The first question I ask people who approach me about producing video – be it subject matter experts or delegates on my visual storytelling course is: who are they trying to reach and engage? Who is the audience?

This is then followed by ‘what do you want the audience to take away from this?’

The second question helps identify whether your video is likely to reach the target audience by questioning any preconceived assumptions that you may have made in the first.

It’s not uncommon for production to begin, and even be delivered, with little real thought about the intended audience or the purpose (or key messages) of the content.  In broadcasting these are fondly known as “take-aways”, to which an academic friend joked, ‘Ah, the Tikka Masala theory of education!’ Whereas in education, they are more commonly referred to as learning outcomes.

Ensuring that a piece of content delivers on the…