Phases of video production
Last week we talked about the concept development and treatment. That is where the idea starts to bloom. Lets discuss the overall video production today. These can be broken down into five steps or phases. Most videos go through this process even though it may not be so obvious.
The first phase we talked about last week. The concept development and the treatment (which overlaps a bit into the next phase of pre production).
The Four Phases of Video Production:
Phase 1: Development
As we discussed last week, your concept will help solidify your videos main message and the manner in which you deliver the message to you main or primary audience/customers. First we create a treatment, a three part written summary, of the video’s purpose, storyline and style. This basically becomes your roadmap to a successful production and will guide you to the intended purpose of the video. This basically leads to a development package that has the idea/concept, plan, timeline and budget. From here we can, with client approval, move into the pre-production process.
Phase 2: Pre-Production
After having the general idea which direction our video is going to go, the pre-production is process becomes very important as it helps us define the details of what is needed to produce our video. Here, the time is spent developing the script, story-boarding, production scheduling, location scouting, etc. We will delve more into the pre-production phase in future blogs. Now we look at the fun part (for some).
Phase 3: Production
The production is the actual filming, animation, voice-overs, etc. This is the culmination of all the development and the pre production phase. This is where the vision turns into raw art. A collection of assets that will, in the next phase turn into fine art or the finished product. The production process requires a lot of control as here is where budgets can go out of control for various reasons. Not all being under our control. It could be as simple as a planned outdoor shoots which has to be cancelled because of bad weather which in turn may delay other dates or availability of people and places. This too we will talk about in upcoming blogs.
Phase 4: Post Production
The editing phase is another critical phase where the editor may work with the DP(Director of Photography), director of music, writers and even the producers. The editor should be involved from the beginning because he or she has to bind all assets together. The initial vision has to be maintained as well as the direction in the treatment in terms of the look and feel of each scene. On short productions this is easier (not always easy) to accomplish. But as he production time gets longer and the amount of assets one has to go through get bigger, you will find hours on the editing board trying to make sure there is cohesion between the music and scene, between two scenes and the color rendering between scenes. In many cases, this is it. Its done. Unless you are also doing the marketing to promote the video. Most production houses do not get into the distribution and marketing of the videos. Depending on the type of video, it may be distributed by a specialty company or in cases where it is going on the web, there may be a marketing company involved that is using the video in multiple ways.
As mentioned, the coming weeks will expand on these phases. Just remember that there is no right or wrong way of doing this. Over time you’ll adjust your process based on what works best for you.