A Guide to Commission Video Production

Whether you offer a service or a product to your clients a successful video will be produced from the workflow as follows,

STEP 1 – Writing your brief, what we as a production company will need to know.

Your first step is to put together a brief this need only to be a page or two of information, it is useful if it identifies the following,

• An overview of your requirements
• Your main objective
• The messages you want to communicate
• Your intended audience (general public – professionals + demographic)
• Any time, budgeting or other constraints

We will then supply a proposal which is an outline of the process and costs involved and it will also outline any areas where additional expenditure may be optional or required. We may also produce a treatment that indicates how we would visualise the production.

STEP 2 – Commissioning your video.

Once we have been commissioned to work for you we will then suggest a meeting to gather all the relevant facts. We may need access to all sorts of information to help us get a clear understanding of your objectives and gain knowledge on the subject matter .It is also useful to involve relevant colleagues in this fact finding exercise to gain their input. Site visits to potential filming locations may also be required.

Time invested at this stage in thorough research and preparation is key to a successful working script.

STEP 3 – The Script and shot list.

The next step is where script development begins, armed with the information from our research we will come up with a blueprint for the production. A working draft will be sent to you which will indicate both the narrative & the shots required, at this point you have the opportunity to review the script & make any suggestions before we move forward to develop the final script ready for you to approve for production.

STEP 4 – The production schedule

The schedule for filming and preparation of key scenes will be drawn up and will need to be agreed upon. It will detail all the shooting times, places and shots required as well as any creative elements the script dictates. It may be necessary for you to arrange any people or resources from your company that will be taking part in filming, contributing or helping logistically.

STEP 5 – The shoot

Shooting or what is referred to as production, this is the really creative part of the process, there will be cameras, lights, sound and grip (the bits of metalwork that make the camera move fluidly) together with the crew, depending on the size and budget there may only be 2 or 3 crew but on larger jobs this number can grow. We work as a team to efficiently get the scenes or shots done in a timely fashion minimising any disruption to your business.

Sometimes during filming we may need to record an interview or a vox pop in this instance we will may need quiet for filming. This is generally for short periods and we will indicate in the production schedule if this applies to you.

Shooting takes up only a short part of the total time during the video making process but may take longer if special weather conditions are needed or a lot of locations are required or we are following a lengthy build process.

STEP 6 – Viewing the rushes and editing

For some types of production you may be required to view some of the rushes, rushes are the raw camera shots, these will include time code information which will be displayed over the pictures this is to help you in deciding which takes are best and choose the segments you want. These along with working edits are usually available on-line for viewing anywhere.

Editing may be referred to as post production, editing goes through a multi stage process the first of which is called the ‘rough cut’ this is a rough running in line with the script. It can be patchy but gives you the chance to see how the video is coming along. At this point you can decide if there are areas to be cut or added, perhaps the running order may change slightly to give better emphasis to the section in question. This may be re-edited a few times until you are happy with the results.

Final editing is where the video is produced to the highest quality, pictures are graded to match each other and enhanced with colour and other effects to add impact, sound is mixed and ‘sweetened’ so the music and dialogue are crisp and of a broadcastable quality.

Any graphics and animation are also included this can be opening and closing captions, name straps, call to action graphics etc.

STEP 7 – Final delivery

Once the final edit has been signed off the video is then encoded to a master high resolution file and encoded for online delivery and social networks.

A few final Notes:

The key stages at which you or one of your colleagues involvement will be essential are for the initial meeting for our research gathering exercise, script sign off & viewing of the rushes if applicable (rushes are the raw shot camera shots) and final edit approval. Usually during filming we have a contact who will liase with us to make things run smoothly and making the relevant people aware of what is going on and how they may be of assistance during the shoot.

Your involvement is also required when it would be practical to interfere during filming if a particular piece of dialogue or shot is going to be factually inaccurate or unacceptable and can be corrected and re-shot there and then. When a scene or sequence will need to be replaced because the original idea simply does not work or is outside the brief.

You would need to be able to approve a script change. When the production is being delayed or is not running to schedule because of some other reason which you can help to resolve. You may have an alternative of which the producer or director may not be aware. You need to be able to communicate to colleagues the reasons why the production is so important to the company and how their help and assistance is required if certain obstacles are to be removed to keep the production on track.

The importance of quality

Why is quality important, well your viewers are used to watching video, TV and film to very a high standard, so nothing less will do, both the picture quality and the production quality and values need to be the best they can be.

Actors

Don’t be afraid if it is suggested that an actor plays a role, remember that your staff are not trained actors. Actors will give the production the quality of performance you will want.

Payments

In line with most companies we will invoice for a percentage of the production cost up front to enable us to work on the initial research, script development and site recces etc. For larger projects you will be invoiced on a monthly basis for work carried out to date, with a final invoice on completion and sign off of the video.

Copyright

Any production may contain elements with restricted copyright this is normal and we will make you aware of any restrictions of the use of any materials such as music, library footage etc. You should make sure that you understand the copyright, ownership, financial and legal liabilities involved.You will own copyright on the final production on full and final payment but not necessarily on some of the elements it may contain.

I hope the previous sections give you a good overview of the process involved, video production is something you should not be afraid of, we hope you will embrace it and thoroughly enjoy the video making process so it fulfills all of your objectives, just have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and we will know how to achieve it.

If you have any questions relating to Video Production please direct them to us HERE