When you have that great idea for a video and ready to select a production company to bring it to life, one of the keys to success is the ability to follow an intuitive approach.
For every project that comes our way, the idea has already been visualised by the client in some shape or form – whether an extensive production brief or a simple thought that needs to be explored further. The production company’s intuition is a crucial element to that video reaching it’s maximum potential.
Intuition is a powerful tool. It’s the perfect balance to compliment strategies, data, analytics and activations – thinking outside the box as they say.
When it comes to the audience you want to attract it’s imperative to look at the data available, the distribution platforms and what others, such as your competitors are doing. But there is also an element of intuition that must play a part. You need to go deep down and ask yourself ‘is this going to work?’ Does your gut tell you it’s a good idea or a not so sure feeling?
The majority of our work is by repeat business, referrals or word of mouth. I’d like to think a big reason they come back to us is because of the intuitive nature of our process. But the clients also use their own intuition to identify if we are the right business to take on their project. Many simply run ideas past us to get our creative response and to see the opportunities that the idea can lead to.
Intuition isn’t about making a quick decision, it’s about having various options in front of you to study and make your own call on which you feel is the right one – even with all the relevant stats, figures and information.
In the process of video production, I use intuition when considering all of the following questions:
• What is the best way to bring this idea to life?
• How can we make the production process easy and seamless for the client?
• How can we make them look good not only to the audience, but to their managers and colleagues?
• How can we make it engage the target audience?
• What’s the best platform to show the video?
• Who will be the ideal crew members to bring on board for this project?
While the client is front of mind, I’m also thinking about others in the process. It’s about putting ourselves in the shoes of the audience, using empathy and trying to decide the best approach to engage them.
There’s also a level of expectation from the different crew members involved to apply their own intuition.
• For a writer, it’s identifying the right language to use.
• For a production manager, it’s about coordinating all the elements of a production that gives the best value for everyone’s time and budget – and also making the clients job as easy as possible.
• For the director/producer it can be as simple as identifying people’s personalities. A good example is instinctively knowing when a person may feel uncomfortable being in front of camera or answering a difficult question and then working out the solution to get the best result.
• For the cameraman they need to keep in mind the best shots to capture to tell the story, even if sometimes they aren’t directed to do so, they may capture extra b-roll just to be sure.
• Which leads on to the editor, whose role is maybe the most intuitive of all, working out how to build the best story from the elements captured and if there are any holes, then coming up with their own ideas to ‘plug’ them.
These are just some examples of the intuitive approach taken by a production team. I strongly believe the more intuition used by a production team, the better the outcome.
In fact, when you are ready to decide on a production company to produce your next video, it’s not all about costs and equipment. You need to trust your own intuition to make the right choice for the success of your project.
We would love the opportunity to talk more about the intuitive approach that we provide, trust your instinct and either give us a call at 1300 174 773 or email us at [email protected]
Because we all live in a visual culture….