Meet one Malcolm Forbes.

A cutting-edge marketing manager in a cutthroat business.

Mr. Forbes has been assigned a singular entry ticket: to create a video to promote his company's latest brainchild, a machine capable of restoring sight to failing eyes.

What the good marketer can't see is that, in just a few moments, he's going to step into a realm where the shadows stretch to infinity and daylight always lurk somewhere just over the horizon.

But by then it will be too late, because he'll be lost in a realm we call ... The Medical Marketing Video Zone.

Okay, suppose you're the one who has to produce a video about your laser eye machine.

At this early stage, you haven't decided much about this video, but you are sure of its purpose: to reassure and inform patients.

You want to show them exactly what will happen to them before the procedure, during the surgery, and then post-op.

In short, you hope to eliminate their fear of the unknown.

It doesn't take you long to work up a rough idea of what this video will consist of. Having consulted with engineers and surgeons who have helped develop the machine, you've learned that the patient will have at least one pre-appointment with a surgeon, take the usual precautions for outpatient surgery and then report to a clinic where the operation will be performed.

And someone will have to pick up the patient after the operation and change a bandage over their eyes a couple of times. This friend or relative will also have to put drops into the patient's eyes for about a week before they return for a final consult with the surgeon.

And that's about where we'll leave our patient, with their much improved vision. All of this gives you a rough idea of the locations required for the shoot. Probably the patient's home, the surgeon's office, maybe a shot from the reception waiting area.

Uh, you'll need a few shots of the laser machine itself and the room where the procedure is performed.

You've also decided that actual footage of the procedure is probably too disturbing for most viewers. People are very sensitive when it comes to their eyes. So you're going to cover most of the procedure itself with an animated sequence showing just how it works.

You don't need to hire actors to play the patient, the surgeon, maybe a receptionist and a technician at the clinic, plus the friend or relative who picks up the patient and helps out at home.

Also, you decide there won't be any live audio. The only thing the audience will hear is voiceover narration and music. Why, you ask? The same reason you're using animation for the procedure itself.

It just puts a little bit of distance between the patient and what's going to happen to them. You want to keep it all very soothing, very reassuring.

You now decided on enough of your videos parameters to know that while it's not exactly Citizen Kane, it's probably more than your in-house team can comfortably handle.

You decide to take it to an experienced agency. So what happens now?

First, we're going to give you some idea of what it takes to make such a video. And then we're going to give you some pointers on choosing the agency for the job.

Next up, the steps to making a medical marketing video.