It's very rare that I watch videos produced by competitors. "Strange," you might say, "Why's that?" Well, quite frankly, having spent over 14 years honing our production standards and being a bit of a perfectionist, it frustrates me when I see and hear all the things that are wrong in so many of them; poor production skills, inferior equipment or badly composed and uninspiring content. Sometimes a mixture of them all just makes me cringe. The sad thing is that the producer probably thinks it has done a good job. Quite recently I clicked to watch a company promo video shared by a LinkedIn contact. I should have known better. I wish I hadn't. Nothing bores me more than someone from the business plonking his/herself in front of and talking directly to camera or adopting an overused news-styled interview to go on about what it does. It's unimaginative, lacks creativity and therefore doesn't differentiate from others. Clearly the producer knew how boring it was too, since in fairness, it did attempt to incorporate a few cutaway shots to add variety and interest, though the shots bore little or no relevance to what was being said. The case in question however had a catastrophic error. Whilst it revealed heaps of information about what the company does, it didn't explain to the viewer (a potential sales prospect) what benefit the supplier's service would deliver. It therefore failed to provide any emotional reason for the viewer to become a prospect with genuine interest in buying the company's service. One can sometimes forgive this of the person talking; however a good producer should be able to analyse its clients brief, advise on such matters and offer a skilled scriptwriting resource. Providing this pre-production enhancement nearly always improves the final outcome. It also serves as a good outsider's perspective as to whether the film's primary objective is being achieved, as this classic oversight was compounded further since the person on camera was actually the Director of Sales, who should have known that prospects don't buy features. About the writer: Terry Anderson is the founder and Technical Director of CorpFilms [UK] ----------o0o---------- If you'd like to get more from your company films and would like a helping hand, why not give CorpFilms [UK] a call? "It's what we're known for. It's what we do well"

CorpFilms [UK] specialises in 'high-end' corporate film production. * Company Promotions * Web and Point of Sale adverts * Training, Employee Inductions and e-Learning * Product 'How to' User Guides & Demonstrations * Live Events and Award Ceremonies * Interactive Interviews
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