Tom Ricciardone: Getting Started On Your Business Video

Editor’s note: Tom Ricciardone is a 20-year veteran strategic communications consultant for corporate, nonprofit and trade association clients. In 2012, he co-founded Bespoke Video Productions and Multi-Screen Media Strategy to help companies and organizations of all sizes produce and use video, digital content and original programming to meet a range of business goals. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Time.

The more you have. The more I want.

The more you want your video production team to have.

It’s the single most important resource affecting quality control in the production of all types of video for your business.

Certainly there are other critical factors with an outsize influence, including production talent, budget, equipment, and project management skills. Each is important in its own way, a vital link in the quality control chain.

It’s my experience, however, that all things being equal, none is more important to the quality of the final outcome than time – allotting sufficient time to give the production process, from planning through final edits, the proper care and feeding that your video demands.

I know. You get it.

It seems obvious to the point it hardly seems worth mentioning. Time as an essential factor — often the essential factor — could be said of many business projects. And you’d be right. So what’s up?

Video is a different animal, a more involved animal. And with more businesses looking to venture into video for the first time, it’s one worth mentioning. In my experience, creating winning video of all types for business is more of a one-off when it comes to the process required and the number of moving parts to account for when compared to other communications projects.

It’s true time is money, and with video, it is equally true that time is quality.

I mention this because the video production process is not, understandably so, something those just getting acquainted with video may be familiar with. As more businesses look to integrate video into their communications and marketing tool kit, it’s a valuable conversation I increasingly find myself having with clients.

Videos can take many forms from simple or complex animation to static or intricate motion graphics to relatively simple or very involved camera footage. A video can have any number of variations and levels of complexity. At times there are a host of logistical challenges to account for. For all but the most basic, there are any number of moving parts to keep on point.

There will always be a place for run and gun video. That’s video where you send one or two videographers out on a “quick-strike” shoot and do a timely edit with short turn-around. At times, these types of videos can be exactly what are called for.

But for the vast majority of video projects everything great that can happen in the process typically revolves around careful planning on the front end and having sufficient time to carry that plan out. Most of the things that can go wrong revolve around having a lack of time.

Whether a 60-second company introduction or a product video for your website, a 30-minute internal training video or a 30-second commercial for broadcast, each needs the proper care and feeding to meet today’s expected quality and content standards and to achieve your goals.

The audience for your video is now much savvier. They have been spoiled by the amount and variety of quality of video being produced. The bar has been raised. Their expectations are high. Whether customers, prospects, employees or shareholders, they have little patience for your video to hold their attention if it isn’t relevant and on message, has a story that isn’t well-told, or an informational flow that isn’t well-presented and well-paced.

As a communications consultant, time has always been a part of my negotiating with clients. It is always better for quality assurance, and always in the client’s best interests to control the time than to be controlled by it. With video however, having a clear handle on the time needed for a project and getting into the details of why that is so with a client is a requisite part of almost every project.

It will always be true that businesses will not always have the option of starting well in advance and there will be times when urgency is called for. You have to deal with the realities on the ground and make your choices accordingly. Often enough however, I find, given the trade-off between desired delivery date, quality, complexity and cost, there is usually some additional time to be found when called for.

I was recently involved with the development of four videos which served as in-depth introductions to the lives of the newest inductees of the University of Arkansas’s Walton College of Business Hall of Fame, which is celebrating its 16th year this month.

The celebration was held February 7th at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. This year’s inductees, James Faulkner, Thomas “Mack” McLarty, Stanley Reed and Mark Simmons join a distinguished list of past honorees, all giants among Arkansas’ business leaders.

Our team was inspired to be a part of this special event. The client’s goal was for each video to celebrate their lives and their many contributions to our state and beyond, to do the full story of their lives’ justice. From planning through research, scripting, client meetings and the entire production process, our motivating goal was for each video to ring true for each inductee’s families, their friends and colleagues and for those who would be introduced to them for the first time through these videos.

It was an ambitious project, one with a fair amount of moving parts.

Fortunately, thanks to the client’s understanding of the scope and complexity of the project and their knowledge of the video production process, there was sufficient time allotted to fully realize the client’s vision for each of the four videos.

Time was on their side. And for that we were thankful!