Video Production: What are the stages? Dublin Client Questions Answered
Corporate Video production often raises lots of questions, so we gathered the most frequently asked questions from a number of our Dublin clients and decided to answer them in our blog. Enjoy!
Q1: ‘What are the stages involved in corporate video production?’
Asked by Sheila, in Rathmines, Dublin.
Generally, corporate video production involves these thirteen stages:
Market Strategy – this involves identifying the target market, researching competitors, defining key communication objectives, generating ideas for creating unique content.
Feasibility Testing – this involves testing the feasibility of the ideas – is it possible within the budget? Will we be able to gain access to all the props / locations required? Will the people involved be available? For example, if an idea involves customer testimonials but all of the customers are based in a separate country, how will we overcome that problem?
Video Production Project Outline – Now that we know what we want and what is possible, we define clearly the scope of the project.
Planning and Preparation – This involves creating a time line of events, which is best organized into a Gannt chart. As a rule of thumb, for any big project we recommend spending at least 20% of your time planning. This may sound like a lot but you will actually save the time by realising how you can do two things at once instead of discovering that afterwards! As the proverb goes, ‘fail to plan, plan to fail’!
Casting / Recruitment – this involves the sourcing of actors or oftentimes the recruitment of staff / customers. If you need help sourcing actors near Dublin, contact us.
Wrecking – ‘Wrecking’ is an industry term for visiting a location before shooting. If feasible, its often good to conduct this exercise before storyboarding as many ideas will emerge from viewing a location. Wrecking is absolutely essential as turning up on the day means any unforeseen problems with the location such as noise pollution will be spotted too late.
Storyboarding – this is the detailed planning of each shot. Its have a sketch or photo for reference but often simply writing down the shots describing the action and what’s in shot is sufficient. This is the stage where we ensuring the communication objectives are achieved, frame by frame. It also helps keep the video within the time frame.
Video Production Briefing – It’s always advised to brief any actors / customers or anyone involved in the shoot a good few days in advance. People often underestimate how nervous they may become when a camera is pointed in front of them. A detailed outline of whats in-store a few days ahead can ensure all personnel hit the ground running on the day.
Shooting – this is the big day! If all the stages prior to this have been followed correctly, it should go swimmingly. There will often be some minor problems, but planning minimises them and the ability to solve on the day means prevents them from being major!
Editing – this is the assembly of shots. If the team were on their game during shooting, this should be a breeze. Our office in Dublin allows our clients to engage during the editing proceess, if they wish.
Post Production – this involves adding colour correction and other details to the footage to bring the production quality from good to great. Its amazing what can be done!
The big reveal – this is the moment you’ve been waiting for! Great videos are more than the sum of their parts. And if you follow all of the above parts, you won’t go too wrong!
Point to note: Although this covers all the stages of video production, its important to realise that production is only the beginning. Promotion of your video is required in order to get the return on investment.
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We hope you enjoyed our article about the stages of video production. Our next question that we’ll answer is from John in Swords, Dublin.
John wants to know: ‘What is involved in promoting a corporate video production?’ We’ll answer John’s questions soon!
