Many in the industry bemoan the perceived erosion of professionalism and standards. Who is to blame? Nobody really. Technology’s democratization of the medium has opened a floodgate of content and its providers. Networks, agencies and corporate departments once had standard requirements and style guides. Now, anything goes. Not because people don’t care. Technology is evolving faster and people are finding more and different ways to utilize them. Standards are hard to come up with when tech moves faster than regulators can react. Right now more marketers are excited about how to monetize 6 second cell phone videos posted on Twitter’s Vine service. What can you say in 6 seconds? “ Hey, I’ll be late for dinner.” Some clever people will find a way to make it part of a branding campaign. The thing to keep sight of is that to many people, video has become just another commodity to use in communications. This has some truth in documenting a deposition or investigator meetings, but when it comes to telling a story, you need a professional. The tools we use allow us to easily put visuals into an ever changing set of deliverables, but is it effectively getting your message out? Sure we can all get a video onto our cell phone but is it formatted correctly? Can you actually read the graphics on your screen? Is it the right medium for your message?
When your video becomes a commodity you lose. Video is a collaborative process, not something you check off your to do list. If you are not involved in the process, how can your message have any impact? We have an old saying, “Treat the visuals like video and it will look like video. Treat it like film, it will look like film”. How many times have I had a client say “look at this clip on Youtube, we want our video to be just like that.” Aside from the fact “that video” is a $200,000 spot for your competitor and you only have $10,000, it does not reflect you, your product or your message. Take the time to talk with your production team. Tell them your message and budget and let them help you craft the best solution.