Turning your ideas into reality starts with a video production brief
As much as you have questions for us, we need to learn about you and your project to understand what we can do for you.
We’ll sit down with you (or over Teams if you prefer) and chat about what you’re looking for, your goals, your vision and your brand.
We like to think of ourselves as your video partner, and we’ll be with you every step of the way from ideation to final delivery. We want to make sure that you’re happy with the product we deliver, and we’re always open to feedback and collaboration.
Sightline will handle every aspect of the creative and technical process – the storyboard, script, filming, editing, all the bells and whistles – so that your audience responds positively and you get your expected return on investment.
What does the producer need to know?
We will need to learn about your business: services and products, brand identity and culture, what makes your offer unique, and how it benefits your customers.
What is the purpose of the video, who is the audience, what do you want to show and say, what are the calls to action? How do you want to broadcast the video – e.g. to a live audience, on your website, or through social media? How do you want your audience to respond?
- Who will watch the video?
- What is your time frame for the video?
- What is your budget?
- How will your audience watch the video?
- How will the video fit into your broader content strategy? (Is it a single video, part of a campaign, etc.?)
- What Style of videography are you looking for?
- How much involvement would you like?
Step 1: Define Your Objectives
Why do you want to make a video? The surge of interest in video content has led to many businesses coming to us saying ‘we need to make one’, but they don’t always have a sense of purpose or objectives for the content.
It’s important from the outset to decide what you want to achieve, including overall business aims and how it will fit into your marketing strategy or communications strategy, and then start to define the key objectives for the video, or set of videos.
Step 2: Who is Your Audience?
Successful video content invariably addresses a particular target audience. One-size-fits-all is not an approach we would recommend because it tends to dilute the content, making it too generic.
Instead, you should really understand who your target audience is (you could use a customer avatar to help with this) to create relevant content that speaks directly to them.
Step 3: Articulate Your Core Message
Once you know your audience, you can then develop ideas to engage and encourage them to respond. Your core message could be a company value statement, a new initiative, a brand strapline, or a specific call to action that’s designed to convert viewers into leads.
Whatever it is, it will naturally be aligned with your objectives for the video content.
Step 4: Platform Considerations
Decide how you want to use the video. For example, is it for a presentation or conference, for your website and social media channels, or for an e-learning exercise?
If you’re planning to use it primarily on social media, for example, this will influence various practical and creative decisions, including the length. On Twitter the maximum length is currently 2-minutes 20 seconds; on Instagram is 60-seconds.
Similarly, if you are creating a training video it’s important to consider how your target audience will watch it: for example: at work or on a course, online in an e-learning module or on YouTube when people will view it during their own time.
Step 5: Creative: Styling & Tone
Having identified your objectives, target audience, core message and how you will show the video/s, you should now have a clearer idea of the creative factors that you would like to address in the brief.
Many people leave it to the production company to come up with a suitable creative treatment – but if you have specific ideas about the style and tone, this can be very helpful.
You don’t need to describe every minute detail. ‘Serious, approachable, fun, cool, upbeat, cutting edge, friendly, professional, etc.’ are all useful ways to convey what you want stylistically from your video.
It’s also helpful to indicate what you like and don’t like, so everyone is on the same wavelength.
Step 6: Content
What do you need to include in your video? Maybe you need to show specific projects your business has been involved in, interviews with key members of staff, demonstrate a process or ‘how to’, include scenes of your location, premises, production line or service operation, and feature client testimonials, logos or graphics.
Or perhaps you would prefer 2D or 3D animation to tell your story and drive home your core message. These are all factors to put into the brief (perhaps with the proviso that they are up for discussion) and will help when creating the storyline.
Step 7: Practicalities: Deadlines & budgets
Factoring in the practicalities will avoid any pitfalls once the project is underway – for example, the need to hit a particular date for filming an interview with someone who has limited availability.
If you have a specific deadline for completing the video you need to make this clear so that everyone works back from that date when planning the pre-production, filming and editing schedule.
If you have any budgetary constraints explain this in the brief, so that the video producer can be realistic about what can be achieved.
What happens next?
Armed with your detailed and accurate brief, the producer can respond with their proposal, creative ideas, and a budget.
Everyone involved in the production will be able to allocate the resources, agree on the storyline, and bring together the various elements needed to create your video content so that it achieves your objectives and delivers the results you need.
LET'S START YOUR PROJECT
If you’ve got a project you’d like to discuss, or if you simply want to know more about how we work, please get in touch, by phone, or email.
Based in Camberley, Surrey, Sightline work with customers in the UK and Worldwide.