Where ya headed?

In olden times, when the sea was the greatest expanse man was aware of, entire civilizations hinged on sailors' abilities to chart a course. At sea in the 17th century, not knowing where you were going led to ships being enslaved to the currents. Only with meticulous planning side by side with fluid agility could captains chart and then adjust course as necessary to survive the harsh realities of sea-fairing. As with most analogies, modern media production too can be compared to the sea voyages of yesteryear. Or any voyage. Or captain! Or anyone who just wants to see something get done a certain way. Don't you wonder what icebergs weren't seen in time that lead to snafus like at the NHL's Las Vegas Knights announcement:

Nobody should ever have to suffer through 'MEDIA OFFLINE'

What do I need to do next?

Back down to basics: if a media project or campaign has no heading or captain at the helm, it will crash onto the rocks and capsize. Therein lies the tragedy of when a media project does not have allies on its side. Because the course was not set properly in advance or perhaps because the compass was not heeded, the ship strayed from its goals leaving the opportunity left uncapitalized. A course, a compass, and a captain are all it takes to see a vision to success.

Roadmapping Sessions are a means to seize control over both course and compass. By meeting over the common goal of assessment and planning, mutual understandings can be made of what the project's goals are and what would represent the project's "capsizing". Truthfully evaluating the stakes at play for both success and failure often leads straight to a clear understanding of how best to proceed.

Many say that communication is the most important ingredient to complex project success, but it has been my experience that, regardless of the ideal, if not everyone involved has agreed to that ideal, then it is a meaningless platitude. Not far off to label this prescription as "meta-communicating" as it accurately captures how one must talk about talking just to make sure the talking is accurate. Imagine how many meetings and man hours it took to safely pull off this shot of Lady Gaga jumping off the roof with an army of drones flying behind her:

What percent of viewers knew it was filmed in advance of the show? What percent care? Does any of this matter‽

What happens if you get it wrong?

Nautical metaphors aside, the idea here is that if you know where you're going, and how to tell if you're off course, it turns more into a process of setting up dominoes and then celebrating while watching on as they knock themselves down. Hopefully, you've done the math right and they're not falling on you or your clients.

Roadmapping Sessions enable stakeholders and producers to come to agreeable terms. Often it can be as simple as agreeing on vocabularies. One man's tomato is another man's PAL25-Drop Frame off the SMPTE feed from the 3rd Sub Mix Bus. Just make sure you've crossed whatever you need to on the insurance paperwork it takes to let Tom do this:

Sometimes, Tom Cruise straps himself to the outside of a plane to get the shot.

Roadmapping Sessions, while also being able to fully apply their cost to a Consulting Package, are immensely valuable planning and creative brainstorming tools designed to leverage a projects own available resources to carry itself down the road to success.