Is this a video shoot or a grand jury selection? This is one of the main reasons I have to explain to clients with prior experience in video production, that times have changed and they will still be able to pay off their kid’s college loans. Or go to Cabo. This is the usual studio approach to working up the invoice. Cha-ching! Showing up with a bus load of unemployed relatives and having them take turns yelling “action” and “cut” always impresses lay people. Until they get the bill.

Today, producers need to possess all the skills that each one of these “crew” would have performed on set. No more clapboard operators, teleprompter specialists, light pole handlers, audio and lighting techs and script supervisors.

I am a “talent wrangler,” which is my term for the make-up applier, tie straightener, mic adjuster and most importantly the “once more with feeling” guy. Or, what I like to call “The Hoarse Whisperer”,  a unique skill set I developed from years of being vomited on from the stage by corporate presenters inflicting “death-by-power point” on thousands of their snoozing captives. Live or on video. What a waste of time and money. Attention is currency and it gets frittered away at every opportunity.

If your running a company, you can’t afford to have your people walking around with less than 16% of the valuable information from your last town hall meeting or company update in their head. You need an emotional transfer to make it stick.

Performance is key whether you’re on camera or in person. Sometimes on a shoot, you have to get up close and personal to an executive and tell him or her their ball ain’t bouncing. You aren’t going to be able to direct someone about posture, facial expressions, delivery, or spinach in their teeth, with a whole football team and no particular job description in attendance. It’s hard enough to get someone to open up and “transcend the glass,” to move an audience emotionally, without the additional pressure of a standing room only gawkers.

People also think reading from a tele-prompter, if required, will sap a presentation of it’s energy and enthusiasm. Not so. If the information is critical and specific it will need to be delivered properly. With credibility and feeling. Like anything else it’s an acquired skill and worth the effort. On camera reading or tele-prompting is not going away. It sure beats eye-rolling, ums, ahs and blank expressions. The world is watching now.

Today’s producer needs to plan the shoot and shoot the plan. Totally understand editing, animation, graphic design and how to process for digital signage, on-line viewing, which includes all computers, , tablets and smartphones. The whole shooting match. (pun intended)

Add live streaming events to that list and you open up a thousand more possibilities that can possibly mis-fire, but the impact is more than worth it.

This new breed needs to see the big picture and have strategies and tactics that will suit the specific organization, personalities and their mission. In other words, as far as time, money and finished product is concerned, you can do a whole lot more with a whole lot less and have a better viewer experience. ROI, without the circus.