Blog : Product Video

In this series, we are exploring the production decisions which need to be considered when making videos for your products. Video, as a combination of audio and visual, gives you multiple ways to present your message. Understanding the options available to you, and the time/money/engagement implications of each, will help prepare you for your first meeting with a video producer.

In our last article, we began the process of identifying the key talking points and conceptualizing how to present the information. The first document in the process is called a treatment and is a high-level overview of what the video will be. The next step in the workflow is to create the script.

The script is the single most important document of the preproduction process. The goal of the script is to identify all the elements which must come together to make a video which fits the vision laid out in the treatment. It is the comprehensive document which details exactly what information is to be imparted (usually in the form of dialogue) and includes notes such as the location, what graphics are to be used, what music plays and when, and how one scene will transition to another.

Perhaps you’ve seen a movie script – a roughly 110-page document full of scene headers, exposition, and dialogue. While containing these same elements, the script for your product video can be much simpler. Consider this script for a line of motion-sensing light bulbs written by a client of mine. The most important aspects are present: the dialogue for the narration, the location and description for each shot, and graphics. After some revising, here’s how the final video turned out:

The script will not be the last document to be created before the video is shot. But once it is done, the work load will now shift over to your video producer who will use it to generate shot lists, storyboards, crew and equipment lists and other organizational documents. The next article will go over the most common of these so that you can be familiar with how the producer will take your vision and make it become a reality.

Questions or comments? Leave them in the section below!

In this series, we are exploring the production decisions which need to be considered when making videos for your products. Video, as a combination of audio and visual, gives you multiple ways to present your message. Understanding the options available to you, and the time/money/engagement implications of each, will help prepare you for your first meeting with a video producer.

Pre-production is the process of creating and refining the plan for making your video. It starts with broad ideas which then get chipped away at until a solid understanding of Who/What/When/Where/How is achieved. The goal during this phase is to make all the important decisions so that the next two phases, production and post-production, are a simple matter of following the plan.

As the client, the workload starts on your plate. You are the expert on the product, the brand, the company, and the audience. Since the video will be serving your marketing needs, you should have a solid understanding of your message and who you are talking to before you sit down with the producer. I recommend having a bullet point list of 5 items or less to my clients who want a two-minute (or shorter) video.

The first real document in the process is called the treatment. No more than a paragraph or two, it provides the highest-level overview of what the video will be. It will take the talking points you’ve identified and introduce the creative way in which that information will be imparted. This is the first step which a producer will be able to assist you. It is quite common for a producer to take your information and write up several treatments which illustrate ways to structure the video.

While working on the treatment you will also begin to consider the topics we’ve previously gone over: talent, location, and graphics. The budget should also be at the edge of your thinking – either the one you have to work with or the one you are trying to figure out. I tell my clients to think big while working on the treatment. I want them to have their best ideas before letting the reality of their situation (budget and other resource availability) bring the ideas back down to earth. That way there will always be some nugget of the original vision in the final video.

The treatment is your guiding principle; your thesis statement. In the next article, we will go deeper down the rabbit hole as we cover the ways in which that idea becomes the actual video. Have a question or comment? Please leave it below and be part of the discussion!