I Haven't Got Time to Commission a Video!
Funnily enough, I’ve heard this a few times before.
And I understand!
Your business is not about video, and whether you’re the CEO, the Marketing Director or the work experience kid, chances are, you’re pretty busy.
Unless you’ve been involved in a few video productions before, the process of finding someone to make it for you, being confident you’re not getting ripped off, writing a brief, overseeing the whole thing…. it can be pretty daunting. Whoever you end up working with, make sure that they have the experience to take the stress out of it for you. If you’re paying someone else to deliver a service, they should be taking work off your plate, not adding more to it.
So let’s start at the beginning.
Obviously if you know exactly what you want to achieve and how you’re going to do it with video, that’s awesome. But if you’re not sure on some of these points, have chat with a few video producers as they’ll be more than happy to share some ideas with you.
From there, it’s good to get the objectives and any other notes written out into a Brief. But you don’t HAVE to do this yourself. A lot of producers – us included – will be happy to discuss ideas with you to get an understanding of what you want, and then turn that into a written Brief for you to review and approve. This makes sure everyone understands what the project is about, and what direction it’s going in.
Quick tip for you – if you want to write your own Brief but haven’t done it before, here’s our guide Writing the Perfect Brief, and I even include a free downloadable template for you to use.
From the Briefing stage, you should then expect your chosen producer to come back with a proposal for you. This can include some – if not all – of the following:
- An understanding of your company, your products or services, your competitors and your customers.
- An understanding of the objectives of the video.
- Any creative direction or notes (liked or disliked) you may have discussed.
- What deliverables are expected (including technical specification if you have a specific one you need).
- Where is the video going and who will be watching it?
- What’s the call to action?
- How will you measure the success of the video?
- What’s the deadline?
- Budget. If you have one in advance – just say so. I realise some people will be worried they are going to be charged coincidentally exactly what their budget is, even if the cost should be lower, but this plays back to my point on trust. If you don’t trust who you’re working with, don’t use them. But there’s no point in a video producer building up a brief for a video that will cost ￡20k to produce, if you only have ￡3k to spend.
The above isn’t exhaustive, but it’s a good start.
And I say it again – you don’t need to pull all of this together yourself. A good 15 minute conversation with your video producer asking the right questions will give them what they need to draft this for you. You can then review/amend/approve and get the project moving forwards.
Arguably this Brief stage is the most important – if you get everything right at this point, it will avoid unnecessary issues further down the line.
After this, things should gather pace – scripts and storyboards (if required), then on to confirming filming dates, locations, subjects, interview questions – all of it will stem from the Brief agreed at the start.
On the day/s of filming, it’s always a good idea to have a representative of the commissioning client in attendance, but I go back to the T word again – if you trust who you’re working with, arguably they can achieve what they need to achieve whether you’re there or not. Some might say this part of the trust process comes with experience in working together though.
Once we get into draft edits, there’s no hiding from the fact that you’ll need to view them and send comments back for requested amendments. Or hopefully come back and say it’s prefect first-time!
All in all, the process doesn’t need to be a stressful one and shouldn’t be an extra burden on your workload. Pick the right production partner to work with who has the experience and expertise to handle the entire project for you, and all you need to do is enjoy the benefits of the end product.