There is no such thing as a perfect video! Hopefully that’s a relief to you. If not, let me help you realize why it should be. Producing a video is a lot like building a house. The more time and money you have the better you can make it. However, there’s no end to what your imagination can dream up and there’s no limit to things you could add or change as your own preferences and needs change. So, the goal in making the perfect video should really be a goal of making a video that is “good enough.”
I’m not a perfectionist. So, this perspective of making a video “good enough” is not a tough one for me to swallow. However, like many of the people I hire, you may be a perfectionist. So, let me phrase it this way…the goal is to make the best quality video you can produce with the limitations you have in terms of time and budget.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you’re aiming at a moving target. A video is a lot like a photo. It’s a snapshot in time…only these photos move over time to create the moving picture. However, it’s still limited to the point of time that the images were captured. You will need another video as time moves and things change. I’ve produced several videos for Faith Christian Fellowship…a church in Baltimore that hosts several organizations within its umbrella. Each video has had a different focus depending on the particular goals at the time we made the videos. A video for one of these organizations, Baltimore Christian School, needed to be updated since they hired a new principal and two new teachers over a two year period.
Personnel, goals, business plans, policies, projects, etc. change and you need to keep up with whatever your latest and greatest assets are in order to use your video to communicate effectively. Technological advances, styles, trends, music, personalities also allow for new ways to visualize your end product. So don’t be too harsh on your final video—there will be mistakes or things you wish could be changed or done differently.
Although I’m not a perfectionist, I am a critic. I tend to only see what could have been done differently, better, more creatively, etc. The good thing is you get to learn from your mistakes, try new techniques and make things better next time. Even with millions of dollars and years of production time…the best films of our day have their flaws. My favorite movie, Braveheart, has several errors…including a shot of Mel Gibson running into battle with a sword held high which then cuts to a shot of him running without the sword and then back again to holding the sword. The best producers and directors will tell you they never stop falling short, learning from their experiences, failing, improving their skills, missing the mark, and inventing new ways to tell the story. So, don’t get caught up in making the perfect video.
