The Video Production Process

Whether the budget for your project is small or large the steps are still the same.

• Pre-production
• Production
• Post-production
• Distrubition

Pre-production

Deciding the Intended Use

1. Commercial Advertising
   1. Local
   2. Regional
   3. National
2. The Web
   1. Advertising
   2. eLearning
   3. Power Point
3. Corporate
   Training/Informative
   1. Linear
   1. Tape
   2. ROM
   3. DVD
   4. Power Point
   2. Interactive
   1. CD ROM
   2. DVD
   3. eLearning
   4. In-house promotional
   5. Documentation for posterity of CEO or Guest Speaker(s)

• Outline of script for production - A skeleton to work with until it can be fleshed out with the details.
• Scripting - A good script is the backbone of your production, if the script was thrown together in short order, nothing after that , no matter how much money you throw at it, will make your production any better. (There have been few exceptions to this rule.
• Casting (and legal rights)
• Location - Permits; are there facilities? Is security or law enforcement needed? Does a fire truck need to be on location? How is the crew being fed? Is sound insulated? Is there electrical power near by or do you need to have diesel electric generators brought in? Or will a few batteries be enough?
• Script breakdown - Is the process of taking every element; Accounting for those elements and scheduling them in the mont cost-effective way. A lot more to this than stated. Pay close attention to the script breakdown it can make or break a production.
• Storyboarding - A drawing or set of drawings to assist in the directing of the shots, giving the Director, Actors, Lighting, Camera, Continuity and the rest of the Crew a common view of what the shots are supposed to look like.
• Equipment - Camera(s), lanses, tripod(s), and/or dolly (with tracks?). Lights, grip truck, wireless microphone, boom pole, audio mixer, and many other possible pieces of equipment.
Shoot scheduling - Considering first if shooting outdoors, what the weather may be like, and if your talent is on a tight schedule with other projects, and of course costs and deadlines.
• Budgeting of project - Based on script breakdown.

Production

1. Shoot multiple takes. A ratio of 15:1 and higher is not uncommon to get the shot you want.
2. Tape is cheaper than re-shoots; so get the shot you want while you are in the field.
3. Attention to the continuity, dialog, mood, psychological use of color, perspective weighting: These terms can apply as much to audio as they do to over all visualization.
4. Stills, voice over, character or object animation, claymation, modeling, graphics and music production are also a part of the bigger picture of production.

Note: It will always cost you more to try to fix things in post, than it would to do it right in production.

Note II: Keeping the crew and talent in sync with each other by treating them well and informed will always pay for itself.

Note III: The fastest way for a Production to take a nose dive is to not pay subcontractors/freelancers thier agreed upon rate - for any reason. If the job was done pay them.

Post-production

1. Reviewing and logging all the footage by time code (01:59:59:29, hours: minutes: seconds: frames) to be used and what is not to be used so that the time in the edit suite is not wasted budget money.
2. Capturing the right footage to the computer hard drives, along with any other elements that may by ready at that time. (i.e. stills, voice over, music, or sound effects.)
3. Trimming the shots, from opening frame to ending frame, to be placed in the project.
4. Effects Transition - finding the right one can make the difference.
5. Text/Graphics - 2D, 3D, animated, filtered, drop shadow, glow, and an endless array of other creative aspects of this.
6. Adding sound tracks and sweeting the audio
7. Color correcting for the final product.
Note: Do not under estimate the power and creativity of the post production process, here is where everyone gets in a rush to meet some deadline and places that weight on the editor. Which is unfortunate, because this is where all your previous work comes alive. Give yourself and the editor time for the creative process to grow.

Questions to ask for Distribution

• Who is your target audience?
• In which format will they be viewing your video? (VHS, DV, Beta SP, Digital Beta, DVD, DVD interactive, CD-ROM, CD-ROM interactive, Web, NTSC, PAL, HDTV, etc.
• How much do you charge the viewer? Duplication costs - format changes, packaging, shipping & handling.