YouTube Videos #2 - Preparation

Instead of thinking up a scenario. I’ll use what I’ve been given. 

I was requested to take over an existing promotional campaign ( since the previous company had gone out of business ), and come up with a fresh concept for a new promotional video for early release next year. 

This hopefully will coincide with the tourism industry opening up for this particular resort. 

The owners of this resort also own resorts in other island groups in the South Pacific and 2 resorts in the Indian Ocean. Located on Reunion and the Seychelles Islands. 

Hence why I took this opportunity as in this particular niche, it’s not what you know, it’s who knows you. 

There is one major problem with this particular project. I’m in Brisbane and at present all Australians are banned from overseas travel, except under exceptional circumstances. This does not qualify. 

So how to proceed.

Luckily I’ve mixed with another videographer who lives in Noumena,  Grande Terre.  He has decent equipment for land work and luckily a phantom drone capable of 4K videos. 

When I got the call to help I spent a few hours tracking him down and luckily found him. He was game for this opportunity and agreed to help. 

I then figured a plan that would see him take the videos and stills I needed on site whilst I took lookalike videos and images on the Great Barrier Reef islands, to fill in the blanks so to speak. Luckily the vegetation is somewhat similar. 

All underwater and beach work will be taken by me as well as a lot of improvisation. 

I got agreement for this unorthodox way of production and arranged a 2 month charter of a crewed catamaran, excluding 2 weeks over Christmas/New year. 

With that out of the way, preparations could begin. 

First I needed to know my what the expectations of me were, what my clients wanted, when they wanted it by, and for what resort was this required. 

I’ve learnt the hard way that you need to liaise closely with the people responsible for the approval of your work. Go as far as asking them what they want exactly. Don’t be afraid to ask anything. 

I spoke to everyone I could who would be involved. Directors, managers, and in this case the head of beach activities. 

I asked what they liked in the previous promotional videos and what they did not. What they would have liked to be included etc. 

You need to build up a picture of the managements requirements, their needs, then their wants.

This must include everything, especially in a resort. Do they want the entrance, rooms, poolside bars, dining, beach activities, night life, water sports, scenic sights, nature trails etc etc. 

Colours, sounds, guests, staff, vehicles, these are all important, especially when getting liability forms and insurances. 

All this needs to be blended into a short 2 minute promotional video, done professionally to attract as many eyeballs as possible. 

It is from this intense process that your storyline will develop. Once you have that you will be able to start putting pen to paper to develop your storyboard. 

You will be in a position to then select the type of music you need to suit that storyboard. 

It’s not only the type of music it’s the cadence of the music that changes scene by scene. 

You need a functioning and understandable storyboard with the type of music and cadence to give to the guy doing your music so he can understand what you are trying to achieve. 

The way this works is you get a semi completed video finished with a initial music score, you then present that to the clients. One approval of that you polish everything as much as you can. 

This is where you can then give the completed video to your music guy and he can adjust the music to suit the video exactly. 

This is also where you can get your first major payment, unless you have made other arrangements. 

This is not like website work, the clients want to see a nearly complete product before they part with money. Even then it will probably be only 20 percent of the final payment. 

This is why it is so important to understand what the clients require initially and maintain an active dialogue with them throughout the process. 

I hope you can see how a story can develop from this. I cannot teach you creative thinking, that is art, something unique to you, but you can help yourself by at least knowing what your artwork must be composed with. 

The next post will be music and setting up the storyboard, something I’ve made unique to my requirements. You will be able to copy it and use it. 

You will also understand why just adding one of those supplied “ music tracks “, proves immediately how much of an amateur you are, and why a prospective client will just show you the door immediately you present that rubbish.