The Video Production Process: A Step-by-Step Guide
Video production can be a difficult endeavor, but the results are certainly worth the effort. A high-quality video can maximize your marketing efforts by increasing brand awareness, building consumer trust, and generating more conversions.
To achieve these benefits, it’s important to understand all that goes into making an impactful video. From pre-production to distribution, there are several important steps that you need to take to produce a great video and ensure the right people see it. To help you elevate your video marketing strategy, here’s a step-by-step guide to the video production process.
At Digital Spark Studios, we have extensive experience planning and producing impactful marketing videos that generate results. Contact us today to learn more about our professional startup video production services.
The Video Production Process
The video production process can be broken up into four stages:
Pre-production
Production
Post-production
Distribution
Each of these stages includes several key steps that contribute towards making a high-quality marketing video.
Pre-Production
The pre-production stage is when you lay the foundation for your video by planning all of the key details. By creating a full-fledged creative brief, you’ll answer important questions that inform the production process.
Pre-production includes:
Establishing your goals. What do you want to accomplish with your video, and what should viewers take away after watching the video?
Identifying your audience. Your video should be curated to appeal to your target audience’s buyer personas. Before starting your script, it is important to determine who you want to target with your video.
Creating your purpose. Understand why you want to captivate your audience and how you are going to do so. Think of the small details that are going to set your story apart.
Setting a budget and timeline. Creating a timeline for your video will help you stay on budget and keep your marketing strategy on track. Set milestones for finalizing your script, starting production, starting post-production, and distributing your video. You should also establish a budget to help maximize your video’s ROI.
Planning your approach. What type of video do you want to make (e.g. explainer videos, commercials, documentaries, testimonial videos, etc.)? Do you want to make an animated or live-action video? What channels will your video be distributed on?
Writing a script. Your script is one of the most important aspects of your video. When writing a script, remember that 150 words equates to about one minute of runtime, and marketing videos should generally be three minutes or less in length.
Storyboarding. Storyboards let you translate your ideas into visualizations. By visualizing each shot of your script, you can refine your art style and prepare for production.
Casting talent. After planning your video, you need to hire talent to perform your script. This may include actors for live-action videos or voiceover talent for animated videos. You may also want to include real employees or customers depending on the type of video you’re making.
Following these steps will help you plan an effective video and streamline the production process.
Production
After completing the pre-production process, it’s time to start production. This stage includes the entire filming process.
Production is where we execute the plan we set in pre-production. In order to execute the production, there are several important people needed on set that perform different roles. These people include:
The Director. The creative lead of the film, who is ultimately in charge of the production process.
The Producer. This person oversees the production and has a strong impact on the decisions that take place throughout the entire process such as casting, selecting the script, directing, and editing.
The DP. In charge of the cinematography, which includes the camera and lighting. They make the important artistic decisions in correlation to the imagery.
The AC. Also known as the first assistant camera. They focus the camera on the subject during the production.
The Gaffer. They are the chief lighting technician in charge of moving overhead equipment in order to perfect the lighting.
The Grip. This role supports the building and maintaining the equipment needed for the camera.
The Audio Tech. This person will set up, maintain, and operate the audio equipment.
The PA. The production assistant is responsible for any request needed during the production process such as moving equipment, answering phones, and operating office equipment.
Each person involved holds an important role in the production process. Without each role, the production process would not run smoothly.
Post-Production
Post-production is when everything starts to come together. This includes taking the best cuts from the production process and putting them together to create your final product. This requires effective communication and may include several rounds of editing before the final video meets your expectations.
Post-production includes:
Editing
Aligning voiceovers with recorded footage
Adding graphics, animations, and other effects
Coloring
Sound editing
Drafting
Once post-production is complete and the video has been finalized, it’s time to move on to distribution.
Distribution
Videos are only effective when put in front of the right audience. Distribution is the key to achieving the desired results from your video.
Different types of videos are best suited for different platforms. Social videos, for example, perform best when distributed on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, while testimonial videos may be better suited for product pages and company websites. You can use a combination of paid and organic marketing campaigns to promote your video and maximize your ROI.
To measure your video’s performance, it’s important to establish key metrics, including watch times, click-through rates (CTR), and similar metrics. Certain platforms, like Wistia, have built-in tracking features, and tools like Google Analytics can be a great way to measure performance.
Work With Digital Spark Studios
The video production process includes several steps—each of which contributes to the overall results of your final video. By working with a professional video production company, you can get expert help planning, producing, and distributing your video for maximum impact.
At Digital Spark Studios, we have extensive experience working with businesses and brands across a variety of industries to help them create marketing videos that generate great results. Contact us today to learn more about our professional video production services.