We nailed it! Lately, by the grace of God, our team has been nailing it when it comes to video content.
As Andy Stanley explained in his ‘Your Move’ podcast, you should pause and find out why you are gaining ‘momentum’ – or ‘winning’ – as an organization. It’s necessary to take quality time to analyze exactly what you did to set up and establish the win so you can keep doing those things.
For example, our recent win was ‘Netflixion’ for our client, Dustin Ahkuoi, a talented songwriter, performer and comedic genius. He brought a great idea to us and asked to partner on the project. The song was genius but that didn’t mean the video would be. Take a peek at the music video! It even made the local, 11Alive News.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzkxVJUYXrQ
We found four main ways to win big after we paused for some ‘Netflixion’ reflection.
- Listen to your client. Don’t assume you know what they need. Who’s the audience and what do they want people to do after they watch it? We listened to Dustin, he gave us examples and we went to work on a design.
- Set up your environment for your team to win. For us, there are specific things we need in place to be successful as a team. We like to make sure we have these elements in play every time.
- Take your time with pre-production and planning. It’ll pay off huge!
- Choose shots wisely. Every shot should be as sexyas the last (sorry, Ma).
- Establish a well-oiled post-production process (editing).
- On set, create an environment for the camera team, producers and director to succeed – don’t leave anyone hanging out to dry. Give them what they need to do their job well.
- Tell a great story. Don’t settle. Don’t take shortcuts. Be bold and be weird. Your brand is on the line. I remember taking 15 minutes to get one shot (the one with the wine glass) that only had two seconds of airtime in the final video. Even the crew wanted to ‘move on‘. As the director, I knew what I wanted for that shot. It was a fanboy/fangal shot, too. It had to be right. It was important to get it right for the story’s sake. We need to tell a great story for our client. Nothing less.
“We need to figure out why we have momentum, so we can keep doing those things.”
- Meet the client’s expectations. Too many times, I have seen people simply take the paycheck. If your heart is not in the project, why did you take the job? The relationship with your client is a real, tangible relationship. Nurture the relationship, set out to meet their needs and it will bear fruit.
This is typically how we set up our team to win. Listen to the client, set up a winning environment, tell a great story and meet your client’s expectations.