1. Initial development
There is an old expression I heard in college when trying to attain a successful video production, and that was “You will be saved by a great creative idea.” The point my professor was trying to make was, if you are going to make a successful video production, you are going to need to have a great initial idea to really get the ball rolling.
The following points should guide you closer to assuring your final video production will be a success:
What is the budget?
Why do you want or need to create this video production?
What is your story and why is it unique and different and appealing?
Who is your ideal viewing audience for your target market?
What is the final outcome and what do you feel you must accomplish with the final video production?
How will your audience feel about the message of your production? How will they react?
Define accurately the guidelines and stages that you must go through to attain maximum success in your video production endeavor.
What does your ideal distribution network look like? Can you successfully submit it to the desired distribution channels?
2. Your Pre-production and scripting
Pre-production is the second stage of video production. Here is where you begin the rough outlines and objectives of your final script, and determine the approximate desired length of your video production or film. Decide who will be the chief script writer or writers. Who will be in charge of casting? Discussing the wardrobe for the main characters and how your audience will see them is important as well.
Align and choose your production team. Who will be the Director? Who will be the Director of photography?.What types of cameras will you be using? What types of interior and exterior lighting equipment do you need and also who will be operating the lights. WHo will be in charge of audio recording in the field and in the studio if necessary. See your ideal crew members in your mind and then go out and find them. For example: Who will be in charge of video editing? How many locations will you be shooting at? How many interiors and exterior scenes do you see? Will you need a colorist for example and so on.
3. Actual production
This part is where all of your pre-planning meetings, casting, video production crew selection, and the right gear and locations all come together to actually fulfill all of your original objectives. In other words, here is where the actual video production is started and completed successfully. In most all successful video productions, over-shooting is a much better decision than rushing through the shooting and production process. Do more than you may feel comfortable during the shooting and production process. You will be glad you did in the next step.
4. Post production
Putting everything that you shot and created in the field and in the studio all together. When you were actually shooting all of the scenes you probably had a good gut feeling of which parts were strong and effective and which were not. There is a famous expression regarding post production; “We’ll fix it in the post”. In post production through the magic of video and sound editing you have more power to edit and re-edit until you think your desired message and theme is best displayed to your audience.
Also in this stage, think about subtitles and any desired special effects and color correction that you will need to make the final edited production a total success and interesting and fun to watch.
5. Distribution and marketing
The last stage of video production is distributing and marketing. Do you remember the reason why this production was created in the first place? That original passion that you had as you were making this production ( if you are satisfied with the finished production ) should now be proudly displayed to the most important people of influence that you know and also get some feedback on social media outlets is also a great idea. If the final production followed your vision then the marketing and the search for the best distribution channels will be a true labor or love!
