The first meeting with the client is more than a get-acquainted session… The business at hand for you at this meeting is not to find out about the subject, but to find out about the videotape itself. Don’t be surprised if the client wants to launch right in to talking about the subject. However, this will do you little good until you know about the tape. So as soon as possible, swing the conversation around to the four P’s of the videotape: People, Purpose, Presentation, and Production.
It is not a good idea to write the narration first then think up ideas to illustrate it. For one thing, this puts the emphasis on the less effective part of the video and reduces the more effective to a second-class status. Secondly, when explaining things in words, we tend to make our explanations more universal by making them more abstract. Thus, you will put yourself in the difficult position of trying to use moving pictures, the most concrete form of expression, to illustrate abstractions. Let the visuals drive the script and keep everything firmly rooted in the concrete.
