Project Development 167
Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc.
To provide a clear idea of what program
concepts are and how they can guide the video
maker’s approach to developing programs, here
are six examples: three personal programs and
three professional ones.
Personal Programs
Program type: Vacation video
Subject/working title: Lake Omigosh Vacation
Concept: Triumphing over rain.
Summary: Video focuses on comic results of trying
to camp out during two solid weeks of bad weather.
Program type: Holiday video
Subject/working title: Easter Egg Hunt
Concept: The great Easter egg deception.
Summary: Before letting the kids find the eggs, the
parents repeatedly hide them in spots where the
children have already looked.
Program type: Family oral history video
Subject/working title: Grandfather Remembers
Concept: Family connections survive despite long
times and great distances.
Summary: Questions and Grandfather’s answers
focus on family continuity across three continents
and two hundred years.
Professional Programs
Program type: Training video
Subject/working title: Using Your Multi-line
Business Phone
Concept: Conquer your fear of buttons.
Summary: Humorous acknowledgment that business
phones can be complex and frustrating evolves into
the idea that a little study clears up the confusion.
Sample Program Concepts
Program type: Community service promotional
video
Subject/working title: The McKinley Boosters
Concept: Communities depend on volunteers.
Summary: The Boosters Club preserves and
beautifies the town of McKinley.
Program type: Wedding video
Subject/working title: The Anders/Goldstone
Wedding
Concept: As the glass flies apart, two lives come
together.
Summary: Starting with a slow-motion shot of a
goblet shattering under a cloth, the video moves
from this symbol to documenting a traditional
Jewish wedding.
Goodheart-Willcox Publisher
Grandfather remembers.
Considering these two desires together, you
develop a concept: Get your own Sidewinder so
your husband can have his back.
With the concept in place, the whole
program suggests itself: a group of brief scenes
in which a husband keeps asking for his
Sidewinder and his wife keeps promising to
give it back as soon as she’s finished with it. In fi
each scene, she uses the drill in a different type
of project, demonstrating its simplicity and
versatility as she does so.
Most clients demand a full script, rather than just
summaries like these.