By: Mike Harrison

Mike Harrison — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 13:26:47 +0000

I agree, Connie. The efficacy of corporate presentations has been declining over the years. Most of it began when the desktop computer and Microsoft PowerPoint came to be. Companies who used to pay highly skilled and talented production firms (like the one I worked for) to produce their communication needs all of a sudden decided they could save the money and produce their own material. That creates the ‘it’s good enough’ mindset; the realization that it may not look quite as nice as what they’d paid for in the past, but it will suffice. And if we can get by with eight bullets on one slide, we can get by with six bullets on all the remaining slides. Cut, cut, cut. Whittle, whittle, whittle.

Today we have video producers/editors who know nothing about audio or even the power of words editing the final cut of corporate videos to a scratch VO track recorded by an intern who was just told to read. The editor then sends the VO talent the ‘final’ video so the talent can time each phrase barely spoken by the scratch track reader. The experienced VO talent is then forced to completely ignore the meaning, the weight of all the writer’s perfectly chosen words in the script and instead just spit them out because there’s no time to give them the weight they deserve. There’s just no time. Damn! Why?

Corporate clients pay skilled writers to come up with exactly the right way to say what needs to be said in order to educate and motivate their national sales force about a new product, and then the video editor squeezes all the life out of those words (and the impact they should have had) by ‘slam editing’ the end of one phrase right up against the beginning of the next. Rather than creating and telling an important story (a form of effective communication), our product launch video is now homogenized into a series of ‘like-wow’ video effects interspersed with product shots and stats and a narration that races along delivering fleeting thoughts that are forgotten the second after they are heard because there is no time to absorb anything. There’s just no time. Damn! Why?

Producers: unless you’re really backed into a corner for some unknown reason, please wait until you have an approved narration track before editing the video. If that absolutely isn’t possible, then never have anyone other than an experienced, professional voice talent record a scratch track. When interpreting scripts, professionals instinctively know where to pause or read a little more slowly. It is the nuances of speech that help convey the meaning of the words.

The WORDS are the message. The video SUPPORTS and STRENGTHENS the message. The pacing of the video should be determined by the message. If, after a national sales or product launch meeting the sales force shows they weren’t particularly motivated by a video, how motivated will this company be to have you produce their next meeting?

Effective communication can very easily become a wrung-out smelly dishrag in the wrong hands. And it has… repeatedly.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Comments on: Video Marketing Works – When Done Right

By: Mike Harrison