I have been a words person for as long as I can remember, but recently I had to embrace a new skill to help a client get their message across.
Photo: Jakob Owens
Since the middle of the year I have been working with a major business to produce the internal communications for one of their departments. Mostly this involves writing stories about the work they’re doing and staff achievements to support cultural change. Another aspect of this is producing videos.
I’ve worked with skilled video teams in the past, mostly developing concepts for videos and giving them a brief so they could take it away and work their magic. Occasionally I’ve written scripts. However, in this case, it’s mostly just me, my iPhone and some basic editing software. And the head of the department, ready to appear on camera. My first reaction – gulp!
I sought help from colleagues who know about these things, getting tips and advice, asking them to look over my script, double checking everything I could. I got them to lend a hand for the first couple of videos – helping with filming, doing the editing – not wanting to deliver something not up to my usual standards.
Well I’m pleased to say that I’ve produced three videos now, the lastest one all on my own, even down to teaching myself how to edit it. I figured, how hard can it be? A few hours of trial and error and I had taken the iPhone footage and created an acceptable video. Go me!
And yes, I’ve still got a lot to learn and no, I won’t be setting myself up as a videographer any time soon, but pushing myself outside of my comfort zone and embracing a new challenge has been a lot of fun and I’m already looking forward to the next one.
If you’re in need of videos for your business, talk to me about concepts and coordinating a team of experienced professionals to deliver exactly what you need.