Good video isn’t luck. It’s planned

Ask anyone what makes a good video and you’ll get the same handful of answers. The camera. The editing. The person behind the lens. Maybe the lighting if they’re feeling technical.

None of those answers are wrong. But none of them are the real answer either.

I know this because I’ve spent 25 years in TV and video production, and the videos that fail almost never fail in the edit. They fail in a meeting that happened three weeks earlier, where nobody asked the right questions. Or on a shoot day where the brief was vague enough that everyone was kind of guessing.

The thing that actually determines whether a video works? It’s invisible. It happens before the camera comes out of the bag.

I know this. I still had to prove it to myself.

When I relaunched Show & Tell with a new website and campaign, I briefed myself like a client.

I sat down at my desk, opened my own strategy brief, and worked through every question. What does this video need to achieve? Who am I actually talking to? How will I know if it worked?

Not gonna lie, it does feel strange to formally interview yourself.

But I ask every client these questions before we touch a camera. And every single time, the answers help guide what we make. So I wasn’t about to skip it just because the client happened to be me.

From there: a morning walk to let the ideas settle, a café session while I pondered, a proper storyboard. Of course I filmed all of this for the campaign. Then I scheduled a day to film the rest, apart from some real behind-the-scenes footage I already had.

Then it was done. The shoot itself took a fraction of the total time. It also went super smoothly, because by the time I got there, there was nothing left to figure out.

The three things A LOT OF businesses skip

I’ve worked with enough clients to know where the gaps tend to be. It usually comes down to one of these three things.

A clear objective. Not “we want a video for our website.” Something specific. What do you want someone to think, feel, or do after watching it? If you can’t answer that before the shoot, the video will try to say everything and land on nothing.

A proper storyboard. Not a rough sketch, an actual document that maps out each scene before you’re standing on location with the clock running. Having something concrete to react to before shoot day saves time, saves money, and means you’re making creative decisions when it costs nothing to change them, not when it costs everything.

A way to measure success. This is the question almost nobody asks. Views and likes are fine, but what actually changes in your business if this video does its job? More enquiries? Better quality clients? A shorter sales conversation? Knowing this upfront shapes every creative decision that follows.

Skip any of these and you’re not gambling on the edit. You’re gambling on luck. And good video isn’t luck.

The shoot really is the easy bit

When the prep is right, shoot day is almost too easy. You know what you’re making. Your talent knows what to expect. You roll, you get it, you wrap.

I could have skipped all of that for my own campaign. Plenty of people do. Just film something and put it out. But I’ve seen too many videos fall flat because the thinking wasn’t there first. So I took my own advice, and I think it turned out pretty well. But I’ll let you be the judge of that…

If you’ve watched that and found yourself thinking

“I know I need video but I have no idea where to start” — I built something for exactly that. The Lights, Camera, Strategy quiz takes about two minutes and tells you what type of video will actually move the needle for your business right now.