There are three stages in any video production service: pre-production, production and post-production.

Pre-production

In this initial stage you will brief your video team on your company/product/service and what you want to achieve with your video. It’s then up to them to take the steering wheel and guide you through the process.

Initial conversations

Once you’ve chosen your video production company, the initial conversations will involve briefing the production team and making early decisions about your video:

  • Objectives: What do you want to achieve with your video?
  • Time scale: When do you need your video?
  • Video type: Do you want traditional, animation, voice over, graphics?
  • Scripting: Do you need one written?
  • Distribution: Who is the video for and will it go online, be in presentations or be broadcast?

 

Developing a concept

The video production team will then take your brief and work with you, your PR agency and your copywriting team to develop the creative concept behind the video. At this stage you will be assigned a producer who will work with you from the development stage through to final delivery. For the purpose of this post, we’ll assume it’s a more expensive video that incorporates all elements of what’s on offer within a video production services contract.

  • Storyboard: Mapping how you want the video to look
  • Animation: Choosing a designer and creative for your video
  • Graphics: Organising and agreeing initial style frames
  • Script: Writing, editing, and fitting to the storyboard (we feel strongly about video script writing)
  • Voice over: Choosing a voice type from samples provided by your video team

 

Logistics

Once you have agreed on a concept for your corporate video your producer will begin organising the logistics for any filming that will take place. He or she will organise the following ahead of filming dates:

  • Location
  • Recces (reconnaissance – location scouting)
  • Actors
  • Crew and equipment
  • Transport for the crew
  • Prepare and deliver briefings for the interviewees and participants

Production

On the day of filming you can expect to see the director, camera crew, lighting, and the producer there with their equipment to set up, film and then pack up afterwards.

One thing to keep in mind about filming days is that they are always more time consuming than first anticipated. Interviews need to be shot three or four times from multiple angles and does take time to do properly. Not leaving enough time to obtain the best footage possible will dilute the quality of the final product.

Post-production

The footage collected during filming will then be imported to a media server where it can be edited into a video in four stages that create the final video product.

 

First draft

Before the editing team puts together what will be a rough cut of your video they will encode the footage for editing. This is a time consuming process and is often what consumes a great deal of the time and cost of a video production service.

Once encoded, the editing team will put together and send you a rough first draft of the audio of the video in a series of cuts from the footage. What you see in this draft will be nothing like the final product – it’s more an opportunity for you to sign off on what you hear and what comes across in the footage before the editor and producer go any further.

 

Second delivery

Once the first draft of audio is approved a second, more polished version of the video will be edited and sent for your approval. This will either be sent as a lower quality file or shared with you as a private URL. This is your opportunity to give feedback to your team – so make sure you give as much as possible the first time by, having several people from your company review it.

 

Onlined

Once the second draft is signed off the video team will “online” your video to polish it to the highest possible quality. This involves the following:

  • Making whites whiter and darkening blacks
  • Sharpening picture
  • Improving sound quality

 

Final delivery

This final stage is linked to pre-production – in that the video production service team will meet your objectives by preparing the video for your target channel and audience. They should provide you with an original copy of your video in HD in the highest quality possible, as well as in a number of other formats for the specific places you wish your video to be shown. For example:

  • YouTube
  • DVD
  • Broadcast
  • Presentations and conferences.

Whether it’s training video production, event video production, or a corporate video, you’ve probably gleaned from our breakdown of what to expect, communication (and lots of it – from the initial brief to feedback on drafts) is essential to a great video production service. In return for your input you should expect your video team to know your product or service inside out and deliver a video that demonstrates that. With a well-informed production team on hand you can expect your end product to be just what you need to speak to your target audience.

 

Are you looking for a quality video production service in London?  Why not contact us for an informal chat.