Video production isn’t always quite as simple as it seems. Simply picking up the camera, filming some actors with some products doesn’t make a compelling commercial. There are a lot of components that go into filmmaking, and even though we aren’t producing a hollywood blockbuster, we want to produce a video that fits your brand and shows off your product.
If you’ve ever seen a video that’s impacted you, it’s a result of a well thought out idea, combined with good planning and execution. Generally, the more creative and unique the idea, the more refining, planning and organization it takes to execute that idea.
Typically, our process takes about 6 weeks. The first 1-2 weeks we collaborate on ideas and fine tune a concept. Then, we start pre-production where we gather people, equipment, and extensively plan for the shoot dates. Once everything is setup properly for the shoot days, we film the shots necessary for the video. The last 1-2 weeks is left for editing, revisions and motion graphics. Every video project happens differently of course, but generally there’s a few things that typically happen in each project.
On average, our process takes about 6 weeks. The first two weeks we collaborate on different ideas and directions we could take. Then we fine tune the concept, mood and direction we want to take. The next two weeks we do pre-production and filming. We hire the crew, book the equipment, cast talent and extensively plan the shoot day(s). Everything is planned well in advance, the shoot goes smoothly and we get the shots necessary for the video. The last two weeks is for post production, this could include: editing, revisions, motion graphics, voiceover, sound mixing and color correction.
Below I’ll go into more detail about each phase of the process:
Concept development: We love collaboration and the goal of this stage to work with you on a video concept that you and your team will be confident in. It can be quite complicated to come up with a good idea, but we work closely with you, giving suggestions based on things we feel inspired by, and carefully sorting out the good ideas from the bad ones based on our understanding of your customer.
Pre-Production: This is the part of the process where all the planning takes place before we start filming. We over-emphasize the importance of planning and pre-production, because if this part is done right, everything else falls into place and the project moves smoothly and efficiently. We involve you (the client) in the creative choices, but we need timely feedback. To ensure good operations, we have a project timeline that we stay on track of. You will know, depending on the project, when we begin casting actors, hiring the film crew, doing location scouts and deciding on production design. If your project is more creatively complex, we may test complicated setups, or shoot a pacing cut (or test video).
Filming: These are the days all that planning goes into, and you’re welcome to be on set with us. Being on set is a fun, but sometimes overwhelming experience. Because we only have a limited amount of time to get all the shots we need, we’ve rented all the equipment, hired different contractors, and coordinated all these resources, stress levels can be high knowing that we must execute on the creative vision. But rest assured, once we’ve done the proper preparation things will not go awry.
Before the shoot day, a call sheet is sent out, which has everyone’s information and role, as well as when they should show up on set that day. Basically filming happens in a repetition of blocking (knowing where people are and move), lighting, rehearsing and filming.
The director is the person who makes sure the shoot goes smoothly. So, if you have any suggestions like wanting the actor to do a movement faster, you would tell the director and he will coordinate it. Remember, time is a limited resource on shoot days, so, if a certain scene is taking too much time the director’s responsibility is to have the best interest of the video in mind. This sometimes means making the call to move-on to another scene of a scene is taking too long or it could mean changing the look of the scene entirely.
Post-production: First, if you haven’t already, sent us your graphical assets like logo, branding elements, etc, send those to us first. Otherwise, we’ll have a rough edit out to you based on the dates set in the project timeline. Look through the rough edit and get feedback from your team, friends and family (if you’d like). Take your time and note down the revisions, then let us know the changes you’d like to make. It’s important that you let us know all the revisions you’d like to make, not a scattered set of small changes. We’re working on multiple projects at any given time, but we set aside a specific amount of time dedicated solely in editing your video. Having a complete list of revisions compiled insure that we don’t compromise on the quality of your project, and we would not want another client taking away our focus from your project because they wanted a minor change on their edit. After the first revisions, we add in motion graphics, music and color correction. Once again, you give us feedback, and finally when the revisions are done we color-correct the video so that it looks polished and send the finished video over to you.
