February 28, 2017

10 Steps to create a successful video: Brainstorm

How many times have you heard someone say, “I have a great idea for a video!”? How often has that idea come to light? In your excitement, you might be tempted to leap right into production before you’ve decided just what you want your video to be about, or exactly how you plan to go about making it. This can lead to false starts, confusion, and wasted energy.

There’s a timeless saying, “Plan your shoot and shoot your plan.” It is much wiser to clarify your thoughts and put them down on paper before rushing into production. This way you have a road map. Think of it this way, you don’t leave for a trip via car when heading to a place you have never been before, do you? Maybe you’re the adventurous type and do, but for the 99 percentile of folks, you would plan your trip, use a GPS or some type of map, giving you step-by-step directions. Video is just like any other project; you need a road map to help get you to where you need to go.

Jack’s Tip! (Maybe a Jack Graphic here?) “It is much wiser to clarify your thoughts and put them down on paper before rushing into production.”

The following steps to a finished program can be used as a guideline to keep your production moving smoothly.

  1. Brainstorm
  2. Research
  3. Create an outline
  4. Plan and schedule
  5. Scout your location and reserve equipment
  6. Find crew
  7. Shoot the program
  8. Reserve edit time and edit
  9. Schedule your program for cablecast
  10. Publicize your program

We’re going to spend the next several articles reviewing each one of these steps in-detail. Today, we’re starting with “Step 1: Brainstorm!”

Step 1: Brainstorm

When people watch television, they expect to be entertained. Remember, you are not just explaining your message. You are combining images and sounds to create a piece that your audience will experience for a very short time. First, youll want to figure out certain things:

Ideas: What main ideas will the program include?

Audience: Who is your audience? For example, do you want to address recent immigrants to the community rather than long-term residents of the community or both? What do the people in your audience already know about your subject? What might make them want to know more?

Objectives: What are your objectives? Do you want to inform people? Stir up discussion? Increase public interest and awareness? Change peoples behavior, induce them to volunteer their time or lobby political representatives? Do you want people to laugh, cry, think about things in a new way, listen and look at things differently? Feel differently?

Resources: How much time and money are you willing to invest?

How far can you travel? Do you have access to the necessary equipment? How experienced is your crew? Can you obtain permission and afford the fee if you want to use copyrighted material?

Stay tuned when we go over Step 2: Research on our next blog post!