I HAVE TO MAKE A VIDEO?

You’re sitting at work one day, doing your best Costanza impression, trying to avoid getting too much on your plate and your boss comes to you and says… “we should post a video about that thing,” and although you COULD just google a “how to” and maybe watch a few tutorials on YouTube, it may be best to take a step back, ask yourself “why was I asked to do this?” and then work on a game plan for how to go about achieving the goal ahead of you. You may want to engage with a Creative Director.

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE The West Wing. 156 Episodes and I think I’ve binged the entire series AT LEAST 5 times. Yea… that’s a lot, I know, don’t judge me.

In Season 1 Episode 19, “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet,” the White House Chief of Staff encourages the President to be himself. Stop being timid, stop letting the responsibilities of the job keep him from DOING the job. Basically Leo, (the Chief of Staff) reminds the President that he has a whole staff to keep him safe, you just be YOU!

Video content is a complicated beast. Yes, technology allows more and more people to create a video and even get it on the internet, but the process of doing it AND delivering a clear, effective message can be daunting. Frankly, if you DON’T see making a video as being potentially difficult you probably SHOULDN’T be doing it on your own.

Oftentimes we talk about “best practices,” what is the best and most effective way to go about a task. Video creation benefits from over a century of putting moving images on screens, and probably the number one thing that is overlooked in making a GREAT video is delegation.

By engaging a team, headed up by a Creative Director, you will be leaning into experience and know-how that is likely outside of your core competency. Although the idea of being Steven Spielberg for a week may sound fun, and you’ve always dreamed about sitting in one of those cool Directors Chairs on set (inside tip… they are VERY uncomfortable), you have to remind yourself that you were asked to take on this task because you understood the subject matter and your boss felt YOU were best qualified to share that information.

Likely you weren’t chosen to make a video about a new product offering just because you were seen once at an office function with a video camera in your hand. (And if that IS why you were chosen, good grief.) You were chosen because you know what you’re talking about. That’s a good thing. It is a vote of confidence from your superior that you have information that needs to be delivered to your target audience.

The particulars of just HOW to go about creating a video can be confusing. How you can take this work and leverage it into multiple videos to be used on various platforms, (website, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook), is a whole OTHER beast. You should seriously consider allowing other creative professionals to engage and advise you how to navigate the quagmire of all the various formats and resolutions to optimally deliver to all these destinations.

Leaning into seasoned professionals to handle the technical details and develop a video-optimized creative treatment can be very liberating and just allow YOU to concentrate on the messaging and what ACTUALLY has to be said.

In other words, “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet”.

Chris Fenwick is the Lead Editor at SL\CE Editorial and has a 40 year head start making all the mistakes that you are about to make on your first video.