January 18, 2011 \ Geoff Birmingham
Producing Video, Stress-Free

Stress killersWe had a recent conversation with a client of ours who was clearly feeling a bit frazzled.  His boss had assigned him to be the video point person for the organization, and his basic problem was too little time and too many things to do.  He put on a brave face, but he probably wished he didn’t have this responsibility.

If you are considering a video project for yourself, but the idea gives you similar fits of anxiety because you already have enough to do, remember that the video producer should be there to make it easy for you.

You should see your producer as a consultant.   He is the person you can put your faith in, who is going to be your trusty guide through the process.  In fact, he ought to have a defined approach for accomplishing tasks so that it’s easy for you to see the big picture and not feel overwhelmed.

If you are interviewing producers for a project, ask if they have a defined work system in place to ensure productions go smoothly.  If they actually have a document of some kind that explains how they work, then you know that they have put thought into their system, which usually means an easier workflow…and less stress.

Happy end to the story: because our frazzled guy wasn’t in on initial talks at the start of the project, we reviewed our process with him and he was able to put away his TUMS.