Effective Work Sample Exercises for Hiring a Video Production Manager

In today's digital-first world, a skilled Video Production Manager can transform your organization's visual storytelling capabilities. This pivotal role bridges creative vision with technical execution, ensuring your video content resonates with audiences while meeting strategic objectives. However, identifying candidates who truly possess the right blend of leadership, creativity, technical expertise, and organizational skills can be challenging through traditional interviews alone.

Work sample exercises provide a window into how candidates actually perform in real-world scenarios relevant to the position. For a Video Production Manager, these exercises reveal crucial capabilities: how they plan productions, manage resources, lead creative teams, solve unexpected problems, and maintain quality standards. Unlike hypothetical interview questions, work samples demonstrate a candidate's actual approach to the job's core responsibilities.

The exercises outlined below are designed to evaluate the essential competencies required for video production management success. They assess strategic thinking, creative direction, technical knowledge, team leadership, and problem-solving abilities—all within contexts that mirror the actual challenges of the role. By observing candidates in action, you'll gain insights that resumes and interviews simply cannot provide.

Implementing these exercises will not only help you identify candidates with the right skills but also demonstrate your company's commitment to excellence in video production. This signals to top talent that you value quality and understand the complexities of their craft, making your organization more attractive to the best candidates in the field.

Activity #1: Production Planning and Budget Management

This exercise evaluates a candidate's ability to develop comprehensive production plans and manage resources effectively—critical skills for ensuring projects are completed on time and within budget. It reveals how candidates approach the strategic planning phase of video production, including how they allocate resources, identify potential challenges, and establish realistic timelines.

Directions for the Company:

• Provide the candidate with a creative brief for a hypothetical video project (e.g., a product launch video, brand story, or educational content).
• Include specific parameters such as target audience, key messaging, desired length (2-3 minutes), and a fixed budget ($X).
• Supply basic information about available internal resources (e.g., number of team members, equipment).
• Allow candidates 24-48 hours to prepare their production plan.
• During the interview, give them 15 minutes to present their plan, followed by 10 minutes of questions.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the creative brief and develop a comprehensive production plan that includes:
• Production timeline with key milestones
• Budget breakdown (personnel, equipment, location, post-production)
• Resource allocation plan
• Risk assessment and contingency plans
• Brief description of creative approach
• Prepare to explain your rationale for each element of the plan
• Be ready to discuss how you would adapt if the budget was reduced by 20%

Feedback Mechanism:

• After the presentation, provide one piece of positive feedback about an aspect of their plan that was particularly strong.
• Then, offer one constructive suggestion for improvement (e.g., "I noticed the timeline might be tight for the editing phase" or "Have you considered alternative approaches to the location shooting?").
• Give the candidate 5 minutes to revise that portion of their plan based on your feedback, observing how they incorporate suggestions and adapt their thinking.

Activity #2: Creative Direction and Storyboarding

This exercise assesses a candidate's creative vision, storytelling abilities, and skill in translating concepts into visual plans. It demonstrates how they approach the pre-production phase and their ability to align creative decisions with brand guidelines and strategic objectives.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a simple creative brief for a 60-second promotional video (e.g., for a product, service, or company initiative).
• Include brand guidelines, target audience information, and key messaging points.
• Provide examples of previous company videos or content that reflect your brand style.
• Give candidates access to these materials 24 hours before the interview.
• Prepare a whiteboard or digital collaboration tool for the storyboarding portion.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Based on the creative brief, develop a concept for the promotional video.
• Create a basic storyboard (6-8 frames) that visualizes your concept.
• Prepare to explain:
• Your creative rationale and how it aligns with the brand
• How your concept addresses the target audience's needs/interests
• Your approach to visual storytelling within the 60-second constraint
• Technical considerations for bringing your vision to life
• During the interview, you'll have 10 minutes to present your concept and storyboard, followed by discussion.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide positive feedback on an aspect of their creative concept that resonated well.
• Offer one piece of constructive feedback related to brand alignment or storytelling effectiveness.
• Ask the candidate to revise one frame of their storyboard or adjust an element of their concept based on your feedback.
• Observe how they incorporate the feedback while maintaining the integrity of their creative vision.

Activity #3: Team Leadership and Problem-Solving Simulation

This exercise evaluates a candidate's leadership style, decision-making process, and ability to solve unexpected problems during production. It reveals how they manage team dynamics and adapt to changing circumstances—essential skills for maintaining production quality and efficiency under pressure.

Directions for the Company:

• Create a detailed scenario of a video shoot in progress that encounters multiple problems (e.g., equipment failure, talent issues, weather changes, timeline pressure).
• Prepare role-play cards for 2-3 team members who will simulate crew members with different personalities and concerns.
• Designate interviewers to play these roles during the simulation.
• Allow 10 minutes for the simulation followed by 10 minutes of discussion.
• Consider recording the simulation for later review with the hiring team.

Directions for the Candidate:

• You'll participate in a role-play scenario simulating a video production day that encounters several unexpected challenges.
• You'll be the Production Manager leading a small team (played by interviewers).
• Your goal is to:
• Assess each problem as it arises
• Make decisions that balance quality, timeline, and budget considerations
• Communicate effectively with your team
• Develop creative solutions to keep the production moving forward
• Maintain a positive and productive team environment
• After the simulation, be prepared to discuss your approach and rationale for the decisions you made.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Provide positive feedback about an effective leadership moment observed during the simulation.
• Offer constructive feedback about one aspect of their problem-solving or communication approach.
• Present a follow-up scenario related to the original simulation and ask how they would handle it differently based on your feedback.
• Observe how they incorporate the feedback into their revised approach.

Activity #4: Technical Review and Quality Assessment

This exercise evaluates a candidate's technical knowledge, attention to detail, and quality standards. It demonstrates their ability to identify issues in post-production and provide constructive feedback to improve the final product—critical skills for ensuring all video content meets the organization's standards.

Directions for the Company:

• Prepare a rough cut of a video (2-3 minutes) that contains deliberate technical and storytelling issues, such as:
• Audio inconsistencies
• Pacing problems
• Color grading issues
• Awkward transitions
• Messaging that doesn't align with the presumed brief
• Create a simple creative brief that outlines what the video was intended to accomplish.
• Provide access to these materials 24 hours before the interview.
• Prepare to discuss Adobe Creative Suite or other relevant editing software during the conversation.

Directions for the Candidate:

• Review the rough cut video and creative brief provided.
• Prepare notes identifying:
• Technical issues that need addressing
• Storytelling/structural improvements
• Suggestions for enhancing visual impact
• Recommendations for better alignment with the creative brief
• Be ready to discuss specific editing techniques or tools you would use to fix the identified issues.
• During the interview, you'll have 15 minutes to present your assessment and recommendations, followed by discussion.
• Be prepared to demonstrate your knowledge of relevant editing software by explaining your technical approach.

Feedback Mechanism:

• Acknowledge one particularly insightful observation or recommendation the candidate made.
• Provide constructive feedback about an important issue they may have missed or a recommendation that might not align with best practices.
• Ask them to revise their approach to one specific issue based on your feedback.
• Observe how they incorporate technical knowledge and creative judgment in their revised recommendation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should we allow for each work sample exercise?

Each exercise should be allocated 30-45 minutes total, including presentation, discussion, and feedback. The Production Planning exercise may require a longer slot (up to 60 minutes) if you want to include more detailed questions about the plan. Remember that candidates will need preparation time before the interview for most of these exercises.

Should we conduct all four exercises with every candidate?

While using all four exercises provides the most comprehensive assessment, this may not be practical for your hiring timeline. At minimum, select two exercises that align with your most critical needs—typically the Production Planning exercise and either the Creative Direction or Team Leadership simulation. For finalists, consider adding a third exercise.

How should we evaluate candidates across different exercises?

Create a standardized scorecard for each exercise that rates specific competencies (e.g., strategic thinking, creativity, technical knowledge) on a consistent scale. Have all interviewers use the same scorecard and evaluate independently before discussing candidates to reduce bias.

What if we don't have the resources to create custom materials for these exercises?

You can simplify these exercises by using existing company videos or publicly available content as the basis for discussion. The key is ensuring all candidates work with the same materials so you can make fair comparisons. Industry-standard sample footage is also available from various stock footage sites.

How do we ensure these exercises don't create an undue burden on candidates?

Be transparent about the exercises in advance and respect candidates' time by keeping preparation requirements reasonable. Consider offering a stipend for extensive preparation work, particularly for the production planning exercise, which requires significant time investment.

Can these exercises be conducted remotely?

Yes, all of these exercises can be adapted for remote interviews using video conferencing tools with screen sharing capabilities. For the team leadership simulation, ensure your video platform allows for breakout rooms or multiple participants. Digital collaboration tools like Miro or Google Jamboard can replace physical whiteboards for storyboarding exercises.

Finding the right Video Production Manager requires looking beyond resumes and traditional interviews to assess how candidates actually approach the complex challenges of the role. These work sample exercises provide a structured yet realistic way to evaluate candidates' strategic thinking, creative vision, leadership abilities, and technical expertise in context.

By implementing these exercises, you'll gain deeper insights into each candidate's capabilities and working style, helping you identify those who truly possess the skills needed to elevate your organization's video production efforts. Remember that the best candidates will appreciate a thorough process that demonstrates your commitment to excellence in video production.

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