Lessons Learned from Creating Promotional Videos in Development Programs

Promotional videos are a powerful messaging tool for development programs. They tell the story of what the program means to its beneficiaries and how it impacts their lives. If used wisely, videos can enhance the public perception of a program and improve its chances of attracting positive interest from different stakeholders, and in some cases, gaining additional funding.

To achieve this goal, programs need to solicit expert support from professional video production companies. A short 3-minute video might require weeks of filming and editing and media production companies have accumulated the experience and technical know-how that programs and their hosting organizations will not likely have.

I will share some things I learned from working with a production company to produce a promotional video for a program I previously worked for. The lessons are not an exhaustive list but they are my main takeaways. I will focus on your program’s role in supporting the production company in the creation of the video. Note: the graphics I am using are from an openly shared video about UNICEF’s Project Lion which I find to be a compelling example of a promotional video for a development program.

1. Select the correct production company: Unlike other procurement, when you are selecting a production company you need the one with the best track record in creating videos in the development/humanitarian sector. A company that has most of its experience in producing videos for the commercial sector might not understand the messaging in the development sector. Ask for samples of work in the bidding requirements and specify the preference of companies with development sector experience. Try to make this technical criterion the basis of the selection, not the price.

2. Assign a focal point: Select someone from the program to interface with the company and clear out his/her schedule for the task. The production of a promotional video is a project and is a grueling, time-consuming task for your focal point, make sure he/she has everything they need to oversee the job and the most critical thing they would need is time.

3. Hold a launch meeting: In this meeting, you and your entire program team will host the production team for introductions, officially nominating your focal point and planning the logistics of the production. In this meeting, you will provide the producers with information about your program, the key messages that you want to convey, the main interviewees that they will shoot, the locations they will shoot in, and the schedule of work. Make sure that everything expected from the production company is made clear (e.g. subtitles) and clarify all the support that you will provide (e.g. permits, scheduling appointments with the interviewees).

4. Proof the footage: After shooting the interviews, the production company will have the raw footage of the video. It is basically a long cut of unedited interviews (A-Roll) and various shots from the filming locations (B-Roll). The role of you and/or your focal point will be to watch the video and determine what is good enough (and relevant) to go into the video. You will provide a timesheet to determine which minutes in the long video are eligible for further consideration. You can also point out anything that you definitely do not want in the video. Note: a six-minute video may be produced from hours of raw footage.

5. Use a three-stage narrative: A video is a story-telling tool. It is most likely intended for general audiences and a story format will have the greatest impact on viewers. In the development sector, the story is a three-stage narrative that encompasses all programs:

   The Background: what the situation was (the original problem);

   The Intervention: How the program approached the situation;

   The Transformation: how the situation changed due to the intervention.

   You will need to assign your focal point to engage with the production company and go through the eligible footage selected in the previous step and work on which parts of the interviews and the footage can be categorized as background, intervention, and transformation.

   This is important as it will help the producers in weaving the footage for the final cut. This requires diligent viewing as the program focal point will be more aware of which sentence spoken is more relevant to the program. Much of the footage will not be used in the final cut, the onus is on the focal point to determine which footage MUST go into the final video.

   For the narrative, you can tag the footage with the producer using color codes for each stage (e.g. Orange for segments that represent the background, purple for segments that represent the intervention, and green for segments that represent the transformation). Most video editing software support this color-coded tagging in its timeline.

Once that is done the producer will know what content in the video is important and will also know what its proper placement in the story arc is. From this point the producers will have what they need to work on producing the final cut where they will apply effects, mix sounds, add music, logos, etc.

There might be some back and forth about the final cut and it might be edited for comments from the program. But the main body of work will have been completed.

One thing to remember is that the production company is the creative director of the video. Do not try to force creative opinions on them. Provide them with the technical content you need and let them take care of the creative process.