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Light, camera, action!…well, maybe not just yet. There are many considerations and a lot of planning to be done to ensure a solid production.
Before you can hop in that Director’s chair, you must know and understand the three stages of video production: Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production.
I’ve been involved in video projects that didn’t take the time to follow these steps. Some have worked out ok…others, not so much. There’s a reason that this process is the gold standard for all productions, big or small. The structure breaks the entire video production process into actionable phases that allow you to tackle the checklist, without getting too overwhelmed.
Let’s take a deeper dive into the three main stages of video production that go into creating a professional video.
The First Stage: Pre-Production
The arguably most important facet of video production is one that is typically glossed over. The pre-production process is a make or break for a project. It’s where you plan for contingencies so you’re not running around like a headless chicken when things go awry (and they will!). A solid plan is paramount to prevent going over budget or past the scheduled shoot length. Dismissing the planning process can cost you a LOT of cash.
First and foremost, you must decide on your concept. Depending on your target audience and platform, it could be a narrative story, corporate videos, or even documentary-style video content. Whatever it is, it needs to be documented and communicated. This is where the treatment comes in.
A treatment is a short, 1-3 page breakdown of your concept, with expository information that you think maybe important to know before diving into the project with a team. Being able to see the fully fleshed-out idea is important so that everyone is on the same page and the project can stay safely on the rails.
Next, you’ll need a script. Depending on your concept, this might be very detailed, with dialogue, camera notes, and scene direction. However you decide to lay it out, it should also be clear and communicative. This will be your Bible for the shoot, so make sure it incorporates everything that you want to convey.
You’ll need to finalize your script before tackling the next objectives, which are:
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Storyboarding: Drawing, animations, or photos. Some type of media to show what you’re trying to achieve with each shot. To complement the storyboards, you probably also want a written shot list to refer to during production.
TIP: If you are a terrible artist (like myself), but enjoy learning visual effects, there are some cool software titles like Blender or Unreal Engine, where you can create a scene in a 3D space and take a screenshot of exactly what you want a specific shot to look like.
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Production Team: Hiring a great team of experienced crew members will take the weight off of your shoulders. Especially if you aren’t all that familiar with the production process.
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Casting: Finding great talent for your project is extremely important.
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Location Scout: The Director, Cinematographer, and Gaffer like to see the locations before the shoot so that they can draw up lighting diagrams and plan for any idiosyncrasies.
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Budget Breakdown/Scheduling: This might be more important than anything preceding. You MUST know exactly how much money you have to spend and what every item or service costs. If you bypass this step or ‘wing it’, you run the risk of running out of funds and that could mean game over. Having a production schedule allows you to ‘audible’ if you’re forced to alter your plans.
It’s also good to have consistent meetings with the production team and producers so that you keep everyone apprised of the plans.
The Second Stage: Production
Principal Photography aka Production. This is the phase that everyone knows and loves. It’s when you get to actualize your idea and see everything that you’ve been planning, come together. It’s where you capture the raw footage to later be compiled in the post-production phase. If you have taken the time to meticulously plan the shoot, it can be exhilarating to see the fruits of your labor on the monitor.
Most people know how to place a camera in front of a subject, but there is so much more involved in the production phase.
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Lighting: You’ll need to allocate time to set up quite a bit of lighting gear. Often, the time it takes to properly light a scene is longer than actually filming that scene!
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Sound: Keep in mind that a sound recordist needs certain variables to ensure great audio: Ample space and time to position a boom microphone or adhere a lavalier to the talent. As well as setting up sound damping materials if the location is noisy or ‘boomy’. Great video is easily ruined by poor audio.
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Types of Footage: This could be interviews or live-action footage of actors or even product shots. You may also want to get some b-roll to use for close-ups, for visually depicting a moment of dialogue, or even just to have in case you need to cover up an edit or transition that didn’t quite work as planned.
Tip: If possible, get a lot of b-roll. You may not need it but it’s invaluable when you realize that you don’t have enough coverage or a moment just doesn’t quite play on screen. It’s a nice plan B to have in your pocket.
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The Third Stage: Post-Production
You had a great shoot and are coming down off of all that adrenaline. Now, you get to truly craft the idea that brought you here in the first place. You can think of the post-production phase as an assembly phase.
The editor, utilizing their editing software of choice, will dive into the raw footage and start to compile a first cut (aka rough cut) for review. It is the foundation for what will eventually become your final cut.
As feedback is given, the edit slowly but surely gets whittled down, finer and finer, to a polished version of what you originally saw in your head.
Editing may seem straightforward, but it’s an amalgamation of intricate tasks that all lend to that beautiful final cut.
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Logging the Footage: The editor will use the script and shot list to organize all the footage and make sure that they have everything they need.
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Assembling the Shots: Like constructing Lego sets when you were a kid, the editor gets to cut and assemble all the footage into a full edit. The first cut (or rough cut) is going to look strange BUT DON’T FEAR! It’s just a starting point. Even major motion pictures look janky on the first pass.
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Picture Lock: When you’re happy with the edit, you’ll have a ‘picture lock’, or a version that needs no more cutting. It’s now ready for the next steps of post-production.
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Visual Effects: Your concept may call for VFX, animation, or motion titles. This can easily become the most time-consuming and costly part of the post-production process.
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Music/Sound Effects: Music and sound are huge and, usually, overlooked aspects of the editing process. Choosing the right music, mixing that music with dialogue, dropping in sound effects that complement the visuals, and even recording and adding voiceover is just a fraction of what is accomplished.
Tip: Music may need to be cleared by the owner or you may need to purchase the rights to use a song. Keep this in mind when prepping your budget.
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Color Correction/Grading: This is where the image goes from being flat and uninteresting to visually popping. A lot of care is directed to conveying the ‘look’ that was desired by the Director and Cinematographer.
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Review: Getting feedback from the producer, director, etc, is essential. An editor’s style or decisions might look great, but not work as effectively in the minds of the production heads. This is the chance to accept or request changes. This allows for some creative ideas to be born, that you may not have thought about, previously.
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Final Delivery: When all is finalized, the video is ready to be delivered to its desired platform; whether it’s social media, a website, or even television.
Quality Video Marketing Pays Off
No matter the type of video, video production can be an amazing experience and produce some truly memorable content. To ensure that everything goes to plan, you must follow these three stages of production. They provide a roadmap, from start to finish, to help achieve any size video project.