Video production is one of the best marketing strategies to achieve various organizational goals, either for educating the audience, converting clients, or generating leads. Video productions assist brands in persuading targeted audiences using motion graphics as the world has evolved into a digital age.
Videos and short movies have expanded beyond the big screen and are now viewed on mobile devices. Additionally, with the advancement of smart devices and other technologies, shooting videos or short films has become more accessible. While anyone can pick up a camera, the difference lies in the creativity of storytelling and the quality of equipment used. That is why businesses prefer to entrust video marketing productions to professional video marketing agencies instead of attempting to create them on their own. This ensures better results, avoids potential failures, and reduces production time.
To make the best videos or short films, you must learn video production processes and have the necessary equipment. In this article, you will learn these definitive guides on making a successful video or short film.
What is Video Production?
Video production is the process of planning for, shooting, and editing video content. The video production process can be rigorous, but the outcome is always worth it. Video is the most consumed form of media due to how engaging it can be. And knowing how to produce a video will offer you benefits, whether in business or individual content making.
Videos have an influential power over viewers, whether a social video, vlog, customer testimonial, product demo, or short film. They can help a brand generate new leads and boost brand awareness.
Step-by-Step Guide to Video Production
Every form of the video production process has three primary steps: the pre-production stage, which involves planning out your strategy and script for your video; the production stage, which is the stage where the video is made; and lastly post-production phase, which is the editing phase, adding background music and other video effects. So, let’s walk through the video production process step-by-step:
Pre-Production Phase
This phase involves planning and mapping out strategies for your video. Without thoroughly following the pre-production process, your video will never suit viewers’ consumption.
The pre-production phase determines the kind of video content to produce, the audience, the estimated budget, the production timeline, and the necessary resources needed to make the video. This step is effectively executed when you have the following:
- Clear objectives: There are several reasons for producing a video, so it’s important to state clearly the video’s objective. This is the first step to kck-starting video production.
- Target audience: The next step is to define your target audience, the people your video is for. You must understand your target audience, what they like, and how they reason. This will help you structure your video to suit their needs.
- Core message: This involves having a brief and specific message that makes your video more compelling. It can be how-to videos, product advertisement videos, or storytelling with compelling characters.
- Video content: Different rules and standards apply to each kind of video. You will rarely watch the same video content in a TV ad or a how-to video. Therefore, it’s essential to explain the distinct components in your video. Here are some elements that can be present in your video:
- Visual content (Animation, motion design, or live action).
- Soundtrack (Music, voiceover).
- Video tone, which can be conversational, serious, or humorous.
- The content of the video
- Build a strategy for your video: It is challenging to attain the goals for your videos with a limited budget and timeframe. This is why you must draft a video creation strategy that answers questions like how to spend your budget and meet deadlines effectively and how to get the best returns from producing the video. You might get the strategy right the first time. Still, you must set a standard that enables making videos regularly while sticking to your budget and profiting from your video.
- Script: This determines the content of your video. If you are not well-versed in writing a script, it’s best to hand it to a professional. Only marketers can write the scripts themselves, but for companies, it’s advisable to outsource that task. Here are what the script must possess.
- Must appeal to your target audience
- Engaging and interesting
- Ensure your message is passed across
- Keep it brief and straight to the point
- Storyboard: Creating a storyboard assists you and your production team visualize how you want the video to be shot. A storyboard can be made using images or drawings, whatever your team can relate with. It will also act as a blueprint to inspire the video’s progress.
- Plan the production: This next step considers all the activities involved in producing the video and makes plans for it. You will need to make plans regarding building a video production team (camera operators, sound technicians, and make-up/costume artists). Also, it includes searching for locations and actors, collecting necessary permissions and licenses, and preparing call sheets.
- Draft a brief for the production team: this is one of the most straightforward steps in the pre-production phase. All that is required is a summary of your video production as a guide for the production team. Every step you’ve done must be summarized in this list, from the script, goals, and target audience to the budget.
Production Phase
This is the execution phase, where you will capture all the scenes and elements displayed in your video. Activities in this stage include: preparing talents, capturing a B-roll, setting up sound, video tools, lighting, and more.
The production team will do the activities for this phase. You won’t have to do much, so you drafted a plan, wrote a script, created a storyboard, and did a briefing for the team. All these will help the production team to produce the video to suit what you need. The project director you put in charge will ensure that…
- The script and storyboard are followed through.
- The actors and production team give their best.
- The shooting process is done orderly.
- The video is shot correctly and ready to be transferred to the post-production phase.
Post-Production Phase
This is the final stage of video production, where you connect and assemble all the elements. You will work closely with the production team to pull this final stage through, doing whatever needs to be done to get the outcome. The steps involved in the post-production process are:
- Editing the video: To do this step effectively, you must understand video editing software. This enables you to compile, organize and enhance your videos to a high-quality video.
- Optimization: This step involves optimizing your video regarding file size, type, and screen size, depending on the device it will play.
- Posting and promotion: Once you have completed your video, it’s time to post and share it to the appropriate media platform.
Conclusion
There are certain things to note before using your complete video. You will need to consider the video format based on the platform you want to host your video. You can further create a distribution plan for your video and set a metric tool to track the success of your video. Lastly, make a means for getting feedback on the video to help you improve.
This is a detailed step-by-step guide to a video production process. Making a video by following these steps will make video production more straightforward and cost-effective.
