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Corporate Training Videos – Part 1

November 18th, 2011 in Animation, Insight, Motion Graphics, Training, Video Production Posted by cathy

If you have a lot of people to train in different locations, video is a very cost efficient training tool. It saves on subsistence, travel and training personnel and ensures that the training is completely consistent.

It also means that your trainees can access time and again to retrain, which they cannot do after a seminar.
This article covers some of the things you need to consider when commissioning a production company to make a corporate training video to ensure that you get the most effective training tool for your investment.

STRUCTURE
When you’re making corporate training videos, as with any lesson or lecture, it’s important to structure the information into a logical order and break the content up into byte size sections with headings.

In the same way that you might use PowerPoint slides in a speech or chapters in a book, you can create punctuation in a video by using onscreen section headings and more subtle changes in music to signify one section finishing and another section starting.

To guide the brain, it helps to signpost when a new section is starting, by introducing it with an overview of what they will learn in this section.

It’s really important to keep your script concise and to the point. If you confuse or bore your audience, then they will not learn anything, so decide which are the key points that you need to convey and what can be referred to for further reading on the subject.

REPETITION
When watching a video, the viewer can’t stop to reread something so repetition helps to ensure they have heard and absorbed everything they need to.

It’s the old adage,
- Tell your audience what you’re going to tell them.
- Tell them.
- Then tell them what you told them.

CREATIVE
So far we’ve talked about structure, but let’s not forget that this is video production, and an opportunity to do something creative!

It is very difficult to watch someone talk on screen for longer than a few seconds without any illustrative shots of graphics and not mentally switch off. People watch TV and surf the web at the same time – they are used to much more visual stimulation, so to get people to engage, a training video needs to entertain as well as inform.

How can you bring the concepts your teaching to life to help the viewer understand?
If you’re explaining scientific theory behind a product feature, why not film some demonstrations of that theory, to bring the subject to life.

We have produced a series of videos for Everest where we have created some brainiac style experiments to help demonstrate the science behind the produce features and benefits. This has involved throwing cricket balls at toughened glass, putting windows into a wind tunnel and getting heavyweight boxers to try and smash through doors.

If your training is to do with people and how to behave in certain situations, then why not create some short role play scenarios and film as a drama?

We created a series of short dramas for Thames Valley Police as part of their customer service training. Each film showed a scenario involving a customer and was used to provoke group discussion.

Drama produced for Thames Valley Police

MOTION GRAPHICS
Of course, sometimes you can’t film what you want to teach. Sometimes, motion graphics are the only way to illustrate your message and product cross sections, scientific medical animation are regularly used in corporate videos.

Animation is also a way of adding some personality into a programme as well. A simple character animation can really lighten a video and add humour to an otherwise dry subject.