Ask Questions First … Shoot Later: 4 Questions to Ask Before You Start a Healthcare Video Project

31 Dec Ask Questions First … Shoot Later: 4 Questions to Ask Before You Start a Healthcare Video Project

“Shoot first and ask questions later” might have described the way things worked back in the Wild West cowboy days. However, in today’s video production world, we ask a lot of questions well before the first video shoot. In fact, there are a handful of answers our production company will need even before we can create a solid proposal. Here are the top four questions to ask before starting a video production project.

WHO IS THE TARGET FOR THIS VIDEO?

Knowing your target audience will help us discern the interview subjects, the video’s style, visuals, music, pacing etc. The audience dictates the best approach. Consider these three video types: An explainer video for a child about to undergo brain surgery, a video aimed at millenials choosing an urgent care clinic, or a video for providers who are potential referral partners. Each of these video types will have different messaging, tone and ‘vibe’ based on the target audience. Which brings us to the next important question … 

WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR TARGET TO THINK, FEEL AND DO AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO?

Do you want your viewer to make an appointment? Make a donation? Connect with the featured provider, refer your surgeon, trust your brand?  Knowing the answer to this main question informs the strategic and creative decisions made in a video project. It will also help you determine the eventual success and ROI of the video.

WHERE WILL THIS VIDEO RESIDE?

A video that plays on big screens for a fundraising event with a live, captive audience, is a different deliverable than one that’s pushed out on social media to catch the eye of someone scrolling through their feed. The file type, length and call to action will vary. So, it’s helpful for us to know the primary venue of the video so we can capitalize on that to make it as successful as possible. That said, we always suggest ‘multi-purposing’ video content. That means even if a video is first an event video, we tailor other versions to fit other platforms so you can get the most out of the content. We actually take this “waste not” attitude so seriously we include suggestions for getting use of even the ‘scraps’ of the video shoot.

WHAT’S YOUR DEADLINE?

We’ve turned fully-produced videos within a couple of hours and we’ve worked on some over the course of several months. Knowing the date you need the finished video helps us work with you to create the most appropriate production schedule. We want to allow plenty of time for the full production process and ensure on-time delivery. Whether you want to follow a patient over time for a testimonial or patient experience video, or quickly post something within hours of a shoot, we can make it happen, as long as we know your deadline going in.

These questions to ask before starting a video project are the biggies, in helping us eventually deliver the most strategic, creative and effective video(s) for your objectives. Once these are answered, we’ll tackle more questions together as we move forward. We’ll help plan who should appear in the video, what visuals you want, the music and graphical look etc. Getting clarity on the answers to these top four questions will guide most of those decisions. Our team believes pre-production is the most important part of the video production process. We’re not alone in our thinking. Here’s a video that does a good job explaining more about this critical step and it’s importance.