I had the pleasure of giving a presentation on video storytelling at Third Sector New England last week and thought I would share a snippet of Q&A from the event:
One participant asked about how to strike a balance when working with a video producer. When do you weigh in on what video content should be used? When do you allow the producer to make editing decisions, knowing that he or she might not be as invested in the outcome of the video? I had two reactions to this question.
If you don’t feel that your video producer is as excited about or as committed to the success of the project as you are, then you might be working with someone who isn’t the best fit. When selecting a video partner, it is really important to identify someone who cares about your mission and your goals. Is the video producer asking you questions, sometimes challenging ones, about your organization? Is he or she demonstrating a genuine interest in what you are looking to accomplish and in reaching your target audience(s)?
In our experience, approaching video production as a collaborative process works well. You know your organization and your target audience best, so it makes sense for you to identify the “must have” messages and “must have” b-roll (the non-talking head footage you use to enrich the story you want to tell) to be included in the video. Once you define those parameters, then your video producer can offer a third party perspective as to what visuals are compelling and work towards crafting an initial draft for your review. There will likely be some healthy back and forth to hone the messaging and get the video down to your desired length.
If you and your video producer are having trouble agreeing on what to cut and what to keep, take a step back, look at the footage, and see if it is possible to create more than one video from the footage that you have captured. If you feel like precious material is ending up on the “cutting room floor,” that’s a good problem to have! Create more video assets that you can share with your target audience(s) across multiple channels over time.
Questions about the process of working with a video producer come up often for us. Awhile back, we wrote up a summary of the various steps in production, and how the producer and client often collaborate.