How well your team works together is essential to completing projects and making progress on company goals. When personalities complement one another, work ethics match, and creative energies are in sync, it’s likely your team is highly productive.
But even in industries like video production, where an endless flow of creativity and collaboration is expected, you’ll face blocks that’ll require a push to cut through. To break through this problematic aspect of video production, implement innovative brainstorming sessions.
Here are six brainstorming tips to help you cultivate the most creativity during video production.
Six Brainstorming Tips for Video Production Teams
Video production is one of the most rewarding, artistic, and challenging industries to begin a career in. You get to work with talented individuals and take on projects that develop your skills and nurture your passion.
You want to ensure your team is ready to generate workable ideas, actionable plans, and creative solutions for moving forward when it’s time to brainstorm.
Here are six tips for boosting creativity in your video production team through brainstorming.
Pick the right members for your brainstorming team
There are various components to producing a successful marketing video. You’ve got to identify the purpose of the video, generate ideas for the visuals, Pick the best concept for your video, write the script, and so forth.
Video production brainstorming sessions are most successful with people who can provide thoughtful feedback and ideas. If you’re a marketing manager, you’re likely leading the team that’s both planning and producing the videos. One of your key responsibilities is media planning, and this includes building a diverse team of people with different cultural backgrounds, specializations, and job responsibilities to brainstorm production ideas.
Include the following people in your brainstorming team:
- Writers and editors.
- Department managers to discuss relevant research and current strategies.
- Advertising managers to shed light on your target audience.
- Producers and directors.
- Project managers.
- Sales team.
Take breaks
Many people are highly productive hunkering down and tackling a project from start to finish with no breaks. But it’s best practice to implement frequent breaks in any brainstorming session.
Each person on your team uses plenty of energy and mental space to engage in a productive meeting of the minds. Most of them won’t be able to sit through a 3-hour brainstorming session without taking a breather, let alone be comfortable with it.
So, take breaks. Use them as an opportunity to clear the air after heated exchanges, refresh the mind and body, and handle personal business.
Allow everyone to share
The term “spitballing” is often used in the film and television industry to reference brainstorming sessions where participants can throw ideas around and “see what sticks.” This method is hugely important to the creative direction of any video project.
But “spitballing” and brainstorming, in general, aren’t as effective when everyone isn’t participating. Allowing everyone to share in your brainstorming sessions enables you to draw from the creative power of constructive debating, critiquing ideas, the swirl of arguments, and counter-arguments.
Creating an environment where open debate and critique is encouraged moves projects forward.
Spark creativity with activities
Sometimes brainstorming isn’t as easy as just sitting everyone down in one room and giving them the green light to share. It’ll take some work to get the creative juices flowing. You’ll be tasked with getting everyone comfortable with having an honest, authentic conversation about producing the next marketing video best.
You can start your brainstorming sessions with activities proven to spark creativity. You can give everyone a writing prompt and ask them to write the beginning of a video script. Implement role-play games to act out video concepts. Explore meditation or yoga practices that promote mental stimulation and creativity.
Organize brainstorming sessions effectively
Many people don’t think about organization when it comes to brainstorming sessions. Although “going with the flow” can cultivate creative freedom in video production, having a structure for your meeting makes it that much more efficient.
You want to be intentional about how you organize setting up the session and what you’d like to address in it. Pick a specific date for your brainstorming session or set it up to reoccur each week. Ensure each team member receives a calendar invite to the session and accepts that invitation to confirm their attendance. Ask that they bring a notepad, pen, laptop, and any other tools to stay engaged in the session.
You should also create a loose outline for the meeting to ensure you use your time productively and address all pertinent topics.
Ensure your sessions stay productive
It’s easy to get sidetracked in any meeting. You start the session with a specific video concept idea and end up talking about something entirely personal. But you must ensure your sessions stay productive by redirecting conversations and referencing your outline.
You absolutely want to give a person space to express their thoughts and ideas entirely. But you also want to ensure their contributions are relevant and focused. Brainstorming sessions are only as productive as the individuals participating in them.
Keep your brainstorming session productive by documenting everything, assigning a facilitator, encouraging others to speak up, outlining a session agenda, and assembling a diverse team.
Conclusion
Video production is wildly creative and requires a team willing to collaborate and communicate effectively. Brainstorming sessions boost creativity in video production. Pick the right team members, take breaks, encourage everyone to speak, use activities to spark the creative process, be organized, and ensure your sessions stay productive.
