In the last two posts, we’ve looked at what website videos and marketing videos are made to engender.
Trust.
An immediate sense with the visitor that he or she doesn’t merely know what you do for a living, or what your taste is in fonts, colors, or IStock photos, or about your economy with written words (quite likely written by someone else, by the way).
We’ve discussed why it’s so important that your website visitors, human beings searching for someone to deliver a specific service or product, get an instant sense of more than what you do – who you are. And why you shouldn’t sell in that intimate setting.
The whats and the whys. Now let’s take a look at the hows.
The first step in creating a top-quality video is – just like with your website – the writing. So who’s going to do that? You could. Take all of your experience in manufacturing baby rattles or surfboards, or addressing a jury, or filing a tax form, or investing people’s money, and use it when you put pen to paper and write a script.
Oh, right, that experience, profound as it is, doesn’t help much there, does it?
Okay, go hire a professional copy writer, perhaps that bright young woman who did such a nice job with your website text.
Although, quite likely, this will be her first teleplay.
For that’s what needs to be written for your videos. A teleplay, the television version of a screenplay (which, of course, is the movie version of a play). So tell me – would you have a plumber rewire your kitchen? A labor attorney review your will? A mortgage banker sell your home?
I don’t think so. Then why would you have a (perhaps fine) writer with no video experience turn out your website video, product video, TV ad, or fundraising film teleplay?
Think about it. While a screenwriter is a writer, a writer is not necessarily a screenwriter.
Remember, your website video or marketing video is, first and foremost, a film. And if every aspect of its creation – beginning with the writing – is not overseen by a true professional in the craft, well, it just won’t be as good a film as it could be.
Next time, more on what to look for in this kind of writing.
About the Author
Richard Clayman, Cloudwalker VideoWorks
Richard Clayman’s multiple award-winning career has spanned 30 years as a director, producer, writer, executive, and actor in television, theater and film. Projects on which Richard has directly worked have won dozens of Emmys, Golden Globes, and many other awards.
