Each month we shine a spotlight on a member of the Free Spirits community.

Jill Sainsbury is a filmmaker and content producer for training and education.

She spent the first half of her career working as a broadcast journalist for the BBC in radio, TV and the early days of BBC news online before setting up her business Switched-on Multimedia in 2009. Since then she’s helped public sector organisations such as NHS Trusts, Fire and Rescue Services, universities, training companies and professions based businesses create effective videos for training that are of high quality, are highly watchable and most importantly get the essential info across so that learners do actually learn.

You’ve stepped into a lift and someone asks what you do. You’ve got five floors before the doors open, what do you say?

I’d start with the line in the paragraph above, ‘I’m a film maker for training and education’ because that line says it all. If you want someone to make you a gritty, skating video or a dewy-edged wedding film, I’m not for you but if you need a film or set of films that are clear, well-explained, get to the point and accurate with broadcast-standard production values, I’m your girl!

I don’t just turn up on the day and hit record, leaving you to get on with it, I’ll be actively involved in the planning process, curating the shooting session to overcome any challenges on the day (which there always are) to ensure the right material is gathered so that it slots nicely together in post-production.

What challenge do your clients most often bring to you, and how do you help sort it out?

Clients invariably don’t know what they want. They know they need to get an important piece of learning across but are not sure how. Some see the only way of doing this is to stick anyone willing in front of the camera up against the plainest magnolia wall, others feel they should go full ‘Spielberg’ packing in every creative idea they’ve ever had into one 5 minute film. Firstly I reassure clients that they don’t have to worry. That’s my job.

I spend time working with them to create a plan to ensure the information is put across in the most engaging and compelling way and use the best method or methods to do that, whether it’s a short interview, a presentation, actor role play, animation or graphics or a combination of all or some of the above. Film-making is a collaborative process and all projects evolve so there’s always room in the budget for revisions because clients need to be able to change their minds.

What are you currently building, experimenting with, or hoping to do more of this year?

I’m on a bit of a PR mission to point out that quality, nuanced video makes all the difference. Small businesses will put a lot of time and effort into creating a fantastic brand, forgetting that a video is as much part of that brand as the photographs and logo.

A bad video looks bad. A video created in a few minutes either on a wobbly phone or using sloppy AI can do damage to your brand and reputation and doesn’t make for watchable engaging video that people can learn from either.

Rather than being negative I want to help people make better videos from the simple tools that they have. I’ll be doing more speaking and offering training to those who need to make their own videos. However I also want them to know that when they need to make that step up to professionally produced video, it won’t bust the budget and will provide long-lasting effective marketing and training resources that will save you time and stress.