The Essential Elements of a Training Video

Posted by Ktva video on March 11th, 2019

Video has been an essential training tool for decades. A key part of any training program, video provide consistent information presented to help work together with printed materials.

People learn in different ways.  Training videos will sometime explain visually and audibly where mere text cannot be as effective.  Repetition can reinforce important training messages. Complex information can be understood more easily. Professionally-made videos can help to train and retrain the staff in a cost-effective and time-effective way. Using high-quality video production can be  highly advantageous to any business or organization. To do this, you will probably need to hire an experienced and professional video production company. 

Professional training video production in Portland offers a lot of benefits like faster, consistent and accountable training, a more productive and efficient workforce and perhaps reduce training consultant fees. A customized training video or series can be a great educational tool for companies with a large number of employees because important information can be conveniently presented and reinforced.    

There are key factors that can help you create better training videos and ensure that your content is effective, thereby meeting your objectives and producing consistent results.

Keep it a Simple Script (KISS) – The script of your video has to be simple, to the point and hopefully, entertaining.  Limit training videos to seven to ten-minute segments; longer pieces will reduce viewer attention. Sometimes companies make the mistake of making a video based on their training manuals, just a bunch of text and still images. Instead, bring your materials to life with situational examples that exemplify the key points of your training.  Professional actors are not required, usually employees can be utilized for these roles.  And remember, less is more with video.  People remember about 80% of what they see, not what they hear.  The importance of the script cannot be over emphasized.  Please remember that when the final script is approved, it is the road map your video producer will use to shoot and edit your piece.  The script is KING.  Do not expect that changes made after final script approval, and therefore the basis for shooting, narrating and editing, will be done at no additional cost. 

Keep changing what's on the screen. – Professional training video producers have lots of tricks up their sleeves that help them grab audience attention. One of them is to change what's on screen every few seconds. The changes don't have to be dramatic. They can be as simple as a close-up shot, a shot from a different angle, adding some motion, or changing the text. Wordy, on-screen graphics and static images should be avoided.  Television has created short-term attention span issues, requiring imagery to be constantly changing to maintain viewer interest. 

For quality video production please utilize the services of professionals.  In-house produced training videos can be out-of-focus, shaky, poorly framed, poorly lit, noisy and badly narrated having little impact on your audience and potentially downgrading the image of your organization.  Remember, your company's culture will be reflected in these training videos.  Are poorly and sloppily produced training materials a good way to initiate a partnership with a new employee?  It is thus recommended to use professional video production services in Portland with sufficient training-video experience. Stay away from production houses with no training-video experience as they may lack the business acumen and the vision to get your message across effectively.  Choose a professional video producer that can work with your team to improve learner message retention by perhaps being a bit more entertaining than simply making a video out of a PowerPoint presentation.