Today, video is the most engaging kind of content people consume. If your organization can produce videos in an efficient, sustainable manner, you will be able to reap the rewards for years to come. This article takes you through each step of the video production process and gets you on your way to bringing your videos to life. There are three main steps of video production:
Pre-production: Mapping out your strategy, writing the script, and planning the shoot
Production: Shooting the video
Post-production: Editing, adding in music and effects
Related: Why Video Is Important For Business
Video Production Process
Pre-Production
The first step in the video production process is known as “pre-production.” Pre-production is when you strategize the plan for your video. You determine exactly what you’re going to produce, the audience you’re making the video for, the resources you require, and how long the production period will be. Pre-production often is the longest part of the video production process, as the more planning goes into your video, the smoother the production will be.
What Your Objectives Are
Before you even start to plan, you should determine the objectives behind this video. Why are you even making this video? What do you want from it? Who’s your audience, and what are they getting out of it? Like with any content, A video needs a goal from the inception to guide the project and measure whether it’s a success. The SMART method can be employed to establish goals that are:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
Who This Video Is For
A successful video knows who its audience is. If you already have a solid understanding of your audience, make sure to articulate it. If you don’t, then you need to do some research. Go beyond just finding out their general gender, age, and location. What are their most pressing issues, interests, and questions? What do they connect with? Who influences them? Ask for feedback, conduct interviews, and scroll through social media to determine who is connecting with your brand. Going the extra mile to find out who you’re making this video for will help build a strong foundation to make decisions throughout the video production process.
Define A Core Message
Once you know who you’re making this video for, you should analyze that information and integrate it with your objectives to come up with a core message. Consider what you want your audience to do after watching your video and work backward– do you want them to buy your product, click on a link, or subscribe to your social media? Determine what your audience needs to see in your video to take that action, and that will be your core message.
Construct A Video Strategy
To have a long-term view of your decisions, you’ll need a video strategy. Think about the logistics of video production: How will you stay within deadline and budget? How will this content be used to optimize its ROI (and continue to do so)? After you have a video strategy, you can write a video production brief covering your target audience, objectives, core message, deadline, and budget.
What’s Your Creative Approach?
Now you can get into the concept. Analyze your brief, and brainstorm what needs to be presented in your video and make them stand out. Think about what your competitors have done, and draw inspiration from videos you find memorable and effective. Take notes on what makes them work, and integrate them into a plan for your video content.
Writing The Script
After you develop your strategy and creative approach, you can write a script. Your script should be dictated by your creative approach, and your research needs to ground the underlying message. After you write your script, you will need to:
Create a storyboard to visualize how your video will be shot, and how the logistics will factor in.
Scout filming locations
Plan video equipment
Cast talent
Schedule the shoot
Looking for a video production company? Produce your video with Island Fox Media today!
Production
Now that you have it all planned out, it’s time to film. You should have a solid estimate of how long this phase will take from the pre-production process. Your job is to make sure things run as close to that schedule as possible as a stakeholder or producer. Depending on how elaborate your production is, that process typically calls for somebody to fill the role of director. Directors make sure your talent gives the desired performance, you get all the required shots, are lit and framed correctly, and that the storyboard and script are followed through. Production involves:
Setting up the lights
Setting up the camera
Directing the talent
Getting B-roll footage
Post-Production
In post-production, you take your best takes and shots, stitch them together, and cut everything down to fit the length you need. If you need to, you record a voiceover, color the video, and add special effects and music.
Edit Your Video
The first step in editing is to put your best takes together and download them into your video editing software. Cut each clip down to the essentials, place them into a rough timeline, and organize your b-roll. Then, you can start working through the script and storyboard to order your footage appropriately. Next, you’ll need to:
Record a voiceover (if necessary)
Add animated text, graphics, and special effects
Coloring
Add music
Optimization And Distribution
Rendering The Video
After you’re done editing, it’s time to render out the video in the appropriate format. An mp4 format is ideal for most platforms, like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. If you’re posting it on Snapchat or Instagram, make sure the video can be cropped into vertical or square aspect ratios.
Set Up Analytics
To track your video’s success, you’ll need to track it and feed it into your analytics platform. If you’re using a paid platform like Wistia, there are tracking capabilities built-in. With platforms like Facebook and YouTube, you’ll have to use something like Google Analytics or track them separately.
Distribute And Promote Your Video
Distribution may mean embedding your video in an article, sharing it on social media, asking industry influencers to share it, investing in paid advertising to put it in front of your target audience, sharing it with industry outlets, or sharing it through an email newsletter. Distribution and promotion need to fit into your previously established strategy and reach your target audience in the most efficient way possible.
While the video production process can be long and tedious, establishing an effective approach can benefit your organization greatly down the line. If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of producing a video yourself, Island Fox Media is a top video production company based in Santa Barbara. Work with Island Fox Media to produce a video that spreads your message!
Looking for a video production company? Produce your video with Island Fox Media today!