Letting Go of the Kitchen Sink.
So you've just discovered (or been told) that your company
needs a video... and you're in charge of it.
Congratulations! You are about to embark on a fun and
exciting journey- one that is not always easy, but one that
will leave you with a true sense of accomplishment,
positive reactions from your customers, and hopefully... a
pretty feather in your cap for the boss.
You have the privilege to create basically something out of
nothing, where the sky is the limit. Starting with a
gaseous idea (creativity), together we'll begin to mold and
shape a moving and engaging presentation of only pictures,
music and sound. Intangible items that can, when properly
combined, strongly persuade your audience to believe in and
stand behind your message.
Oh, but wait... just what is your message? That is the
greatest question you could possibly ask yourself now.
Before anything else... before the storyboards are inked,
before the lights come up, and before the camera rolls...
you must determine a central and resounding message.
This may seem like the absolute obvious, like there should
be a quick and easy answer. But believe me, this can often
be the most difficult decision of the entire process. And
for good reason too. Most companies and their advocates
are excited about what they do. They are excited about the
opportunity to use video to tell their story. As a result,
they are often reluctant to let any of the detailed selling
points hit the cutting room floor. When producing a video,
though, this is the amateur's demise. You cannot approach
video production as you would any other form of print
material. It just doesn't translate. It leads to a
mundane, unsuccessful product.
I often ask my clients a series of questions, some basic
and some bizarre; to help them narrow down what really is
important. My favorite basic question is always this: "If
your audience could take away just one thing from your
video, what would it be?" Video is a powerful medium, but
one that must be focused and concentrated to be effective.
We've all seen a video where the copywriter threw in
everything and the kitchen sink. What's the one thing we
all took away from that video? Nothing... in fact, it took
from us several minutes of our lives we'd love to have
back. Luckily, we can take advantage of the fact that
today's generation is extremely media savvy.
We've been brought up on moving pictures that tell us
stories without using words. Go back and watch a movie
from the 1930s when audiences weren't keen to deciphering
information from a moving picture medium. Everything is
blatant and often ridiculously spelled out in great length.
Today's audience is deftly capable of garnering plots,
sub-plots, character nuances and clues from a mere five
seconds of cleverly crafted flashing pictures and sound.
So if you could take away one thing from this article it
would simply be this: Effective videos rely on the old
adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Once you've
found your one (I repeat... one) message, let the pictures
begin to circulate around that message and tell a thousand
more stories. You don't need the voiceover narrator to
explain every little detail of your story. That is not
interesting to your viewer. Instead, rely on a good
director and crew to splash your story across the screen
with rich, well thought out images. These images will
support your message, yet quickly expound upon it in ways
you didn't even know were possible. If a factory wants to
tout that their production floor is very "clean and
orderly," we wouldn't bother even saying it. We'd emphasis
it best by just properly showing it. Seeing a well crafted
shot, in High Definition preferably, down the factory line
with each workstation in impeccable order while hearing the
workers' shoes squeak as they walk by screams this sub
selling point with a credibility found nowhere else.
It may feel like too subtle an approach at times, but once
you sit down to view the final cut in the editing suite
with a latte, you can't help but realize you've built a
product that delivers a resounding impact. Your video
production experience will be that much more rewarding, and
your product will be that much more effective if you just
let go of the kitchen sink and surround your one true
message with beautiful pictures that speak for themselves.
----------------------------------------------------
Metro Productions is a full-service video and multimedia
production company headquartered in Virginia. Metro
Productions provides clients with the ability to realize
the benefits of high-end visual media products for the
purpose of sales, marketing, recruitment and training.
Delivery mediums for these productions include DVD,
streaming media and broadcast quality High Definition
applications.
http://www.metro-productions.com
