What's actually included in video strategy and discovery?

"Video strategy" is one of those phrases that either means something specific or means nothing at all. In my process, it means something specific. Here's what it actually looks like.

Kickoff call. We spend an hour on the phone. Not talking about cameras. Talking about your business — how you sell, who buys, what objections you hear on repeat, what makes a great client vs a bad fit. This is the interview I run on you before I ever interview anyone on camera.

Buyer & sales-cycle mapping. I want to know exactly where a video would live. Is it the first thing a cold prospect sees? Is it the thing you send after the first sales call to buy yourself credibility for meeting two? Is it the answer to a specific objection your reps hear every week? A video with no defined home in the sales process is a video that will sit on the shelf.

Story architecture. Only after we know who it's for and what job it's doing do we start figuring out what it says. Who we need on camera. What questions I need to ask. What the arc is. What we're leaving out — because a lot of a good documentary is knowing what not to include.

Shot list & shoot plan. The tactical piece — where we're shooting, who we're shooting, what B-roll we need, what order we're shooting it in, how many days it takes. This is the deliverable that lets you plan around the shoot without surprises.

None of this happens in a vacuum. You're in the room for every piece of it. By the time we roll the first frame, you've signed off on the story, the plan, and the outcome. No "let's see what we get" filmmaking.

The whole discovery phase usually takes one to two weeks depending on how many stakeholders need to weigh in. It's the least glamorous part of the process and the single most important. Skip it and you're just paying a camera guy.