experiment. If something tangible is even able to be produced, the results are often lackluster and scattered at best. For the sake of clarity and focus, keep the core team of who’s invested and involved in the project small. You can involve everyone on your team if you’d wish, but give them options such as “would you want to see this style of video, or this style?” instead of open-ended feedback. I have been attached to projects that, after months of bouncing ideas around from person to person on their end, eventually collapsed because they didn’t have their objective or vision clearly stated before starting. This could’ve been laid out in the script and then easily referred to when things went off-track.
Another important note is to establish one touchpoint between your team and the videographer. Personally, it’s a requirement in my contract to have a single point of contact with the client. It’s so easy for things to get mixed up, contradicted or lost when a video producer is answering emails and calls from 4 different people from the same team. Email threads are okay, until someone forgets to Reply All. Videographers shouldn’t have to serve as an arbiter between two members of your team who can’t agree on something. Determine everything internally and then have a single member contact the video team.
Listen to the video nerds
If my blog post lengths are any indication, us video folk love talking video. We’re around this stuff all day, so don’t be afraid to ask for our opinion. We of course want to help you share your vision and meet (and exceed!) your expectations, but we’re here to help make that vision the best it can be.
Whiteboard animation videos were all the rage a few years back, and I think can be a good way to explain a complex topic. If you’re unfamiliar, they’re a video style that has an overhead view of a whiteboard where an artist then draws out what is being spoken in the narration. I was involved with a project where the client saw one of these videos somewhere and wanted it done for their project. We thought that while the whiteboard animation could work, a full animation would be even more effective (after all they wanted to pay for an artist to draw everything live, which would’ve worked out to the same price as a full animation anyway.) In the end they didn’t agree, and a whiteboard animation video was produced, which is totally fine, it’s their project. However not long after, free software came out that made it possible for someone to create whiteboard animations with very little experience. So now the video gets lost with every other video of that style. Which leads me to my final point…
Be authentic
With more and more video being produced it’s harder to stand out. The best way is to be authentic. It’s too easy to see through the fluff, and even easier to scroll right past it in your news-feed, but being unique will really help lift you out of the noise of everything else that’s out there. Be yourself and really put that into the project. This is best done, yep you know it, during scripting.
I hope this helps refocus your priorities when it comes to marketing yourself using video. The script is your best friend. Put time into that relationship and really make it something special. Maybe bake it cookies. Take it to the movies. You get the picture.
*Although the Nikon D90 (of which I’m still a proud owner) was the first DSLR to boast video recording, the 5D MkII was the first DSLR to offer 1080p recording.
