“Close enough for government work.”

This was another way of saying, “Good enough for those stupid people”, or “This audience doesn’t deserve my best work, or “I want to go home.”

What it said to me about that employee or colleague was that he or she didn’t care– about the audience or their own integrity. And that shortsightedness came from a stereotype of the average viewing audience: They’re impatient, stupid, and need everything spoon-fed.

Wow.

I mean, wow.

Is there any chance that these producers were right? Simply, are audiences stupid?

Look in the mirror. Are you?

The answer is no. Just because an audience doesn’t know the difference between a Red camera and a DVcam; Klieg lights vs. Kino-flo’s, or iambic pentameter from Mother Goose doesn’t mean they don’t know what is good. They are the audience. They are the biggest group of critics around, and they know what they like.

They like stories.

In Hollywood, they approve with their dollars. In business, they approve with action, commitment, or a bit of both.

They are us; we are they– if it’s too complicated for us, its too complicated for them. If it’s intriguing to us, it’s intriguing to them.

Examples? Christopher Nolan; Orson Welles; M. Night Shyamalan. Their work challenges the audience and keeps them intrigued.

Corporate examples? Videos that don”t preach, meetings that don’t pander, speeches that reduce the PowerPoint to clear, illustrative, intriguing pictorial elements.

Why simply say “We need better customer service” in a video, when kids in a Lemonade Stand can better or more arrestingly tell “the story?”

Why preach about miscalibrated machining equipment and the resultant costs when you can produce a film-noir-like mystery?

Why have the CEO of a corporation sit at his or her desk and lecture on building brand loyalty when interviews with real customers can make that case more convincingly and more humanly?

It’s the story, stupid.

Even the stupid audience knows that.

No, I’m not looking– but since I have done my share of hiring in the past few decades I am always curious as to the expectations set by help wanted ads for creatives.

Let’s forget for a second the impossible expectations and laughable language used in such ads (“Must eat, breath and live advertising”; “You don’t think outside the box, you are the box”, etc.

What interests me is that in a video and web driven world, creativity is often defined not by writing, design or storytelling capability, but instead by the software and hardware employed.

This ad said (paraphrased), “Video producer wanted to produce web videos for our catalog pages and web site. Knowledge of Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, and After Effects required.”

Uh… why? Does a knowledge of these particular programs guarantee that you know the basics of design, writing, creative direction, photography, photo touch-up, shooting and editing?

This was followed by “Windows platform preferred.”

I can see the Windows platform (or Mac platform) preference as perhaps reasonable, since the company may have standardized on and invested in plenty of hardware that is single platform centric. That’s a business decision.

But eliminating perhaps 70% of your creative applicants because they use some other software than what you like or know is like a curator at the Met, MOMA, or Guggenheim who only hangs paintings that use a #12 Kolinsky Red Sable Art Brush.

The talented and driven can and will adapt to almost any software or hardware. That’s easily learned. What can’t easily be learned is what is done with the tools, whether they are using typewriters, yellow legal pad, or Final Cut Pro or Microsoft Word or Final Draft.

It’s the story, stupid. And that’s the basis on which you should hire.

There are two ways to approach writing a script for a video: before you shoot, and after you shoot.

Before you shoot is where the majority of corporate and event videos
land; after you shoot usually indicates that you’re conducting
interviews and won’t know what material you’ll have until after the
interviews.

Let’s look at the first, and most traditional, method.

Scriptwriting is the art and craft of extrapolating a creative
approach into a working creative plan. A script is more than just the
words. It is the blueprint that indicates the structure or flow of your
video, what kinds of shots are necessary, what kinds of graphics are
appropriate, and what types of music might be used or created.

My first business partner couldn’t do wordplay worth a damn, but he
actually was an excellent scriptwriter, because he knew how to pace a
piece of communications. So whether you think you’re a writer or not,
let’s look at the basics of how you can craft your creative blueprint.

The Creative Plan

Before you begin writing, you must know what your strategy is.
Whether you’re selling widgets or telling the life story of Uncle
Teddy, you must know your beginning, middle and end.

I believe all creative plans follow some essential rules of marketing, and often follow the same basic outline for the script.

Marketing Rules

These hardly ever vary. They are called many things, have sold a lot of books, and been rehashed over and over.

But they work. It’s all centered around the person you’re trying to
sell. It’s called the USP, or unique selling proposition. Ya gotta have
one!

From the USP comes the ability to do the following:

• State a clear benefit.
• Offer proof.
• Have a unique angle.
• Show the solution.
• Eliminate objections.
• Ask for the sale (or the demo).

In the video script world, this might look like:

• Introduction or Premise
• Who we are
• What we do
• Why we’re different
• What’s in it for you
• Ask for the sale

Really. That’s about it. Remember, this is not a brochure. People’s attention spans are short.

Now, let’s say you want to create buzz so that MyCO, your new
computerized inventory management company (and its new product, “The
Docufab 5000”), can look large enough to compete with the big dog in
your field— we’ll call them BigCo.

BigCo owns the market, but they’re— big. Slow to innovate, slow to
respond to customer requests. They haven’t revised their product
offering in 5 years.

You want to eat their lunch (or, if you’re starting out, any lunch at all), and you have just the product to do it.

You have just enough money to make a video, which you figure you’ll
show to customers on your laptop, in your trade show booth (a massive
8’x10’ with a table), and on your website.

Video Outline

Let’s look at the questions to ask yourself.

1. What outcome do I want from this video?
2. What unique thing does my company offer?
3. How does this product embody that unique feature (or philosophy)?
4. What’s in it for the customer?
5. What hang-ups does the customer have?
6. How do we move to the next step?

In this case, the next step is being put on the bid list, being
asked to make a presentation to upper management, or being asked to
make a proposal. This is also the outcome you want.

You are sensitive to the needs of the industry and are a house of
ideas, moving fast, developing solutions, adapting your patented
technologies to companies large and small.

Your product offers ImageFast, a revolutionary way to reduce scan time and speed document flow over traditional Cat5 wire.

This will offer the customer a direct impact in greater
productivity, faster shipping turnaround, less time spent running
around looking for manuals, and allow the company to sell and ship more
of whatever it is they do. (The hidden bonus is the hero factor— the
person that buys this product will introduce such productivity and
profit to the company that he or she will get a raise and a corner
office— of course, this is implied, not stated.)

Now think it through— you’ve got a better product than BigCo— is
there anything that would make a potential customer NOT buy what you’re
selling?

Yes, you’re young enough to look like you just came out of high
school. Your track record is neither good nor bad— it’s empty. So you
get an endorsement from your Uncle Don who’s a well known civil
engineer (or a past customer, if you’re well established).  Maybe you
grow a beard.

And you offer a guarantee.

The Final Structure

So now, let’s look at our final outline:

• Document management is slow, and industry leaders are not keeping up with bandwidth demands.
• You have a solution that’s unique to the industry.
• You are MyCo, a company dedicated to R&D and solutions that provide productivity and profit. You never stop innovating.
• The Docufab 5000 blows the competition away. You proceed to tell how. (features)
• The Docufab 5000 will change your company for the better, is upgradable, etc. (benefits)
• Let us demonstrate our system and give you a quote. If you’re not 100%
  satisfied, we’ll (fix it, refund your money, whatever…)— we believe in
  our product and good old-fashioned customer service.

Okay, now you have to add spice, or the hook— the unique angle.
You’re dedicated to productivity, speed, and service. For a fraction of
what BigCo might quote for a new system, you will revolutionize the
customer’s business with profits, productivity, and volume.

All the customer has to do is— “Do the Math.”

That becomes your hook. It’s a good one, because it de-emphasizes
being big, established, safe, etc. It says, “If I can offer you my
unique solution to save you this much money— will you take a chance on
me?”

We’re skimming the surface, but at least now you’ve thought through
goal setting and creative planning for almost any video project, at
least those that are written before the shooting begins.

Now, HOW to write the words is another story, and one we’ll tell soon.

Want to see the video this story was actually based on? Go to http://www.vimeo.com/806538.

Anheuser Busch, according to this article in Ad Age, is getting into the short form content business– IE, web videos, virals, videos, etc.

Those of us who’ve been in video a long time have learned that today’s client can be tomorrow’s competitor. Many major corporations created in-house production companies as an economic move once they were producing high volumes of av communications.

But that was a reaction to cost, and much of the creative element– scripts, direction– was still sourced from the outside.

The web is changing that. The sheer volume of opportunity– combined with a mass marketing of video production tools– means the experienced video or multimedia producer is now competing with Ad Agencies, design firms, in-house departments, PR firms, and the marketing director’s cousin who has a camcorder.

The A-B production company apparently will specialize in short sit-coms
and humor pieces. That’s what is selling on the web, so that’s what
they’re going after.

They–and everyone else. If it’s funny it
must be good, must move product, and  must be worth investing millions
in to be able to self-produce. Not always.

Corporations have done their own
printing, training videos, and PowerPoints for decades. But this new approach is
like taking brand identity or image advertising in-house. In the short
term, it works. But eventually inside politics wins over outside
objectivity– and out goes the advertising to someone who can provide
more of a world view. What goes around….

Which isn’t to say
this move by Busch won’t work. A little known fact is that A-B has
owned and operated a major meeting production company– Busch Creative,
since the 1980′s. They’re successful, independent, and know how to move
audiences.

But this may be the exception that proves the rule.
When new people enter the production realm, they often define
themselves via the equipment, not the content, The first questions one
producer asks another is, "What cameras do you use? Mac or PC? Avid or
FInal Cut?"

Those aren’t the right questions. The right questions involve intent, audience, and result. Saving money on production costs won’t make those questions go away.