Making Plans That Work

“I love it when a plan comes together.” These are the favorite words of my favorite Hannibal, and no I’m not referring to Anthony Hopkins, I’m talking about George Peppard AKA John “Hannibal” Smith from the A-Team. If you are not familiar with the A-Team here’s a quick run down. They are a group of Vietnam vets, who have been accused of crimes they didn’t commit, so they run from the law while stopping classic 80’s bullies. Also there is a Mr.T and a sick van and when I’m not working on videos, I’m spending way too much time thinking about my obsession with vans. I might even have a van themed instagram page in the works and if so I’ll update it here when I do.  

But what about Hannibal? What about the plan? 

Every episode of the A-Team there is a moment where they are trying to solve a set of problems that has stacked all of the odds against them. Eventually while chewing on a cigar, Hannibal will have an epiphany moment and start to make a plan and then begin to put that plan into place. When the plan eventually proves successful, he says his iconic line, “I love it when a plan comes together.” 

I pity the fool that doesn’t have a good plan.

I echo this sentiment. What can be more satisfying than a plan coming together? And the bigger the plan, the more daunting the task, the greater the satisfaction increases. This is why I’ve spent so much of my time on startups and new opportunities. There is something exhilarating about taking an idea and bringing it all the way to fruition. It’s also why this video production company really fits me on a producer level, because essentially we take your ideas and goals and we plan the production to fit. For me, It’s like starting a new business again and again. 

Just like the A-Team, we start with a sort of consultation. This is how we find out about your business or creative project and what you are hoping to achieve. This conversation can be a great place to whiteboard ideas, outline the goals, talk through the budget, and explore what we can offer and whether what we offer fits. Mapping out all the details helps us to uncover all of your video production and digital media needs in advance and gives us the opportunity to make a plan. 

After the plan has been drawn up, we move onto production. I’m not going to outline where the other A-Team characters like Face, Murdock, or B.A. Barracus fits in here, but I’m sure you can imagine if you have some familiarity with the show. The plan is now in action and sometimes it can have a lot of moving parts. Our production teams can vary in size depending on the scope of the project but at the very least we will have a director, and a camera operator or DP. You also can’t forget the on-air talent, which is the actors or real-life people that are speaking in front of the camera. Sometimes this is the business owner or a person very familiar with the company like a sales lead, but other times it’s a person cast to play the part. If we’re shooting for something bigger the crew can easily grow and often consist of 25-30 people with specific roles that are key to making it come together. It can consist of a director, producer, 1st AD, Gaffer, Grip, Art Director, Wardrobe, Drone Operators, Production Assistants, and the list goes on

When the video production has wrapped, we move on to post-production where we essentially finish the plan. We look at your original goals and we start the video editing process to meet those goals and create a quality video for your business, school, company, church, band, etc. Think of it like building a house. We’ve got all the framework and essentials in place, but we need to make it look nice. Time to paint, add trim, or siding, in construction this is called finishing. For video productions, this is color grading, sound design, mastering, motion graphics, titles, captions, whatever your video needs to be complete and finished.  

This is of course an effort to make it simple. We don’t normally just create one final video, there are often many more deliverables with various cuts or changes in formats to fit different social media outlets or marketing demands. Sometimes a video is just one part of what we’re providing. We could be working on a website, providing graphics, writing content, or planning a long term ad campaign with many more videos to shoot. 

Would you just look at it?

Regardless of where we are in a project, even if the plan isn’t yet complete. Even if we are stuck in the montage scenes where B.A. is still modding out the van and preparing for a fight. Even if Face is still working his way into the inner circle with his acting skills and good looks. Even if Murdock has his flight goggles on and is still talking to himself in the helicopter. Even if we are still working an edit to perfect the same cut weeks and months after the production is wrapped. 

Just like John “Hannibal” Smith with a cigar in his mouth and that sly grin on his face. I love it when a plan comes together.