We know as a leader you’re busy, so it’s important to plan time to review so this doesn’t become a bottleneck that creates budget or timeline blowouts.
Here are some strategies to save you both in the editing phase of your project.
In our letter of engagement, we mapped out a timeline that includes dates for reviews. We strongly recommend booking an hour per review in your calendar when the project starts. This way you’ve protected your project from interference.
For every 5 minutes of video, expect to spend 30 minutes reviewing and adding notes.
One of the most likely causes of delay and blowouts in content product is unnecessary iterations because things being missed in the reviews. Here are the steps to take to ensure you get reviews right.
Inattentional blindness or perceptual blindness occurs when an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight, purely as a result of a lack of attention rather than any vision defects or deficits.
A famous example of inattention blindness is a video in which viewers are asked to count how many times the actors are passing the ball. After playing the video, viewers are asked if they noticed the guy in the gorilla suit walking IN FRONT OF the actors. 50% of the viewers missed it!
The key to counteracting inattention blindness is to concentrate on one thing at a time. This is something that even seasoned professionals apply to their work: here’s how they do it.
You can only get the first impression once. Use it well.
Make sure you capture your initial, emotional response before you get into the detail.
Sit back, relax and play the video. Do not start and stop, but play the video like a user of your website would.
Right after watching and before you get distracted by the next think, answer these questions:
What is my gut feel?
Did I understand the message?
Write. It. Down!
Play the video in the background, maybe while making a cuppa. Without concentrating on the visuals, how does the video sound to you?
It’s very easy to miss spelling mistakes, because we tend to skim over titles in the video. Stop the video, read the title and ensure you’re happy with it.
Visuals, written content and audio are processed in different parts of the brain. As a result, if we get swept away by the emotional arc of the video (which is what should happen!) it’s easy to miss that your name is spelled ‘Jon’ instead of ‘John’.
Rushing reviews is a false economy.
Reviewing with three different hats on is a great investment of time; I guarantee you that you’ll make back that time fourfold over the course of your project.
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