Video production must be well thought out and organized in order to be successful, working with an experienced team will help your brand fly higher. Traditionally there are 3 key production stages: pre-production, production and post-production. However, idea development and marketing are what will make a video stand out and help your ideas come to life to reach the right audience. In this blog, we will outline what is involved throughout all the different stages of video production:
Step 1: Idea Development
This is the most important stage before you start with anything else. Getting buy-in from all your stakeholders only works if you’re able to define your goals – what’s the video for? What’s your stylistic approach? Who are you speaking to? How will success be measured? It might be helpful to use a video brief template, so that your content creators – whether it’s a videographer or an agency – can understand your audience, approach and key message. This also enables us to understand their audience, approach and key message. From here we can create and develop a plan around the timeline, budget and ideas. With this process, we can come up with a clear understanding of what we are required to fulfil. This stage also considers your deliverables, whether you require one video or perhaps a suite of content optimized for socials.
Step 2: Pre-Production
Pre-production is the stage where the storyboarding and individual scenes are created including the script. This is a very detailed process that includes mood boards, script writing, location sourcing, resourcing, illustrations (if animating), kit rental and casting. The more time spent on pre-production the less likely that there will be problems on the shoot or that it will go over budget. Using a project management tool such as HubSpot could be beneficial to set out expectations on production, post-production and delivery stages.
Step 3: Production
While the bulk of the work is in pre-production planning and organization, eventually it all comes together in production. Whether it’s filming or animating, the production process gathers all the content required for the next step: post-production. All the time and effort here is focused on making everything look great and working along with the plan. The schedule, time and equipment are all important aspects involved in production. Before getting to this stage everything must be well thought out as we are working with time. The stages for animation and live action will be different, animation will consist of bringing the story to life frame by frame.
Step 4: Post-production
This is the final stage for the video where all the magic happens. After filming, post-production follows which includes the main editing, adding audio, voice-over, titles, special effects and adjusting colour. Depending on your editors rounds of amends are often delivered via in-person at an editing suite, or uploaded to a review platform such as Vimeo Pro. Once you’re happy with the final draft and everything is signed off, cut-downs and iterations are often created for whatever platforms you require.
Step 5: Marketing/Distribution
Once your project is completed, we need to work on making sure it reaches your audience to make the impact required. At this stage efforts will shift onto marketing. Our specialist team can offer a free marketing consultation to help your video succeed. Just waiting for your video to go viral will not bring success. This is unlikely to happen on its own, therefore you need to work on making sure it is on the right platforms.
Tips:
- Set a realistic budget.
- Make sure your message is clear.
- Have everything planned out beforehand.
- Notify the council If you are filming in a public space or have a license for permission.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the potential that video can bring to your company, get in touch with us and we can arrange a free video consultation. Find out more in our other article about why you should use video for your website.
Ezo Yildiz
Ezo is a Digital Marketing Assistant at Skylark Media.