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Unlocking the Video Production Process
In today’s high-stakes corporate media landscape, each video project is unique. With that said, it pays to have a reliable video production process. This helps your talent and creative professionals stay on track every step of the way, while making it simpler to achieve consistent, high-quality results.
To create such a repeatable method of video creation, you don’t need to have everyone under the same roof. Your video production team can be made up of both internal and external contributors, in any combination you can imagine.
It’s worth conceptualizing the corporate video production process from beginning to end — mapping out the intended workflow and considering the options regarding your use of internal contributors and outside experts. Once you understand the ingredients that go into a fully formed corporate video, creating high-quality content can feel natural.
The Production Process: What Happens When?
The steps that go into a complete corporate video production workflow can be broken down into three general groupings: pre production, production and post production. The names of each segment are fairly self-explanatory, and tasks on set can be divided up into these phases as follows:
Pre Production Phase
During the preparatory pre production process, the primary objective is to build plans that will hold up once the cameras go on and the crew starts capturing raw footage. This may mean:
- Finding the right crew, based on the length, complexity and style of the video.
- Choosing locations for filming and B-roll, if the video will contain live-action footage.
- Creating a shot list to keep the production on track.
As the Adobe blog notes, there will inevitably be some deviations from the initial schedule — the unpredictable nature of video production naturally leads to change. With that said, having plans worked out in advance is essential, as extensive preparation reduces worries during the actual shoot.
Production Phase
Once the actual shooting of raw footage gets underway, the video has entered production. This is the step of the process when the crew works its way down the shot list, capturing all the necessary visual and audio content to assemble into the finished product.
The nature of the production step will differ from one project to another — a fully produced TV commercial could call for many days of on-location shooting, while an animated product explainer video will take none at all. The connecting thread is that your chosen personnel should have clear directions about what to capture, along with all the time, support and gear necessary to get results.
Post Production Phase
This is the stage when the video footage becomes a finished corporate video. Visual effects and voice over recording occur at this step, along with the editing and assembly of the complete video itself. Post production may be the easiest stage to overlook, as the actual video footage is captured earlier, but it’s crucial — without careful attention in video editing, there is no polished and completed corporate video, just a collection of shots.
As Film Lifestyle notes, the common thread that has brought your project from pre production to video editing, release and distribution is you, the brand responsible for its creation. Your strategic need for the video led to its creation, and whether you worked with a partner organization, multiple expert teams or only internal personnel, you’ve been involved every step of the way. In the end, the final product should suit your objectives.
Assigning Roles: Who Does What?
While there are numerous opinions regarding whether it’s better to outsource to a video production company or start an in-house crew, the final decision comes down to what you want from this process, and you’re free to mix and match.
In today’s corporate landscape, which comes after years of decoupling and the decline of the all-in-one agency model, you’re at liberty to run some steps of video production in-house while outsourcing others. What truly matters is the quality of the final product.
Whether you hire in-house talent or work with outside experts, it’s essential to have top professionals on the job. Skilled, experienced video crew members can help you deliver flashy videos that embody current trends — the Canon blog cited 360-degree videos and animation as hot styles worth trying.
You can change your crew composition from one video production to the next. While some might call for solo videographers, the next shoot could be better suited to a full crew from a video production company.
Ready to Refresh Your Video Processes?
There’s no need to set your corporate video production process in stone. You can experiment with your video production workflow and bring new collaborators into the fold. The steps guiding a successful video shoot are flexible, and can expand and contract based on how much focus that particular project requires.
The most important consideration, when planning the shoot, searching for video team collaborators or building a repeatable process, is to always pursue your company’s objectives.
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