Myth Busting: Account Management Myths
I believe my colleagues and clients would agree that the most exciting part of every project is seeing the final product we’ve all worked so hard to create together. While this may be true, there are many steps that are essential to bringing any video to life. In today’s segment of “Myth Busting,” I am going to be busting common misconceptions about account management and preproduction that I hear most often. And why each step of the process is vital to planning and creating a successful project.
Account Management Myth 1:
“We don’t need to discuss budget.”
When you reach out to work with us, we’ll schedule time to get to know you and your brand and the project you are looking to create! Once we have a grasp on your project, we always like to ask your preferred budget. Knowing your budget up front not only sets realistic expectations for the project, but also helps us determine what type of gear to include for potential video shoots, amount of production hours to assist with concepting, scripting, storyboarding, video edit and, of course, the overall quality that you’re looking to achieve.
If you don’t have a budget in mind, that’s okay too! We’ll put together a proposal based on our discussion of what you’re looking for and our professional recommendations to create a successful project!
Myth 2:
“I don’t need an Account Manager. I can manage the project myself.”
As an Account Manager, I am here to make sure your entire project from start to finish stays on track and is delivered to you on time! We want the entire process to be smooth and organized for you, so whether it’s your first time or your tenth time working with us, I make it a priority to keep communication and feedback organized, so you don’t have to!
Just consider my role the liaison between you and our team. Our production team wears a lot of hats, so it's important to keep communication streamlined, so they have all of the information they need to know to bring your vision to life.
Not only is communication the most important part in our process, but scheduling video shoots (we’ll talk about this a little later), sourcing talent, gathering props, and requesting assets take time to coordinate and keep organized as well. But don’t worry, while it’s my job to keep everything on track, we make sure to include you and your team in every step of the process.
Myth 3:
“I’m stuck with this project timeline and it can’t be changed.”
One of the most important tasks I handle for all of our client’s projects is to create a project timeline. Based on all of the information we’ve gathered from you and your team during our initial meeting, we’ll create a timeline that meets those needs. Not only do project timelines keep our internal team on task, but they also point out important deadlines and timeframes on when you will expect things to review during each phase of the process.
While project timelines are built to keep your project moving to meet your deadline, any portion of the timeline can certainly be changed as long as your deadlines are flexible and expectations are discussed beforehand. The most common reasons our clients need to adjust timeline dates is because they either need additional time to review things with their team or the final delivery date for the project has changed. If this happens with your project, we’ll discuss the best way to meet your request, while making sure our team has sufficient time to complete the project.
Myth 4:
“We can wing it on shoot day.”
Remember in Myth Two when I said we’d get back to this? Well, you’ve made it. So, can we wing it on shoot day? Well I'm here to bust this myth, because the most successful video shoots are planned!
There is a lot of prep work that goes into video shoots, especially if there are multiple shoot locations, large amounts of gear and talent involved. Prior to scheduling any video shoot, in the beginning phases of the project, we’ll discuss where you’d like to film, whether our crew will be capturing interviews, scripted content and/or b-roll at your filming location. Knowing these key details will help our production team prepare for what they will be capturing on shoot day and the type of gear that will need included.
To be even more prepared, we’ll schedule a location scout where myself and the lead producer on your project will meet you at the filming location to scope out perfect interview locations, areas where we would need to capture b-roll, and any other important areas of the filming location that we would need to capture footage to include in the video.
Once the video shoot has been scheduled, I will create a shoot outline detailing everything that you and our team needs to know on shoot day. These details would include specific dates, times and locations for each part of the shoot, checklist of gear that will be brought, list of questions or script for on-camera talent, storyboards if applicable, and client and onsite crew contact information.
Now we’re ready to shoot!
Don’t worry, we’ll be here every step of the way to make sure we have everything we need to make this video shoot a success
