It is very rewarding when a client trusts you enough to relinquish to you full creative control for their video. I've been fortunate enough to work with amazing clients who have done that. Looking back, it is amazing how my approach to having creative control has changed.
I started thinking about this because I watched a series of videos showcasing three unique destinations. Somehow they managed to make three incredibly diverse and unique places appear homogenous and without , what I believe to be, their recognised character (in my opinion - which doesn't count for much I know!). Don't get me wrong, the videos are well shot and edited ... but! These three places are culturally, socially, environmentally and architecturally diverse, and that seems to be missing from the series of videos. It reminded me of my video above, which I produced for Invest in Perth over two years ago now.
I was given full creative control, and I spent a lot of time planning how I could make interesting transitions and link the sequences up rather than truly spending time thinking about what made 'Life' in and around Perth utterly unique from anywhere else on the planet, to help encourage outsiders to move to and 'Invest' in Perth. Back then I was more interested in the latest editing and filming techniques than I was in developing the content or story.
Two years on, and I now do things completely differently when given the privilege of creative control. I now spend more time planning the video than the actual physical production process of filming and editing. I spend a lot of time understanding the company or organisations I am working for, finding out about their ethos, who their target market is, what they want from the video and, without doubt, most importantly, what their clients/ customers expect from them and how it is going to improve or make their lives easier. I research marketing and psychology to help me pitch the video to ensure it reaches, not only, a wide audience, but the right audience. I learn from the best in my own and other businesses, to help me continually develop this skill.
I love having creative control and the journey to developing the definitive idea that will be used in the video. It means I get to know my clients better and I get to spend more time with them learning about how their businesses work. I take great joy from working out how to make my videos have an emotional connection with the audience and truly understanding what the experience is for the end-user of a product or service I am helping to market. It is just a great and privileged learning process!
The time and effort involved in this, however, is often unseen by the client, but if I want to be unique and stand out from the crowd, then it's something I'm prepared to do. It helps that I also really enjoy doing it. I still like developing my filming and editing skills, but, I'll put as much, if not more, effort into developing content and story so the video is as successful as it can be.
In terms of the video above, I would completely rethink and redo it if I was asked to do it again, because as a resident of Perthshire, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else and there a lot of reasons for that not in the video above! It's exciting to think where I'll be in another two years, if this is how far I have come in the last two. I'm looking forward to the journey!
If you want to give me creative control of your video, please email me on info@morroccomedia.com or visit www.morroccomedia.com