I work in-house for law enforcement and was given a pretty big video to shoot, but its definitely going to suck.
The video is supposed to explain what our Probation Department does. The video committee decided that it'd be "funny" to start the video off with "here's what you think Probation is" showing our staff being aggressive, dismissive, and generally dicks to clients. At the end they'd show the reality: officers working with clients to help them re-enter society successfully.
What the video committee thinks is funny is awful (plus they want an 8 minute video, so no one will even get to important part.)
I pitched using quick movie and TV clips to show stereotypes of probation in a much shorter video. Unfortunately the committee decided their idea is best.
Maybe I'm crazy and wrong about their idea, but if not how do I fix this?
— Sarah
Writing video by committee is almost always a disaster.
A committee can help define the marketing goals. It can react to ideas and choose between options. But when a group of non-writers and non-videographers tries to create the video together, things tend to fall apart. Ideas pile up, nobody wants to shoot down anyone else’s suggestion, and you end up with a muddled concept that satisfies no one—and works even less.
