A guide to crafting compelling video content

Without substance, style will only get you so far.

Think of crafting compelling video content as a bit like building a bridge (a visual journey). It can be as beautiful and magnificent as the designer can imagine (the style). But, ultimately, it has to work (the substance).

Planning the project (pre-production), knowing where it starts (with the hero) and where it ends (the better future they desire) is essential. Otherwise, you’ll end up building a bridge to nowhere that nobody will walk across.

The more spectacular and functional, the more people will remember, talk about, and share their experience of it. Who doesn’t want that, right?

Deep thought about the structure, production of the materials, and specialists required for the construction is necessary. Discipline, imagination and motivation will achieve ambitious results that encourage and lead people to a better future — With you.

Five hundred and forty-four hours, plus one invaluable lightbulb moment.

It was 2008. I gave up full-time employment and left all my distractions behind to understand the complexities of After Effects (although my experience was more like “this is just Photoshop-on-wheels”).

With more trial and error than Boris’ approach to Covid-19, more coffee consumed than the entire population of Finland, I cranked up my creative-o-meter to full throttle to produce my first-ever music video, which skyrocketed a career in music video production.

My conclusion: Had I not spent those 544 hours, carefully thinking about the project and the lyrics of the song, maintaining communication with the artist, conjuring up creative ways to connect the dots, and pushed myself to try things I’ve never done before, I might not only have spent much more time pushing buttons, I might have failed to achieve my goal of a BA (hons) degree in motion design too.

Plan for success.

Today, the technology, knowledge, professionals I work alongside, and the processes I’ve developed, are more streamlined and powerful than ever — Enabling me to produce compelling video content that’s easy to understand, but difficult to forget, and in a fraction of the time. One thing remains the same —