How it works
Your big idea, in small steps.Small steps are what get animated.
Everyone starts with a big idea. Show young clients what we’d do for them over a lifetime. Make the compliance course mean something on the floor. Get three thousand people ready for go-live. A big idea can’t be animated. A dozen small steps, in order, can.
Why it has to be broken down
A 90-second film holds about a dozen scenes.Each one shows one thing.
One person, one place, one moment. If a scene tries to explain two things, nobody remembers either. So before I write a word of script, your idea becomes a numbered list of scenes, in the order your audience needs them.
Examples
Two big ideas, broken down.Both became films you can watch.
Small business · an accounting firm
“Show young clients what we’d do for them over a lifetime.”
- 01Eighteen: her first pay slip, and a tax line she doesn’t understand.
- 02Your website lists your services. She doesn’t read it.
- 03Eighteen: her first tax return, done properly.
- 04Twenty-five: a home deposit, planned two years ahead.
- 05Thirty-five: her own business, with an accountant who already knows her numbers.
- 06Sixty: her super doing what it should.
- 07Eighty: a quiet morning, nothing to worry about.
- 08She sees her own life in it, and books a first meeting.
Learning and HR · aged care
“Our compliance course passes the audit, but nothing changes on the floor.”
- 01Joan is eighty-four, and likes to choose her own clothes.
- 02The new Aged Care Act puts her rights at the centre of her care.
- 03Tom did the training: forty slides and a quiz. He passed.
- 04Seven o’clock, a busy floor. Tom picks Joan’s outfit to save time.
- 05Joan goes quiet. The slides never showed him that moment.
- 06The right way: two outfits, and he asks. Ten seconds.
- 07Then it’s Tom’s turn, in a fresh situation.
Working together
The questions do the hard part.You answer them in your own words.
- 01Tell me the big idea
A line or two on the form below is enough.
- 02Answer the guided questions
Once you sign up, I send you a short set of questions. They take your big idea apart: who it’s for, where they are now, what they need to see and in what order, and the one moment that matters.
- 03Check the scene list
Your answers become a numbered list of scenes. You check the order before I write a word of script.
- 04Script, stills, film
Then the script, every scene as a still for you to sign off, and the finished film.
Under your NDA. I’ll sign your NDA before we start. The story needs your situation, not your secrets, so you never have to send anything confidential.
How a video gets made
We talk. I write it.You see every scene before it moves.
Shown with a real one: SAP go-live Monday, made for programmes facing the 2027 deadline.
We talk
An hour on a call. I read your documents and website first, so we start on what matters.
The brief: thousands of people at a mine site move to new SAP screens on one Monday. Show them that Monday before it happens.
I write the story
One person, one day, the old way and the new. You sign off the script.
Meet Sam. He plans maintenance at a mine site. Twelve years in the old screens. He can raise a work order with his eyes shut. On go-live Monday, he can’t find it. The crew is waiting.
You see every scene
Every scene as a still frame. You sign them off before anything is animated.
Scenes 3, 4 and 5, signed off as stills
Then it moves
Animation, a professional voice, music and captions. Versions for your website and LinkedIn.
Usually about three weeks from our first conversation. A Quick explainer takes about a week.
Contact
Start a conversation.Tell me what you need, and when.
A line or two is enough. I’ll come back to you by email.
Prefer LinkedIn? Message Ken McHardie on LinkedIn.