Pre-production, production, and post-production are the three phases of a video. When making any kind of professional video, the first of the three steps you need to take into account is pre-production.
You are organizing everything at this point to ensure that the production phase runs smoothly. The first step in pre-production is to determine your video's goals and objectives. You must identify and examine your target audience. Everything from now on should be done with your specific audience in mind, so this is crucial. Are they strict businesspeople, wild and crazy creative types, soccer moms, or a combination of the two? Your intended audience's temperament, attitudes, and interests must be reflected in the production's tone, pace, actors, style, language, music, and length. post-production
You should also think about how much you can afford to spend on this program. You should anticipate spending some money to do it right if it is important to you and you intend to use this production to generate revenue for yourself or your business. Consider it an investment. If it's really important to get it right, you might want to use a professional company to make your first video.
Preparing an outline of the points you want to make is the next step in pre-production, following your decision on the purpose and goals of your video, your target audience, and your budget. If you are promoting your business, your outline may include information about your mission, background, products or services, how you can help your target audience solve their problems or meet their needs, testimonials from happy customers, costs, the differences between your company and your competitors, and anything else that will entice them to do business with you.
It's time to move on to the script after you've written your outline. The script is a comprehensive document that specifies what will be heard and seen, as well as their order of appearance. On a piece of paper, draw a real or fictitious line down the middle. Identify the visuals that will be seen and the audio that will be heard for each shot on the opposite side of the page. Better to be more specific. An illustration of how your script should look is as follows:
Shot Number 1: Audio Visual Title of the music (give it a name)
Music continues to dissolve into a wide-angle tracking shot of a business meeting with a group of people. Focus on John.
"I can't take these wide shots of John jumping up and holding boring meetings anymore!" John declares. papers flying around. Others at the table are stunned.
The script ought to be as detailed as possible, and so on. Regardless of whether the shot is wide, medium, or close-up, direction should be included. Please specify whether the shot is static or involves dollies, pans, pullouts, or other camera movements. The point is that decisions must be made at this time, not while you are filming your video on the set. People will become impatient if you wait until you are in production, and while you are trying to come up with ideas and reach an agreement, time will pass quickly.
Additionally, hiring your cast and crew takes place during the pre-production phase. Are professional actors what you want? Unionized or not? Are you scheduled for auditions? Who will lead them, if that's the case? Do they have any idea how to run one?
Do you know who is on the production team? Have you seen any illustrations of their work? Have they previously collaborated? Have they previously produced the kind of production you want?
Also consider how you will feed everyone on set. Who will receive the meals? People work much better and are happier when they are fed promptly, and time is money.
Will a makeup artist be required? Who will be dressed? The camera doesn't like stripes, herringbone patterns, or bright colors, which will cause moray patterns and other issues on the screen. Earth tones or muted colors with few or no patterns are preferable.
How will the set appear? Is there more than one location? Do you know what the backgrounds are for each shot? Do you know who is in each picture? Do you require any furniture or props? Who will take them there? To avoid unpleasant surprises, ensure that you visit each location where you intend to shoot.
I recall shooting a video at a picturesque location where I was certain that no one would interfere with our work. I diligently carried out my site survey, and everything appeared to be in good condition. Unfortunately, during our site survey, we were unable to hear the planes overhead. Additionally, we did not hear the hourly train. When we were scouting the area, neither did we hear nor see the flock of geese. However, during our shoot, each of these distracting distractions was present. Fortunately, we had already identified indoor locations and I had a backup plan. It's not a bad idea to have a backup plan. Shoot your production in a studio for complete control over the location if you want to be extremely safe.
Lighting is another thing to think about. Is there enough light there? Or are you required to provide lighting? The external lighting will mess up your shot if you have windows in the background and the sun is shining in behind your subject. Utilizing gels on the windows to adjust for the color temperature of the light is recommended if you find yourself in a situation similar to this when shooting.
How about sound? Typically, audio quality is ignored or assumed until it fails. And when it's bad, everyone will be paying attention to it the most. Therefore, you must ensure that people are miced appropriately. Having redundant audio is advantageous. For instance, everyone who needs to be heard requires either a lavaliere microphone or, at the very least, a shotgun microphone. You could, therefore, use a shotgun microphone mounted on the camera to capture redundant audio on a separate channel and a lavolier microphone mounted on the subject to keep things safe. If something goes wrong and a lavaliere mic cuts out, you can use a second channel of audio to replace it, saving the shot. Matching the audio can be hard, so test your microphones before shooting to make sure they sound the same or can be "tweaked" in post production.
The shooting script will be the final topic of discussion. The production's sequential or chronological order is specified in the standard script, which is known to everyone. A shooting script, on the other hand, organizes the shots by location. Shots 5, 14, 35, and 95, for instance, may occur in the cafeteria. As it sequentially appears in the script, filming your video in a different location would take forever and be prohibitively expensive. Unless there is a compelling reason not to, all of the cafeteria shots must therefore be taken simultaneously. It will save you time, money, and patience to group your shots.
Keep in mind that even though the various shots are being taken in the same location, you still need to prepare for the possibility that some of them will necessitate actors to don different outfits because they will take place later in the video or because it is supposed to be another day, for instance.