Corporate Video Production - How To Make Sure You Get What You Need

Jan. 23, 2013 - PRLog -- Never work with children and animals was the old photographers adage.
It applies just as much today but plus another couple for the digital age that are particularly applicable for those of us in business.  First, never let your website designer decide the content of your web site and second, never let a video company unduly influence the content of your corporate video production.


Now that might sound like very controversial advice but just think about it.  The team of geeks designing your company website or the budding Speilberg’s producing your corporate video have probably never been in business themselves.  They view the world from the comfort of a monthly pay-check. Their main concern will be to produce something that looks good and will hopefully win awards.  While you on the other hand have probably spent years working all hours god sends and mortgaged the house to the hilt to build up your business to the point where you can afford a dazzling new web site or slick corporate video.  The thing is, you understand your business and your customers better than anyone.

Remember, no matter how much you dress them up, websites and corporate videos are just information conduits and nothing more.  The people designing them are probably experts in …well designing and building them, not running a business and certainly not one like yours. The crucial thing is that you and only you can decide what information should run through those conduits and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

When it comes to corporate video production, even before you start making a few calls here is what you should do.  Take three pieces of paper and make three lists.  The first list should be all the things that you simply must include – the ones without which your video just won’t be worth even considering.  On the second piece of paper make another list of all the things you would really like to include and on the third piece jot down all the things you’d like to cover time and money permitting.  Don’t rush this list making process in fact take as much time as you need, hours, weeks months if necessary, because the process you’re going through is worth its weight in gold – it’s helping you see the wood from the trees and defining precisely what is important to you and your business.  When you’ve finally completed the process re-visit each list and prioritise each item.  More likely than not it will be the first ten or so items on your first list that are at the nub of what you want from your corporate video.

Congratulations you have taken the first but crucial step of writing your video script.  Now is the time to pick up the phone and start talking to likely video production companies.  You will be able to give them precisely the information you need to communicate and in turn they’ll be able to set about suggesting the best to go about doing it. They can do that safe in the knowledge of exactly what it is you want to say.  The next step in the video production process is to write a script that covers each one of those most critical points.  That is a highly specialised process and needs someone with the ability to write compelling imaginative copy while holding visual images firmly in mind.  It’s something you shouldn’t try to do yourself and I’ll be explaining why in the next piece.