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Guidelines for Writing Successful Business Video Presentations
- Preproduction and Video Treatment Development

Successful presentations directly create a bridge between your client’s purpose and the audience’s motivation. As writers and producers, we search for ideas to help us make that match. We find those ideas–by asking the right questions.

Communications and training presentations support a problem-solving process initiated by our clients. Our challenge is to relate our client’s goal to the needs and desires of the audience. While our clients focus on how the goal benefits the organization, our focus is how it benefits the audience. There must always be a benefit for the audience.

Audience expectations

What does an audience want from a corporate or educational video presentation? Learning theory tells us:

·People learn what they need and want to know right now.

·They are most interested in information and skills that give them greater control over their life experience.

·They see themselves as experts in their own lives and want to be treated as such.
Responding to audience expectations

As video professionals, we need to support these needs and desires, build on them and never diminish them. We satisfy the audience’s needs in the following ways:

·The presentation neither over nor underwhelms by presenting too much or too little information.

·The information is immediately usable.

·The pacing allows the audience to feel they have control over the experience by going neither too fast nor too slow.

·The format or creative treatment engages their imagination in ways that allow them to identify with the problem presented and see themselves taking control and succeeding at the solution.

The video environment provides an opportunity for the audience to reevaluate and adjust their viewpoint, and try out new behaviors. They rehearse new behaviors and skills in their mind’s eye. By the end of the presentation, they decide whether change is worth the risk.

Waiting for answers

Screenwriter Syd Field says, “Writing is the process of asking the right questions then waiting for the answers.” This also is an excellent description of the preproduction process. During its early stages, we focus on left brain, logical analysis concerning our client’s goal and the audience’s motivation. In the later stages, we begin the right brain work of trying out various treatment ideas–ways we can use the medium to convey our message. The essential questions are:

·What creative vehicle will work best? Do we need drama, parody, comedy, documentary, an interview or panel discussion?
·What’s the right answer, how can we determine that answer–and then be sure of our professional recommendation?

Visualization and the creative concept

We now look for answers. It’s time to visualize. Go to your imagination and become a member of the audience. Block out the censors and critics, and delight yourself with images, sounds and music.

·What do you want to see, hear and feel?

·What interests you?

·What would move you from complacency and comfort to risking something new?

Allow time for images and ideas to come to you. Never reject an idea. And don’t miss those bits and pieces of ideas that present themselves as vague, ill-formed, or too avant-garde. Welcome them. Let them grow and identify themselves.

Reexamine your ideas in light of your client’s goal, the audience’s motivation, the budget and resources). Look for the best fit and select your creative concept.

Structure

Now you have one more consideration–structure. Surprisingly, our audiences don’t care as much about creative concept as they do about structure. Their perceptions are carefully developed by commercial television and Hollywood films.

Their first perception concerns “seat time.” Seat time refers to the amount of time the audience is willing to sit before taking a break. They are conditioned by commercial television to 10-minute (or less) segments separated by commercial breaks.

The second perception concerns storytelling. Hollywood films (and other forms of storytelling) influence audiences to expect a journey. They hope for a structure built on a series of twists and turns that leads to a new awareness where significant problems are resolved. This doesn’t mean structure depends on character-based stories. It does mean we need to structure even a straightforward presentation of information according to the principles of good storytelling. Information is always meted out in ways that build, pique, and then satisfy our audience’s interest.

The treatment

Finally, it’s time to write the video treatment. This includes your goal and audience analysis, and the structured creative concept.

Every successful treatment solution is unique. It results from the time, thought and care you put into asking the right questions then waiting, searching, and being available to the right answers. It begins with a solid relationship with your client and ends with a solid relationship with your audience.

The treatment now is your vehicle for communicating with the client and the guide for developing a successful presentation.

When you think about it, life is a series of negotiations. The American Heritage Dictionary defines negotiate as conferring with another or others in order to come to terms or reach an agreement. You negotiate with others far more often than you may realize–negotiations that include interactions with family and friends, getting the best deal on a consumer purchase, and a wide variety of business activities.

Though effective negotiating does come more easily to some than others, it’s a skill that anyone can learn and everyone should. Though the consumer culture in the United States doesn’t leave much room for negotiation–you’re not, for example, likely to be able to dicker over price in a major department store–there are still plenty of opportunities for negotiating. The clerk at Bloomingdale’s might not have the authority to give you a discount, but the owner of a small store certainly could. And if you’re in business, you’ll find yourself negotiating on a wide range of issues on a daily basis, from prices and terms with vendors to salary and benefit packages with employees.

Fundamentals of negotiating

There are three fundamental components of negotiating: listening, obtaining information, and overcoming objections, and they occur simultaneously. To be a good negotiator, you don’t need to be pushy or overbearing, you don’t need to be the loudest or most forceful speaker, and most importantly, you don’t need to be offensive. Successful negotiations come from understanding these three components and using them in a way that results in a win-win transaction.

Good listeners place as much or more emphasis on what others are saying than on what they themselves are saying or planning to say. You can develop your own listening skills by changing your attitude from one that is self-centered to one that focuses on the other person. When you are truly focused on what the person you are negotiating with has to say, the information gathering process is enhanced. And that brings us to the second component of negotiating: obtaining information.

In order to propose an acceptable agreement, you need to understand what both parties need. You already know, of course, what will work for you; asking good questions and then listening carefully to the answers is a very direct and quite effective way to find out what will work for the other person.

Finally, as you negotiate, you will have to overcome objections. Many people fear objections, but a good negotiator welcomes them. Why? Because what is often perceived as an obstacle is really just a request for more information. When people seek more information, it usually means they are looking for reasons or ways to make the deal work.

Objections typically come in the form of questions but may be statements. If possible, find out what’s behind the objection before you respond to it. You may discover that it’s not really an objection at all.

Good negotiators are not adversarial or challenging. They listen, gather data, and address concerns, then offer a proposal that will work for all parties. Develop and refine your negotiating skills and you’ll find that every aspect of your life will become much smoother and more rewarding.

With so many celebrities getting press these days for the births of their babies, an old tradition has been rekindled, albeit with a new millennium name – the Push Present – or more eloquently, a birthing gift to honor the hard work of labor for the mother of a new baby. Traditionally, a birth bauble was something a well-to-do husband gave his wife for producing his heir, in India gold necklaces or other gold jewelry, in England a lavish ring, but now it’s begun to be seen more as an acknowledgement of the woman’s role of bearing the responsibility of carrying the baby for nine months. And the trend is starting to take off, overwhelming fathers-to-be who feel the pressure to keep up with what mom’s friends were given.

However, the good news is that the one thing etiquette experts agree on is that this is a deeply personal gift and there are no standards to follow. So consider these three gold necklace ideas or use them for inspiration, this is a precious time to acknowledge and only you know what is right for your new mom.

Over the top

This is an opportunity to really wow her with something completely over the top that she’d love to have but would never ask for and never buy for herself. Has she eyed a fancy gold pendant or elaborate gold necklace with gemstones in the past with ooohs and ahhs? This could be the time to pull out all the stops and splurge on something that will amaze her. Gold necklaces along these lines can be a part of special occasions throughout her life and even become treasured heirlooms to pass along to the little one she just carried.

Mother’s jewelry

Mother’s jewelry is a great choice at this time, particularly for first time mothers. Birthstones look lovely on gold necklaces, whether yellow or white gold. You can choose to use the baby’s birthstone alone to represent the new addition, or have the necklace include all of your birthstones symbolizing the family together.

A gold necklace is perfect to hold special charms designed along this baby themed line such as the currently popular enameled baby shoe charms available in a wide variety of colors and encrusted with different gemstones. Another version of mother’s jewelry is an elegant cameo pendant with an image of a mother and child, lovely to pass down through the generations.

Gemstones just for her

If mother’s jewelry isn’t the right thing and over the top just isn’t her style or not practical at this stage of your lives, then choosing a gold necklace with a gemstone in a size and setting that fits her personality and you know she’ll love is the perfect solution. Whether her own birthstone or another that she likes, perhaps in her favorite color, be sure to select a gold necklace with an adequate weight to support the pendant you choose and with a strong clasp if not choosing a one piece gold necklace that is crafted with the stones directly mounted.

Again, what’s most important here is the personal nature of this gift between the two of you, you want it to be something she’ll treasure and that she knows you put thought into. If you feel you need guidance because you want to be sure you’re right on the mark with something she’ll love, check in with a trusted friend or family member that will know her style and will tell you the truth. Giving the gift of gold necklaces has been a tradition throughout history with some of the earliest gold jewelry being dated back to 3000 BC. With a track record like that, you should be sure to make one new mommy feel even more special than she already does when you mark this priceless occasion by honoring her and the love you feel for her at this time.

Copyright 2006 Lulu Bells Treasures