When does a pivot to video actually make sense?

A well-made video can convey your message—whether that’s “support my cause!”, “buy my stuff!”, or “see this cool thing we did!”—more effectively than any other medium. A poorly-made one can not only fail to do those things, but also cost a bundle in the process. Compared to a blog post or an Instagram campaign, making a video is a high-risk/high-reward proposition. 

So it’s understandable why many nonprofits and small businesses are wary about getting into the moving-picture game. If your animal rescue center or real estate agency has a tight budget, investing a big chunk of it into a single piece of content can feel nervewracking. And while you can’t shake a tree without a dozen freelance copywriters and graphic designers tumbling out, finding someone skilled at managing the video production process is much trickier.

Unless you happen to be reading this newsletter!

Before co-founding PSE, Annmarie Pisano spent more than a decade in the video business. She’s managed the production of hundreds of videos, ranging from feature-length documentaries to 30-second TV commercials. Her past clients include organizations like Mercedes-Benz USA and NYC’s Department of Health. Annmarie has wrangled casting, equipment logistics, festival submissions, travel plans, and just about every other conceivable element of video production.

Today, we’re asking her to demystify the process:

To get started with a video project, what are the essential ingredients?

Motivation and message. I used to work for a director who would say these two words all the time, like an incantation, when prepping for a shoot. These are the first two pieces you need to have in place: why do you need a video? Is there a problem that you hope it will solve, or a question you need it to answer? And what is the message you want to convey?

From there, you’ll work with a producer or director to put together the overall concept. Is it a high-flying superhero moment that takes place on the Brooklyn Bridge? Or is it a simple documentary, starring your staff, filmed in your office? There’s a lot of daylight between those two ideas, and pretty much everything that happens after—budgeting, scheduling, hiring a crew, producing the shoot, editing, and post-production—all stems from this concept.

As a client, you should expect to be consulted on each step along the way, making decisions alongside the experts that you’ve brought in to bring this idea to life.

What are realistic timelines for the most typical video types?

Longer than you think!

For a simple 5-minute project, I would allow a timeline of 3 months, though it can absolutely go slower if roadblocks emerge. Most of this is down time for the client, but it takes a while to plan a schedule, line up the subjects and freelance crew, get everyone into the right place (especially if there’s a remote team involved), and then edit interviews into something that shows off your messaging, and an overall package that sparkles. 

Most production teams plan for 2-3 rounds of client revisions to an edited piece, but for high-profile or high-budget projects, this can really spin out into a longer editing process if there’s no set deadline.

How about minimum viable budgets?

For something on the more simple end—documentary style, less than 5 minutes—$15,000 is appropriate for a small business or nonprofit. However, any more exciting ideas like bespoke locations, a fancy director, sets, food, travel, animation or CGI, can really explode the budget. Occasionally, an unexpected charge comes up that no one foresaw (one example: your office building, where you planned to shoot cheaply, turns out to have an incredibly high insurance minimum to bring a camera onto the elevator and you are on the 40th floor).

It’s the producer’s job to plan for all of this! But overall, the adage that nothing in life comes free is really reflected in the end product, moreso than in other media. Cutting costs on production or editing typically comes out in the final product, or requires even more money to fix at the end. 

Where should you splurge—and skimp—when making a video?

I do think there are some places you can save! In film school, instructors tell students to think about free resources they already have and use those in their scripts. If your small business manufactures skateboards, for example, congratulations, your video is going to feature a LOT of skateboards.

For a documentary, I encourage CEOs to really look at their company and their staff and see who, or what, shines the most, then use them. If you have a brilliant, hilarious, charming employee in the mail room, get them on camera (if they want!). A lot of amazing b-roll images from your work around the world? A gorgeous set of graphics from your website redesign? Someone with a lot of free time? Money is saved by using the things and people you’re already paying for, within reason.

Where to spend, though, is on sound, lighting, and editing time. Typically it’s very hard to fix sound and camera problems after the shoot is over and everyone’s gone home. Saving $500 there may seem like a win in the moment, but it can lead to a lot of wasted time and/or money in trying to fix whatever happened as a result.

If you’re doing interviews, I also strongly recommend bringing in a great make-up artist who is used to working with real people. A talented MUA is worth their weight in gold for making people feel great on camera, and when you’re working with people who aren’t professionals, cutting through the nerves is half the battle. Anyone who can help with that is worth the budget line.

Any tips for solving common snags?

If you have a clear plan going in, and everyone is fully agreed on the budget, timeline, and basic details, you should be okay. 

The most common snags come when people haven’t been totally honest with themselves or their team. They’re not really sure about producing the concept for the budget, they’re nervous that the location doesn’t work and haven’t brought up those concerns to anyone else, or they go in knowing there’s a huge, looming problem and plan to just sort it out in the moment somehow. Shoot days are inherently stressful and a little messy at the best of times, so having a potential issue weighing that you haven’t brought up is a disaster waiting to happen—one that often could have been solved by some advance planning.

Then, keep it simple! It’s hard to know when someone is going overboard (sometimes you really do need that $400 key light to make the location work), but for a simple shoot and video, you probably don’t need pyrotechnics or a Steadicam. If it seems like too much, it’s worth having a conversation about, at least. 

Oh, and one more thing…

Because the last word is rarely the end of the conversation.

• You might remember Bill Watterson from such beloved cartoons as Calvin & Hobbes—but have you ever read his 1990 speech, “Some thoughts on the real world by one who glimpsed it and fled”?

• Someday we’ll find a heartwarming story about AI that reveals a lucrative, socially useful use case for it, though it won’t be this investigation about astonishingly biased resume screening tools.

• “We sort of regret backing ourselves into this corner of having to produce one of these every year”: Anyone tasked with producing an annual report can probably sympathize with the business team over at Defector AND learn a thing or two from their cleverly-written, clearly-structured report.

• If you hate receiving political spam texts, you’ll love this data analysis of why they’re not only ineffective at helping candidates win but actively harmful to a party’s brand image.

Pebbles of the month

Much like penguins, we enjoy bringing you little gifts to show we care:

Cool remote job alert: One Fair Wage, an organization focused on ending subminimum wages across the US, is hiring a media relations & communications director at a starting salary of $110k-$125k.

If you miss the golden era of feminist blogs, you might enjoy supporting the Kickstarter campaign for The Flytrap by Andrea Grimes—with a tagline like “Fuck the Algorithm,” you know it’ll be good! 

RIP Quincy Jones, one of the greatest communicators of our age and a legend who “delighted in the creativity of others.”

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