The Invisible Work Behind Every Campaign Video

This clip is a 10 hour video shoot condensed into 30 seconds.

While this clip might look great on my LinkedIn feed, what it doesn't show is the months of planning, storyboarding, scripting & scheduling that goes into crafting what's often just a few minutes of content.

Creating that polished, perfectly on-brand campaign video is about planning just as much as anything else. Here's a few mantras I like to follow when preparing a shoot.

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲 - When you're storyboarding or building your shot list, try to connect every frame back to the narrative or message you're trying to convey to your audience. Use your brand mission as your North Star here. Also, make the most of your shoot day. Build room into the day to get content for organic social, paid, website and any other channel that needs some TLC. One day on set, dozens of assets at the other end.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲-𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 - Park your ego and own agenda. As creatives, we all want to make something cinematic & visually stunning. But if it doesn't offer value to your audience or serve the brand mission, it doesn't belong on the shot list. 𝘒𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 is a common ethos used in writing, meaning ruthlessly cull any beautiful or flowery lines that distract from the meaning or momentum of the story. Same rules apply here.

𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀 - The success of your shoot shouldn't rely on things outside of your control (weather is the classic example for this). There's nothing wrong with taking a few risks, but be selective and always have a backup plan if things don't quite play out how you expected. This means you can calmly adapt and pivot on the day.

𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 - From the talent to the videographer, everyone on set should understand the purpose behind each shot, not just the shot list. Have a shared deck you collaborate on prior to the shoot which clearly explains the story you're trying to craft and how that connects to each shot. You can't have too much transparency.

None of this will show up in the final cut, but it's one of the reasons the final cut works.