When I was approached by the Mobile Food Market group to make a video about the launch of their innovative public health initiative, they were tentative about the idea of there being no script.
“What are you going to show specifically? What are we going to say? Who will approve the script?” they asked. “I don’t know. You’re going to explain it to me as if we just met at a party, and then I’m going to go film for a few days and that will be all you need.”
“You’re going to explain it to me as if we just met at a party”
This type of event recap is a great delivery mechanism for strategic messages. Watching a program manager talk on message off a teleprompter is more resource intensive and less effective than just capturing a passionate person talking about their work, as you show the audience what they’re talking about. This is especially effective for audiences with a director asking the same questions (and asking for the same clarifications) the audience would aks.
In the end the group spent little or no resource in preparation time, and were thrilled to tears (literally). The video has gone on to win International awards and was instrumental in the promotion and extension of the project.