A Day in the Studio

Today, I spent another few hours shooting video - these are lessons my company uses to help customers understand how they can make the most out of their sales teams.

It's always interesting to do this, as I usually am both writer and executive producer of the materials being created. It interesting because laying down two and a half minutes of video takes 30-40 minutes. There can be lots of takes, and some significant prep time as well to say something only a paragraph in length. It makes me wonder if we all had this much prep opportunity for everything we said, how would we say or do things differently.

I imagine, we'd be very precise, and would have carefully considered everything that was said. We'd have considered the consequences of what we say, and imagine the reaction we are looking for from others. There's a parallel here - to days of old when people exchanged hand-written correspondence that would often stretch conversations over months or years. There was no advantage to returning that 'letter' at 11pm on a Sunday evening, as it would still take a long time to deliver. Instead think carefully about what you write, as it's likely to have to stand on it's own for some long period of time.

If we come back to the present, the rash-ness that we routinely employ in our blackberry/iPhone instant responses, or SMS based communications can often lead to different or overly emotional interactions. While that may be 'real' insofar as translating how we feel, the instant response isn't always the best one. The phrase "ill-considered" comes to mind. With more time, we allow ourselves the chance to roll-over thoughts and reactions in our heads, applying our experiences and education. Said another way, while our intelligence levels are often tested in various forms - professional credentials, referrals , reputation and the like, they aren't tested in how fast we can react. If Einstein was a genius, was he also an immediate genius..? Is anyone ?

All of which brings me back to the studio, and the thought that even if we blow things in here today, there's always the post-shoot editing process, to filter out inconsistencies and ensure the message delivered, is the optimum one. Oh, for this luxury in our everyday lives.