Corporate Video Production – Are you interested in producing a video for your company, product, or brand but don’t know where to begin or the steps involved? There are a lot of moving parts to consider when planning the production of your video.  The three main areas of focus to the process are pre-production, production, and post-production. This article is in no way a complete and comprehensive guide to video production, but it will give you a good overview so you know exactly what to expect when planning and executing your production. The fundamental goal of any video is to aim at creating a specific response among viewers.  What that response is can range from simply learning a recipe, to buying a product, or causing a person to attend a certain event. Make sure you keep your goal front and center, especially in pre-production, because you don’t want to overshadow the action you want the viewer to take with too many messages. Now it’s time to produce a rough outline of your project. In some cases you have a great idea of what you want the video to be about, in others, you’re creatively stumped and want to leave the entire process up to the video production company. This brainstorming part is more along the lines of what an ad agency does and is definitely an option, albeit a more expensive one than doing it yourself. Make sure the production team you are choosing offers this service and will help coordinate with your goals, image, and style to make them a priority early on.

PREPRODUCTION

The most important part of the project that can’t be overstated is the preproduction, which includes the scripting. Great movies, television, and videos all begin with great scripts. More than any other single factor, the script determines a video’s success. Whether you’re going to write a script yourself, hire a scriptwriter, or simply take on a video production company to do it all for you, it is very much in your financial interest to learn what makes a good script. Here’s why. The script is the blueprint for both the shooting and editing of a video. These two phases, production, and post-production are where most of your budget will be spent. Just as a blueprint allows you to get competitive bids for the construction of a house, the script allows the producer to get several bids for the production and post-production of a video. The same script can be produced on different budgets.

Here are two different links for examples of scripting, SCREENPLAY FORMAT, and TV SCRIPT FORMAT.

Collecting information from all the people involved in the project is always step one. The ideas that will be integrated into the video should revolve around what the client wants and what can be done with their budget. From the client perspective, it’s great to be creative with your ideas. Know what you want in terms of image, perception, and identity for your business. What are the points and goals of your video that you want to emphasize, in order to revolve your script around them? This is where a proposal from the video production company comes into play in consideration of the scope of the task to be fulfilled alongside the funds and resources. Once the script is agreed upon the next step in the pre-production phase is finding locations, securing transportation, renting camera equipment (camera, lights, and sound), hiring personnel, and casting talent.

PRODUCTION

The production of your project will consist of the actual videography (video shooting) and all its many moving parts. The way in which the schedule is organized will play a big part in how well your production flows. Make sure that the grip (electric), sound and set design departments are a full step ahead of the cast and rest of crew. It’s vital to allow them time to set up the scenes that will be filmed ahead of the talent/director so no one is waiting around. This setup time can be used for hair makeup to prepare the talent as well as have the director do some last minute read-throughs with the cast. It is important that the communication between you and your video production company is strong and consistent. The attitude of the company’s staff should be positive at every instance and the relationship should ultimately contribute to a great final product.

POST-PRODUCTION 

Lastly, Post-Production is the final factor that brings the entire production process together. Video editing, motion graphics, audio editing, and color correction are all parts of the post-production process. It requires both skill and time with many variables that determine how long it will actually take. A well thought out script with storyboards will drastically reduce the time required in post-production. Other considerations that come into play during editing are any logos that might be used, graphics, music and even photographs that could help support the goal of the video. Providing sample edits throughout this process will reassure both the client and video production company that the job is headed in the right direction.

Article by Jason Buford.

HTX Visuals is a Houston video production company specializing in business / corporate video production, music video production, web video production, and fashion/model video production. Contact HTX Visuals for a complementary proposal for your video project today.