As a creator and a creative, your head is likely swimming with ideas almost all the time which makes it hard to tell which one you should pursue next.
Like a garden, any one of those ideas could flourish into a great video with enough water and sunlight (more into what those are later). So choosing an idea becomes more about testing if it can be developed in three key ways.
This is something I’ve done a lot of as a scriptwriter, but even more so as a screenwriter where you have to pitch your ideas to see if they spark interest with a producer. Of course in this case, you are the writer and the producer. Production-ception.
So here’s how you can develop your idea into a solid video pitch that will help you ensure it has the elements for success.
Who, What, Why?
If we imagine a budding idea as a seed, then the foundation of the idea is the soil. Here you have to ask:
- What topic am I covering.
- What do I want to say about it.
- Who am I saying it for.
These three principles cover three main areas of what makes a successful video:
- Reinforces Channel Identity.
- Unique topic.
- Engages audience.
This foundation is the very very core of your idea and even just figuring these three things out will help you decide if it’s any good, or if you have to re-shape it or change it to fit your channel a bit better.
Preliminary Research
This is the water we spoke about earlier. You have to be able to tell if there’s enough meat on the bones for this idea to feed a whole 10+ minute video. This is a tall task, but the best way I’ve found of figuring that out is through research.
Just spend 10 or so minutes googling the direct topic of your video. This will give you sources to explore later, but more importantly it will give you a good sense of your competition.
Chuck your idea into YouTube itself and see what it spits back out. If a lot of people are covering the same topic in the same way, watch a couple of videos and analyse what you could be doing differently.
Now if your idea already has a unique angle baked into it then great, but if you’re over-watering already wet soil, then think about something new that you can bring to the table.
It is of course impossible to create something 100% original, but you bring the originality to it. So check in with yourself, what’s your take and what’s your angle?
Retention
The big “r” word in the world of scriptwriting. Maintaining retention is largely the script’s job, but you can set yourself up for success by making sure this is baked into the idea.
It’s all well and good to say, I want to make a video about let’s say matcha (since I’m drinking one while writing this!)
You run a channel all about tea cultures around the world and you know your audience will be interested, but what exactly are you saying about matcha? What is going to make them stick around?
Here is where some preliminary pitching can help you out using a structure that’s something like this:
This is a video about topic looking at specific angle/thesis to explore sub-topics which reveals that big payoff at the end.
If we apply this to the matcha example:
This is a video about matcha looking at how people think the world’s matcha capital is in Japan, but it’s actually in China to explore the history of matcha between the two nations and reveal that China’s matcha, if you know where to look, may just be better than Japan’s.
If you have someone you trust nearby, you could ask them what they think, but at the end of the day they aren’t your target audience, so instead test it against your audience profile.
If your target audience is that tea-loving matcha-interested 20-something that wants to learn more about what makes matcha so special, then bingo.
Measuring your idea for retention at this stage will help make sure that the script remains focused on the core topic and relevant to your audience throughout, because a video about matcha could easily splinter into being about:
- The industry
- The health benefits
- The culture and ceremonies around it.
Establish Guidelines, not Rules.
I find that the best ideas come from a place of genuine curiosity and intersectionality so don’t be scared to explore or develop an idea that doesn’t work on paper, because it may just surprise you.
In this mega-metaphor I’ve been carrying through this whole post, you are the gardener and you get to pick which plants get spliced with other variants and which ones need to get repotted. This is first and foremost a creative process, though it doesn’t mean it is devoid of strategy.
Finding the balance between the two is what leads to really unique and interesting video ideas, so go forth and garden.