PentaVision's "What's Your Story?" Blog

Last time I raised some questions that marketing decision-makers needed to think about and answer in order to make effective online videos for their brand.  Today I’ll offer some answers to some of the questions you should ask in planning a video.

Last time I mentioned several questions to address.  Among them:

• Does the audio involve an on-camera spokesperson or narrator?  Both have their benefits and drawbacks.

• Do you need to incorporate people to interview on camera?  If so, where will those interviews be conducted?  Is it a controlled environment, free of sound and traffic disruptions?

• What are the interview questions to be asked?  Who will ask them?

• What is being shown visually while the audio is being heard?

• If it is a technical video, what is the best way to demonstrate the key points?

• If it is a service video, how do you show this service being performed?

• Will you have someone within your organization capture the audio and video or will you hire a professional producer?

Once you’ve answered these (and other) questions, it’s time to talk production.  The first thing I try to stress to clients is that, although you may be shooting a video for the web, you can’t just go out and shoot a bunch of things and then make something out of it in post production.  You need a plan.

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Why is it you can have a light on for the entire time you’re setting up and blocking a shot but right when someone calls “Action!” the lamp burns out? How can it be that when you look away from the viewfinder for a split second, when you look back, there’s a car parked in your perfectly-framed shot? Who thought it would be a “cute setup” to have a dog AND a child? With lines? If that last take was “perfect,” why are we doing it again? How come when you just start getting to the usable portion of a great interview, the battery warning light flashes ugly red?

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If you grew up in the days before email was the preferred method for sharing information with friends and family, then you probably remember chain letters. I was born in 1978 and fell into that in-between group that started using the Internet for email and basic research in middle school and high school on our dial-up Internet connection (insert look of horror here). As a young child I remember mail arriving for me; the envelope indicating that it had come from a best friend or acquaintance written in the slapdash scrawl usually reserved for young children and physicians.

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In a few days “March Madness” begins and fans can’t help but be reminded of “bubble teams”, “seeding” and “bracket busters.”  Along with the euphoria that is generated by die-hard basketball fans, there are numerous “casual fans” who simply participate in the three-week event by submitting their best guesses – in bracket form – of the winner of the national championship.  As I ponder my own choices for this year’s Final Four, I am also thinking about how this event – and sports in general – have changed in terms of marketing.

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Let’s talk about an innovation blocker, one that I like to call The Ghost of Innovation Past a.k.a. “the GIP.” A common discussion in innovation circles is how to remove obstacles to innovation. The thought is that people want to innovate but are held back by their rigid companies. The GIP is one of those things that makes companies rigid but get this, it can also make you rigid! Read the rest of this entry →

Quality or quantity. You’ve heard these words used to describe plenty of things; work, products, food and even people. In the world of digital media production, they are often used to describe one very important element; light. Yes, light. Brightness. Radiance.  Illumination. Without quantity, it becomes a project for radio. Without quality, it becomes an average, ordinary, just like everybody else looking video.

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