Developing the Training Series Concept

A concept is a quick summary of a proposed movie. A good concept statement makes it clear to everyone involved exactly what the project is about: producers and managers know what they will be investing in, co-workers know what they will be working on, and an audience or end user knows what the point of the project is and what they should be taking away from the experience.

A concept can also be thought of as a vision statement for a production. In a corporate video, there is a direct connection between the speaker in the video and the viewer. The speaker wants the viewer to do or understand something. In advertising, this is known as a “call to action.” To create a concept for a corporate video, then, the Fabrikam producers need to include or imply in it a call to action.

A concept should describe the video content you want to create, not how or why you want to create it. For example, the statement “describe how to use a lathe safely,” is a better concept than, “show employees using a lathe correctly,” or “keep insurance costs down.” These other statements can be included in the video, but they are not necessarily part of the core concept.

The concept of a video may seem obvious, but if it is not stated clearly from the beginning, you may discover later that the production has veered off course. It is easier to establish a clear concept early on than to re-edit a video multiple times because every team member has a different idea of what the video is about. A concept provides a base for creating a script, and then shooting the video and editing the pieces into a final presentation.

At Fabrikam, production of the online series was motivated by a desire to save training resources and reach more employees. From this high-level motivating factor, we can watch the actual work needed to accomplish this goal. That brings us to specific products that can be created and concepts for individual courses or presentations.

A complete concept can contain as much detail as necessary, but it is important that, regardless of the amount of detail, you should be able to boil a concept down to one simple statement. The Training department decides to create a four-part series related to shop-floor safety. The concepts for the four videos are:

• Describe how to use a lathe safely.

• Describe the use of safety equipment and apparel.

• Describe how to keep work areas free of hazards.

• Describe the role of safety teams and how to form one.

Your concepts can include different language. For example, you might want to make the call to action more apparent. However, the important thing is to have one core concept for a video that everyone understands, including the viewer.