Before you press record
The pre-production is the phase before you start the record button. In this phase, you work out the idea, structure the story and plan the shooting. We have different tools and methods for the different who help to get the most out of the pre-production. The better you prepare the pre-production, the better and the faster the rest of the production will work.
Filming involves a lot of decision and the more decisions you take upfront the more time you have to concentrate on the recording itself.
At the end of the pre-production, you should have a clear idea what you are going to film.
Overview
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Questions to answer – Storytelling Canvas
Do get started with collected questions you can ask yourself or discuss with your team. The answers help to get a clearer idea and can be organised in our Storytelling Canvas template
What is the goal with the video?
- Why are we producing this video?
- F..e. granding, sales, education, getting leads
- Who is the target group?
- Who do you want to reach?
- What are you used to see?
- Can you surprise them (should you)
- What is the message?
- What should viewers remember after the seen the video
- Call-to-Action
- What should viewers do as next step. Make this as simple as possible and only provide a single action.
- F.e. Sign up for a newsletter, like a page, take contact
- What kind of feelings to you want to address in the video?
- What facts should be in the video?
- How should the video look and feel?
- Think about your audience and the channel where you publish
- What kind of style fits best?
- Which video format should you use? classic/horizontal 16:9 | square 1:1 | vertical 9:16
- Who is in the video? Where do we film?
- Who will be the hero and the helper?
- Where can we film? Does the location support our story?
- Storytelling
- See next section
- Channels
- Where do we publish?
- What is the next step to produce this video?
Use the story telling canvas for your brain storming sessions:
How to work with ideas
You have to come up with your own ideas – take an empty sheet of paper and write you idea as an headline on top of the page and add a quick description to it. That’s it.
Do refine your idea you can use brainstorming – first expansive and than reductive – both have their places but remember that they don’t go well with each other.
Expansive Brainstomring – Yes, and…
It’s a great idea to make an expansive brainstorming. What does expansive mean? It means exploring what could be possible? A good technique for that is coming from stand up comedians. Some starts with input and another persons take that crazy idea and adds something “Yes, and…”. This makes the idea bigger and harder to execute.
F.ex. we add a drone shot” Yes, and we got an celeberity endorsing us”
Reductive brainstorming – How does this actually happens
After you expansive brainstorming we consider our resources we have at hand and see how what of the big idea we add to make i happen
Types of videos
We are all standing on the shoulders of giants. Here is a list of video types to inspire your next video:
- Vlog – Talk direct to camera/ diary
- Explainer (f.e. routes)
- Q&A
- Listicle (Dos & Don’ts, 5 best…)
- Webinar
- Behind the scenes (BTS)
- Product video
- Challenge videos
- Unboxing
- Video testimonials
- Meet the team
- Interview
- How to
- Animation
Hooks
- Start With a Fascinating Fact.
- What If…
- Surprise Them.
- In Medias Res.
- Start With a Problem & Offer a Solution.
- Open With a Joke.
- Ask a Question.
- Hint at a Story.
Storytelling – structure
Once you answered the above questions, you should have a clear idea what you want to communicate. Here we show you to models how to structure your video
“Explainer” model
- Problem
- Solution
- Solution
- Call-To-Action
You start with describing your problem. This grabs the attentions of your viewers. You want to reach that they think: “I have the same problem” or “I know exactly how this feels”. They get hooked and want to see the rest to find a solution. The solution should be general and not your product or company. The goal of these sections is to make the viewer feel, “Ahh, this is how I solve it”. Now you can present yourself or your solution. At the end of the video you make it as easy as possible for the viewer to take the next step with the Call-to-Action. This could be sign up, like a page…
Hollywood model
Another model – with a more narrative approach, is the Hollywood model. Here we have also 4 parts:
- Hero – brings the story forward
- Goal – what the hero wants to achieve
- Conflict – central element to create tension
- Helper – supports the hero on his journey
We usually start with a character – the hero – which we follow. This can be person, an animal or a thing – but has to be something physical – so a thought can be hero. The hero is on a journey to reach a goal. And here the conflict comes in. There is no story without a conflict. We want the world to be in order and when chaos happens we or our hero will do everything to fix this again. Usually, there will be helpers to support the hero.
As company we want our clients to be the hero and we should be in the helper role.
5 Ws
In journalism we find the 5 Ws, which are are questions whose answers are considered basic in information gathering or problem solving. They can also guide you in creating content but want be as powerful as using story telling techniques.
- Who?
- What?
- Whom?
- Where?
- Why?
The manuscript
A manuscript for typically includes a written script that outlines the dialogue, action, and other elements of the video. It may also include a shot list, which describes the camera angles and movements for each scene, as well as any special effects or other visual elements. The manuscript may also include character descriptions and any other relevant information that will help the production team understand and create the video.
We normal use a table with 4 columns:
- Nr: Which counts the scenes forward. If a scene is split up in different takes (f.e. camera angle) we sub count them
- Visual: Here we describe what happens on the screen. Who is on, what actions does she/he take? Are there an graphics and what is written?
- Audio: This column contains mostly the speaker text or for music.
Time: The last column is reserved for a time. Here you can plan the length of your video. F.e. If there is a speaker’s text stop the time while reading it you can get an idea how long the video will be.
