It Takes a Village to Create a Whiteboard Animation
Whiteboard video, like most video, doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Like most productions, it involves multiple personnel collaborating across functions. Video is almost never a one-person job. Whiteboard in particular benefits not just from its creative team, but from external collaboration.
Let’s take a look at the different roles and abilities that go into your custom whiteboard video.
Your Team
Producer
The TruScribe process starts, after your sales agreement is signed, with a meeting of the minds between you and your producer. In whiteboard video production, it’s the producer’s job to:
- inform you on the process,
- keep track of the video’s progress,
- communicate with you on concerns, questions, and more!
In your initial meeting with your producer, they set expectations and listen your thoughts. As questions are answered and the process clarified, the meeting typically ends with a plan and/or next steps. That leads into the scripting phase of the whiteboard video.
Copywriter
If the your script is already complete, then the scripting phase is also complete. If not, you will meet the second team member that will contribute to your video: the copywriter. Whether assisting in part or in full, the copywriter will hone your script and sharpen the language to create the best messaging possible for the medium.
Artist
Since your message is the paramount concern, production gets started once that message is secured in a finalized script. With that finalized script in hand, your artist gets to work on concepting just the right images for your video.
As your artist reads the script, they develop images that will match the voiced script. Conscious of elements like space in the frame and the time it will take sentences to be read, the artist works hard to create images that are not only attractive but effective.
Drawings must reinforce the script’s message, and they must also correspond to its pacing and language. Whiteboard artists strive to draw images that match the words being spoken, as they are being spoken, to create higher engagement with the message and promote retention of the information provided.
Once the first round of drawings are complete, the artists collaborate with you through feedback and comments to refine that first round through the second and into the final drawings layout. As that layout will be used to film, your approval is key during this phase.
With approval on the final drawings, the artist then proceeds to film those drawings on the whiteboard. Along with the filmed drawings, there is one more element necessary before the video can be edited and completed.
Voice Actor
Script signoff also means that the team can start to plan voiceover recording. Here is another external source of collaboration: the voice actor. Once we know your voice preferences (in terms of tone, age, delivery, etc.), or once you provide you own chosen voice actor, it is time to record the finalized script.
During these sessions, your producer participates in the recording to ensure that you receive the exact takes necessary for a great final audio track. This can include sharing background information from you or discussing ideas beforehand, as well as providing direction and guidance during the session. By the end of the session, you should have all of the takes needed for a stellar narration track.
Editor
With the drawings approved and filmed, and final audio takes selected from the voiceover recording session, it’s time for your editor to put all the pieces together. Paying close attention to audio-visual synchronization, your editor times out your voiceover track and video track so that the drawings and voiced script stay in harmony and reinforce your message.
When you approve your screening, the process is complete, and the final whiteboard video is delivered.
So, how many personnel does it take to make a whiteboard video?
Well, let’s take it from the top: it takes administrative leadership, accounting staff, marketing and sales personnel, producers, copywriters, artists, and editors, on the internal side!
You!
Externally, the biggest player is you – our client, whose collaboration is key to our process! You actively participate and sign off at every stage of the process and nothing moves forward without your enthusiastic approval.
Other Reviewers
There’s also another level of external collaboration often required from your side: reviewers, who can be either members of your organization or if you are working with us on behalf of your client, their review and approval.
These reviewers have a stake in the project, be it financial or other. And they need to give input on the whiteboard video to ensure it meets their standards. While they may not be present for every step of the process, their role is vital to ensuring the video serves its purpose and aligns with organizational values, aspirations and legal stipulations.
It Really Does take a Village!
Whiteboard video requires the hard work and focus of a large group of individuals with different skillsets. Marketing and sales personnel are required to teach you about our product and design the perfect video package for your project.
Video doesn’t always necessitate a large staff to produce, but whiteboard is a special kind of video that absolutely requires multiple perspectives and skillsets to achieve its potential. The increased rates of engagement and information retention that whiteboard video allows are not happy accidents.
Whiteboard videos’ strengths are a direct result of design choices made by copywriters, artists, and each other team member involved the project. And in the process, you become a part of that team. You offer indispensable guidance on message, visuals, and much more.
Key Takeaways
At TruScribe, we’ve often talked about how whiteboard video is a highly collaborative process, and it surely is. Usually, this is explained as allowing you a sizable amount of influence on the project. And while this is absolutely accurate, there’s even more to whiteboard collaboration than the client-team relationship.
As mentioned above, you are part of the team on a whiteboard video, and so is the voice actor, your own reviewers, and the whiteboard production staff. Few of us, if any, can create an effective whiteboard video on our own—so we embrace teamwork and collaboration in each whiteboard video.
Were you surprised at the amount of people involved in creating whiteboard video? Can you think of any roles that you would add to the team? What other kinds of video do you think would benefit from more collaboration and/or personnel on the production team?