Looking to create a standout video for your business but not sure where to start? Whether it’s a promo or a customer testimonial, the secret to success is understanding the video production process. By breaking it down into manageable stages, you’ll navigate your project smoothly and ensure top-notch results. Even if you’re hiring a professional team, knowing the ins and outs will make all the difference. Let’s dive into the journey from concept to final cut.
The Video Production Process: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide
The video production process is divided into three stages: pre-production, production, and post-production. These three stages are further broken down into simple steps.
Pre-Production
This is the first phase of the video production process. It is the stage for all the planning and coordination before the shooting starts. The major steps in this phase are outlined below:
Conceptualise your Video
- Define the video objective. Why do you want a video? Is it to increase your brand awareness, or will you use it for an investor’s pitch? The core purpose of the video, whether it’s a product video or a explainer video, will impact everything, right from the message and narrative to the aspect ratio you need.
- Understand your audience. Who is the video for? Research the target viewers and what they want to watch – so that you can set the tone and feel of the piece and create a video that will appeal to them.
- Set your budget & timeline. Define a realistic budget and deadline. With new developments in video technology, you can create high-quality videos that entertain your audience while effectively telling your story within a reasonable budget. You can use stock videos rather than shooting a video from scratch based on your need. This will cut some of your production costs and efforts and help you optimize your video production budget.
Plan the Content
- Write a script: A script needs to be written in tune with the video objective. A video script is the blueprint and foundation for your video. It is the chronological sequence of scenes, action, dialogues and voice-overs that you plan to have in your video.
- Create your storyboard: A storyboard encapsulates the script. It helps to pre-visualise the video – depicting it through illustrations of the different shots you need to put in the video.
Pic Courtesy: stock.adobe.com Storyboarding
- Make a list of production elements: Brainstorm about the various production elements like lists of the people, places, props, and production set.
Find Your Location
You must scout for a location based on your video objective and script. For example, if you are doing a simple product shoot displaying a range of products, a quiet, well-lit room is the best choice. You can take a look at this product ad we created indoors for one of our clients.
But suppose you are doing a fashion shoot, then you need to look for a suitable set that offers outdoor and indoor shoot facilities. Anticipate and prepare for any problems you may have. For example, if you’re filming outside, have a plan in case it rains!
Vet the Talent
After confirming the location, you need to finalise the right talent for your video. You’ll need to search for a specialised videographer and/or photographer team to execute the entire shoot. If you’re filming a scripted story, you must hire some actors or voiceover artists, allied persons like make-up artists, stylists, set designers, etc. If you’re recording a testimonial, this means asking your satisfied customers to talk about their experience on camera. Check out this testimonial video created by us for one of our clients.
The primary equipment you will need to shoot a video is a good camera, microphone, and lighting setup. Many places also rent out video equipment. This will allow you to use much higher quality kits than you could afford to buy. However, if you hire a corporate video production company to do your video, you do not need to think about the equipment.
- Schedule the shoot
Scheduling the shoot beforehand is important so that you don’t end up scrambling on the day of the shoot. Consider your deadline and the availability of actors, other crew members and shooting location before locking in a date.
Once this is done, it is time to move on to the production phase.
Production
The ideation is done, and the preparation is complete. It is time for action now. The production phase is where you capture all the shots for your video. This is the part where the script and the storyboard begin to come to life. This phase will go smoothly if you have a well-defined objective and a supporting detailed script and storyboard.
- Set up your equipment
Set up your camera, acoustics and lighting at the selected location lot of time ahead of the shoot. If you need different shots across different locations, make sure you have provisioned enough setup time into your schedule.
Pic Courtesy: pinterest.com Equipment Set-Up
- Rehearse
It is always worth shooting some test footage to ensure everyone knows what they are doing. You will also understand whether you require extra lighting and sound equipment.
- Film the video
Switch on the camera and start filming. Refer to your storyboard to ensure you film all the shots you need. Be vigilant in sticking to your time schedules. In the case of a short video, the main shots can be completed in a day. You might need your film crew to go out at another time to shoot B-rolls. B-rolls usually include extra shots that supplement the main footage. Depending on the type of video, you may need to create animations or record professionals voiceovers for a great video.
Post-Production
The final phase of the video production process involves editing and combining the different video elements to create the final output. In this stage, the storyboard comes to life – embedding the B-rolls, graphics, adding acoustics and animation or any other special effects to enhance the raw footage.
Pic Courtesy: quickframe.com Post- production
The steps involved in post-production are as follows:
- Editing
The best shots are chosen, discarding the unnecessary moments to ensure smooth content flow in the video. Editing is critical to the final look, feel and narrative structure of the video – a good editor is a must.
- Adding acoustics
Background music or vocals are added to supplement the mood and tone of the video. Sound mixing must be done to ensure a proper balance among all the elements of an audio track, like dialogue against music and sound effects. Any jumps in volume and jarring effects also need to be eliminated.
- Adding graphics
Graphics, subtitles, visual effects and animation are added to display any important information or add extra zing.
- Colour Grading
Colour grading, fixing the contrast, saturation, skin tones – this is not just a minor correction exercise. The colour palette has a huge role to play in the final result, even impacting the story and narrative. Even Nishanth Menon, a cinematographer, mentioned the importance of color grading in elevating the final look of a video in one of our episodes of our podcast, Photosynthesis.
- Initial approval and revisions
Once the final draft version of the video is ready, it’s time to review the work. If you are working with a video production company, there may be a pre-defined number of revisions or hours set aside for modifications. When you clearly define your objectives, plan the details and creative processes in pre-production, and proceed to match your vision, you should only end up with a few revisions.
- Final Delivery
Once the video is finalised and approved, it’s time to render it. It means creating the finished video files as per the specifications for your chosen hosting and distribution platforms. The format will depend on where you are sharing the video – Instagram prefers vertical videos. If it is going on several platforms, it is better to have plenty of room for cropping and editing in post-production.
If you find the stages of video production outlined above still confusing, consider contacting us at Indievisual. We will help you streamline your video production process. Our video production services are powered to optimise the entire process, getting you the best custom videos. We can connect you with our talented and experienced network of professionals, who can create engaging videos that suit your brand and resonate with your target audience.
Finally, your video is ready. It is time to distribute it across your website, social media, newsletters, and other marketing campaigns to optimize its reach and engagement.
