I recently sat down at a meeting with a large company that produces a high-end product. The company wants to produce a video that will showcase the quality of their product while giving the viewer a behind the scenes look at what goes into making it.
As a producer, my job is to learn as much about a company and what it does as I can to develop a message that will translate to an interesting and entertaining video production. When considering a video for your business, be it a marketing video, training video, or a commercial make sure you know what you want to say and how you want the business represented. Also don't just hire a video production company and let them freely come up with the script and what needs to be shot. A lot of video production companies out there will offer to come to your facility and shoot for 5 hours...ok then what? Shoot what? What about a script? Editing?
The main thing I try to get out of my clients is "what makes you different from your competition". Customers are more educated now then ever. With the internet they have access to unlimited information and can research products and read about people that actually use their product. Think about what makes you different, then work with your production company to make that come to life visually on the screen.
You know your business better than anyone you hire to produce a video. Take the time to talk to the producer at length about what it is you do and how you want it represented on the video. A good producer will have ideas as to how to shoot and will give you things to think about that you may have not considered.
The great thing about being a video producer is that I get to, for a little while, live the life of whatever company I am working for. I find this useful because nearly every business uses their own language to describe themselves, that language is not how your customers necessarily talk about you or describe you. A good video producer acts as a third party and will be able to give you another angle to consider when producing a video for your business.
chris AT take2visualmedia DOT COM
