A cosy loft in the heart of Covent Garden was the setting for our latest creative workshop. Our theme: getting the reaction you want from video content.
Making up our group of budding filmmakers were 15 professionals representing companies from a wide range of industries. We asked all our participants to leave their roles and backgrounds at the door– giving everyone the freedom to think in a different and more creative way.
The question of the day: with hundreds of hours of video being uploaded every day, how do you make it more likely to get the reaction you want to your video?
In short, our group learned:
- Be surprising. Seeing the same old format rolled out again and again – especially in our industry – is dull. Take a risk.
- Be short. Average attention span is 63 seconds and if you don’t captivate your viewer in 5 you’re finished.
- Be relevant. ALWAYS think about what your audience will respond to, not what you want to say.
- Be clever. You don’t necessarily need big budgets, you just need a great story and a different way of telling it.
And to help our filmmakers put these tips into practice – and get their minds thinking in really far-out ways – we set them the following mind-bending simulation:
Recruit astronauts for Mars
We’re looking to recruit a pool of potential new astronauts. Their mission is to establish the first human colony on Mars: a profound and civilization-altering event. The journey to Mars takes around seven months, and each group of astronauts will be based there indefinitely. It may well be a one-way trip.
What we look for: A fascination with science and exploration. Resilient, adaptable, curious, trustworthy, creative and resourceful.
So, how did they do? Take a look at their rather impressive results.
