Starlog

Lost in Translation

LOST IN TRANSLATION: HOW YOUR NEXT VIDEO PROJECT CAN GO ASTRAY THROUGH TEXTS, EMAILS & MISCOMMUNICATION.

Imagine you go on a video shoot taking place at a pretty remote location and the production books with the approved script, storyboard, and the all-important list of cast and crew contacts never arrive on-set the first day of shooting. The director asks his producer: “Didn’t you get my text to bring those?” and the response is a blank stare. 

Don’t laugh. It’s happened.

IMMEDIACY DOESN’T MEAN THOROUGH

We live in a world where a missed text or an email jettisoned to one’s Spam folder can cost time, money, and cause stressful finger-pointing. Of course, the value of texts and emails are obvious: they’re “immediate.” But that same blessing can also be a curse when miscommunication happens. And when it comes to a video production, large or small, there are a dozen factors that have to line up just so for the project to be successful; and each factor relies on crystal clear communication.

A COMMUNICATION GAP BETWEEN GENERATIONS

You’ve probably seen an article somewhere that talks about the art of communication and how it’s gotten lost due to our modern communication devices. The stack of evidence to support this is pretty compelling. A LinkedIn article points out that when people conduct business largely by text and email, body cues and emotions are removed from the equation and no emoji is ever going to replace them. So what, you ask? A study at UCLA found that 38% of impactful communication was determined by voice while 55% of effective communication was through nonverbal means like body language and facial expressions.

Psychology Today points out that misinterpretation frequently happens in texting and email. In the absence of facial expression, tone of voice, gesture, or the good old fashioned “vibe,” people have very little to discern the true meaning of what the other person is trying to say. Meanwhile, a Preply survey of 2,200 Americans revealed that scrolling on your phone instead of actually listening to someone can be a serious problem. So can being interrupted and people talking over someone else. In fact, people in 26 states listed being interrupted as the number one cause of miscommunication. The same survey also revealed that each generation feels less effective at communicating than the previous one. Baby Boomers ranked high with the best communication skills, followed by Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z had the worst. We certainly don’t mean to sound age-elitist, but the evidence suggests, the older one is, the better communication skills they have.

This shouldn’t be surprising. Both texting and emailing create walls of insulation that can inhibit communication and personal relationships. You can ask for a date via a text or email, then break up the same way. This is shallow in personal relationships, and in professional relationships, nobody learns anything.

THE LOSSES CAN BE STAGGERING

According to the website Axero, an estimated 37 billion-dollars are lost annually due to business miscommunications. The article didn’t specifically blame texting and emails as the cause, but it’s safe to say that both means of communication contributed.

A TWO-DIMENSIONAL MEDIUM DESERVES THREE-DIMENSIONAL COMMUNICATION 

Since videos are two dimensional–sight and sound–and since you want them to elicit a positive emotional response with your audience, it only makes sense to meet with your production resource up close and personal, three dimensionally, and that’s precisely what we do at Hybrid Moon. Each year we attend a number of trade shows and conferences where our sole purpose is to listen, learn, and connect with others. We’ll Zoom with you as much as you like. Travel to your offices. Talk by phone. We’ll do everything possible to make sure we have a relationship as opposed to just quick methods of communicating. Of course, we’ll text and email, too. But we never forget the value of clear communication provided by other means. That’s precisely why we’re in the video business. The right person on-camera, the right music, the emotionally inviting script, the locations–they’re all tools that communicate and build your brand. That’s why we record Zoom meetings then send you the notes. That’s why our statements of work are clear, concise, and never more than a single page. It’s also important to note that when you’re talking with us, you’re talking with principals of the company: there’s no B or C team. Many sources cite face-to-face and verbal (phone) communication as the most effective way to avoid miscommunication. We embrace and practice that. So call–or even text or email–then we’ll open up the lines of communication from there.