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Leslie Gilmour

Learning Video Production for Beginners

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Edited by Leslie Gilmour, Monday, 18 July 2022, 14:23

Amateur videos can now be made as quickly as pressing the record button on your iPhone's camera, but if you want to go into professional video production, you'll need to learn much more. If you're interested in making high-quality video and film productions, we'll take a quick look at the steps involved and see what you need to know to succeed.

Pre-Production

Define the goals of this video before you even start planning. What's the point? What are your expectations from this experience? Which audience members will benefit from this content, and how? There needs to be a goal from the start of the project. You will also need a guide on measuring whether or not the video is a success.

You can use the SMART methodology to create your objectives (or identify your goals). SMART is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound, and measurable.

There is a lot of planning involved in making a video, whether it's a 30-second social media video or a full-length feature film. Most videos begin with these pre-production steps.

Ideation – Aim to develop a general idea for the video and how it will tell a story.

Scriptwriting – Create a video script that effectively communicates your message. You're not much of a writer? Writers who specialise in this field should be hired.

Storyboarding – Preparing a visual storyboard based on your script and the shots you want to accompany the narration or dialogue is called "storyboarding."

Create a shot list after your storyboard has been approved/completed. This is the list of all the shots needed for the video.

Hiring talent - Whether you're looking for a narrator or actors for your script, you'll need a system to find the right people

Scouting and securing the locations – A studio, a location, or several locations are all viable options for filming your video. To find the ideal location, you may have to go out of your way and spend money on renting a space or making plans to hold your shoot at a specific time.

Scheduling the shoot – A shooting schedule should be drawn up that lays out exactly when and where each shot will be taken, as well as who will be on set at each location.

Production

The actual filming of your video is included in the production phase. You should know how long this phase will take because you've planned it out. And it's your job, whether a producer or a stakeholder, to ensure everything moves along according to plan.

The director is usually needed for this stage of the process. Depending on the scope of your production, you may be able to pull this off without hiring a professional. But, you will need to know how it’s done. Interning for a video production company is the best way to learn how to direct films.

Directors play a critical role in ensuring that your cast delivers the goods, that you get all the shots you need, that they're appropriately framed and lit, and that the script and storyboard are adhered to as closely as possible.

Included in the process of creation are the following elements:

Preparing the scene for the photo shoot – Setting up your lighting, microphones, and other technical equipment is a must whether you're shooting in a studio or on location.

You'll also want to place your camera(s) and crew where they need to be and ensure your actors are where they need to be.

Shooting video – Use the camera equipment you've selected for the project to record your video. Take as many shots as you think you'll need, and shoot much more than you think you'll need. When it comes time to edit the video, you don't want to discover that you missed an important shot.

Recording voiceovers, dialogue, sound effects, and other elements of your video's audio track. You can also use music that you've recorded yourself or that you've purchased for your video.

It's possible to purchase stock video clips like stock photography and show standard shots/actions. These clips can be edited into your overall video.

Post-Production

You can begin putting it together as soon as you've created everything you need to make your video. Post-production entails the following primary steps:

A good understanding of video editing software is required to organise, compile, and sequence your raw footage into a high-quality video. Also, this is where special effects, audio mixing, and colour correction come into the picture.

Once the final video is completed, it may be necessary to optimise the video for its intended use, such as adjusting the screen size, file size, or the type of video file. As a rule of thumb, if you're filming a TV commercial, you'll need a different set of specifications than if you're making a social media video.

The final step in the video production process is to post and promote your video. Put it out there in the right places, and make sure you have a marketing campaign to help get the word out.


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