What makes a video "great"?

It's a good question! As I approached writing this I thought to myself, how great it would be if there were only one answer, one ultimate answer, the key to excellent video production! And in a way, I think there is... here are my thoughts:

Think. What is the one thing that really matters about any project? Or perhaps I should say, who really matters? At the end of the day it's all about the client. He or she decides whether the video is "great", or not. I may make a video that I think looks good, I may have implemented a cool camera move or lighting technique, but it's always going to be missing something if it doesn't capture the information or tone requested by the client. As they say, the customer is always right.

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Yet it's often a challenge, especially when you think you have a great idea and the client doesn't feel it will help them meet their goals. It doesn't mean your right and their wrong. Indeed, I've had plenty of occasions where by going along with a different idea the video has turned out better than if I'd tackled it my own way. So keeping an open mind is important; there's always something new to learn.

Beyond this there are two other elements that I believe are necessary to a great video - experience and technique. Without them it's difficult to be terribly effective. With them you can offer suggestions, envision the final product, and convert the client's vision into a reality. you're always learning and enhancing this ability as you try out new techniques and experience mistakes here and there along the way.

We don't have time to go into detail on experience and technique in this blog post but I will pause to mention two of the most critical to me - lighting and editing. They, in my opinion, make or break a production in terms of how professional it looks. It's not about the quality of the equipment (although it can make life easier), it's understanding you location, your lights, and then in the edit suite, how you use your choice of cuts to capture the desired tone and pace.

So how do you make a video great? Well, I concede that maybe it may be more than one thing... you obviously need experience and technique to make a half-decent video, but it's how you use those in capturing the client's vision that makes it "great".

Thanks for reading my first ever blog post! It was fun. Now I'd love to hear your comments - what do you think makes a video great??

Nate

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