Monday, February 23, 2009

Corporate Videos: Redux [or how YOU can work with US effectively]

This is on a related note to the previous post about corporate videos. And also sparked off by some recent encounters of the le sigh kind.

'How good a corporate video is [or could be] does have quite a lot to do with the capabilities and attitude of the client [and not just the production team]'

As a content producer serving a client, we do need the clients to know what they want - or at least be able to work with us actively so that we could help them realize what exactly they want to say with the video.

From there, then can we craft their message[s] for them. Only when there is some meat and direction to the content, then could [or perhaps, should] we talk about the fancier details like treatment, talents and storyboards.

All this should really be done before we even switch on the camera and roll a single frame!

I believe this is how clients can best utilize the capabilities of the production team they engage for their video projects.

Yes, by the demands of circumstances and nature of production, we production folks have been forced to evolve into miracle workers - fighting the good fight against the impossible odds of deadlines, budgets and 1001 constraints.

Unfortunately, despite our capabilities as creative consultants who could possibly spin a beauuuutiful story about a client's message... we do not possess the skill of 'mind-reading'. So if despite all our efforts to guide our clients through the process of pre-production, in order to excavate the precise message[s] they're trying to convey, and we're still not getting anywhere close to having a non-fuzzy picture... then the road ahead is going to be a bumpy one for all involved.

Sink or swim together, man.