A multimedia project has several components that need to be planned for ahead of time. It’s best to have all the necessary assets ready to go before starting the development process. Typically, these are the items that need to be gathered.

1. Branding elements. Provide a style guide to your developer. The guide should go over how to use your logo, what fonts and colors to use, the style of the imagery to use, and even the tone of the content. You will also need to gather the files themselves.

2. Script. The script is the most crucial part of the presentation. Everything else, graphics, video, etc., will follow the script. The first thing to do is decide how long the presentation will be. Then, you need to think about your audience. Decide if you will write this internally or not.

3. Voice over. Once the script is final, you will need to get it recorded into audio files. There are several sites that can handle this relatively inexpensively (i.e. www.amazingvoice.com). You will need to decide the type of voice you need: male/female; casual/formal; professional, friendly, etc. It’s not impossible to edit audio files, but sometimes it can be hard to match the right tone when making changes. Make sure your script is indeed final.

4. Graphics/photos. What are the graphics/photos/illustrations that will support the script? Do they exist in-house? Will you use stock photography? Will you need to hire a photographer? It’s better to have more to choose from than less. Provide your developer with as much as you have and let them sort through it… just give guidance so budget is not lost trying to figure out what each photo represents.

5. Video. Video clips are very compelling and we recommend their inclusion. Your developer can help you determine whether you need a full or half day of shooting. Make sure you also get guidance from how to dress to how to properly prepare for being in front of the camera. It helps to have a list of “talking points” to prepare from. Just don’t prepare so much nor memorize. You should sound spontaneous.

6. Background music. Start thinking about what kind of music you want. Whatever style you choose should support the overall tone and feel of the presentation and should not compete with the voice over. The cost of music files varies greatly. Having a budget to start with will help narrow down the choices.

Keep in mind that all of these different assets need to be consistent in their look and feel for the presentation to be a success. If you are having different people take care of different assets, make sure they all understand the big picture.