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A Production Approach
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There are as many ways to produce videotape or DVD productions, as there are video products. Vista Media prefers to follow the tried and true methods of carefully planning a production in order to provide the client with the best quality product at the most reasonable price. Planning is especially important for video products from the short 30 second TV commercial to the long format videotape. The TV commercial provides the motivation and action to get someone to “buy” a product or at least think of it when they go to the store. In a long format education video the desired end result is that viewers will understand the message and act accordingly, either to learn or make it a part of their behavior.
In order to make a videotape product that will reach its target and hold down costs, as much time as possible must be spent in the earlier planning stages. It is often too late to make changes in direction once the video shooting has been completed. The following steps outline an efficient approach to meet the goals of either a TV commercial or a long format video presentation:
Step 1 - Understand and define.
The first step is to meet and discuss the message and results desired from each video. Once there is a clear understanding of the goals, an approach or format for the video production can be suggested. The budget constraints as outlined in the request for proposals should also be discussed. The producers and/or scriptwriter can help the client by determining if the desired goals will be met within the available budget for the video production. Then Vista Media Productions prepares a cost estimate for the project to accomplish the objectives within the stated budget. It is difficult to prepare the exact budget for a video until a script is written and approved. No contractor can tell you the cost of a house without a set of plans. A contractor can say only that the average house of so many square feet will cost "about this amount."
Step 2 - Feedback and change via the treatment and/or script.
The next step is the feedback from the producer to the client. The feedback can take the form of a treatment, and/or a production script. Here the writer again plays an important role to help control and define the costs of the production. The writer can plan the script so that it does not contain any elements that might possibly exceed the budget.
Production script preparation may require research of the material and at least one visit to the shooting site. Adequate time should be allowed for script rewriting, reviewing, more rewriting, and final approvals. It is important that script approval is complete before shooting begins. Changes can occur even after the production script is completed, but the overall plan of the project needs to be fairly well defined upon the approval of the script. With the script in hand, the producer can now proceed to plan the production. The cost constraints will need to be watched closely during the script writing. The final production script will outline the actual shooting, graphics and animation requirements.
Step 3 – Pre-production planning.
Pre-production planning is very important because it insures that everything from simple props to the casts of dozens of persons are available for the scene before the camera rolls. It is important, for example, that the crew and talent are not sitting around waiting for the arrival of a simple prop that someone forgot. It is especially important when most of the shooting will occurs on location, and failure to have a critical item can result in as much as a day’s delay. It is also important that casting is done as carefully as possible. The choice of even one person who cannot adequately perform before the camera will affect the cost and effectiveness of the production. With the preproduction planning under control, the next important step is the production phase.
Step 4 - Production - the time to get it on videotape or film.
This is the time for which all of the previous steps have been in preparation. It is now the director’s turn to translate the words on the page into video reality. The creativity of the writer is enhanced by the creativity of the director. The director knows that he must account for every scene in the production script. If the director substitutes scenes, he must make sure they fit into the script. If scenes are omitted, the director must be sure they are not needed. If spontaneous comments of the actors are taped, the director must make sure that they will fit into the script. The raw materials for the final product are
created in this step.
Step 5 - Post-production - editing, animation, special effects, music,narration and graphics.
This is the final step. If all of the other steps have been done well, everything will go smoothly. There is no doubt that skillful editing combined with the right kind of background music and sound effects can improve the efforts of the previous steps. Like pre-production planning for the actual shooting, there needs to be pre-planning for the post-production. Any computer generated imagery, such as animation or graphics, and voice over narration should be ready for editing just like the live photography. The editing can be done on either a linear or non-linear system. Linear editing is much like using a typewriter. On a typewriter it is very difficult to make changes after a page has been typed. A non-linear editing system is similar to computer word processing. Changes are easy to do in a document being typed on a word processor. Audio and video clips can be moved around without having to start completely over. After reviews, required minor changes can be accomplished in shorter times with less cost. While non-linear might seem to be always the right way to edit, it is not. There are times when a video presentation has long pieces of pre-produced segments, such as from a lecture presentation. In this case, it is better to use linear editing. |
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This website designed by Vista Media Productions, Inc. using Vista Venues Content Management System from NetActionware, Inc. (c)Copyright 2007 Vista Media Productions, Inc.
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