We’ll kick off the event by giving you the opportunity to meet and connect with your peers to discuss challenges and solutions in your video storytelling efforts.

Moving at an average of 24 frames per second, video can present more information to your audience at one time than any other medium. That’s why video continues to dominate in communications. Yet, it can be easy to be distracted by a beautiful image, especially when film and video professionals spend most of their time on focus, lighting, color, and composition. As corporate communicators, writers, and producers, it is our job to ensure that all videos start with substance, and not style—because sometimes, if we don’t prioritize that, no one else will.

In this section, you will learn:

• What makes a compelling visual story (and what does not)
• How to flesh out the elements of the visual picture that will give more information to your audience

You know that feeling, when you’re watching a movie, and something interrupts you, demanding your attention, and even though you’re supposed to give your attention to this other thing, you stay on the couch, still watching the movie, because you must find out what happens next? Giving your audience that feeling is a communicator’s dream. Most likely, that feeling is the result of the three-act structure, a scripting method used by most Hollywood films to guarantee that audiences watch their movies to the end. By employing the three-act structure in your script writing, you too can have a better chance of your audience watching the video you worked so hard to create.

In this section, you will learn:

• What the three-act structure is and examples of how it is used in Hollywood movies
• The elements and rules of the three-act structure
• How to apply this format to your videos

Too often, a well-shot video ends up feeling like a collection of soundbites. How did this happen? Where did you go wrong? Chances are, there’s a problem with your three-act structure.

In this section, you’ll learn:

• How to identify what isn’t working in your video
• The tactics you can employ to fix those problems using the rules of the three-act structure

If you are an internal communicator tasked with making a video, chances are you are not the one crafting the video—your expertise is probably in communications strategy and writing, not cinematography or video editing. Now that you are familiar with the three-act structure and the importance of thorough pre-production, you’ll want to choose a video partner who will help you achieve your story goals.

In this session, you’ll learn:

• The questions you should ask of prospective video partners
• The questions they should be asking you
• The process for pre-production that ensures you focus on the substance behind a captivating visual
• Typical roles on video teams, and how you fit in as the corporate communicator

1:45 – 2 p.m.

Wondering how much a video costs? How long it takes to make a video? How a corporation can start a video strategy? Lizzie is happy to answer these questions and more before the day wraps up.