So you decide that video is the right choice for your company. Excellent decision! Now what? The next step is making a video. A streamlined video will appear smooth and effortless. In reality, hours of preparation, filming, and editing go into the final product. We have narrowed it down to 10 specific steps. Take a look at the work that goes into each video—whether you’re producing your own or hiring someone else.
Pre-Production:
- Step 1: Know your audience. Are you trying to captivate the attention of single ladies in their twenties, dads who love mountain biking, or elderly couples who love dogs? The possibilities are nearly endless, so get really specific.
- Step 2: Find a topic. Once you’ve defined a really targeted audience, choose a topic that will be engaging to your viewers. First, determine what you want your video to accomplish and then start throwing creative ideas around.
- Step 3: Plan it out and stay organized. Even if you’re a free spirit who loves to wing it, the work you do in the pre-production stage will affect what you have to do in the production phase. And you’ll be incredibly thankful for a well-organized video in post-production.
- Step 4: Get your gear ready. You walk onto set cool, calm and collected until you realize that you forgot to bring your camera, tripod, or microphones. Create a checklist for every shoot to ensure that this does not happen.
Production:
- Step 5: Presentation. The presentation stage is about telling your story. Presentation determines whether or not the video is interesting. Even the most boring topics—like watching paint dry—can be entertaining if executed properly. Try different angles and get creative—get on the floor, climb on a chair or swing from the ceiling (safely, of course).
- Step 6: Test shots. You’ve nailed the presentation, but when you sit down to edit you realize that the audio is muffled and your thumb was blocking half of the shots. Nobody wants to listen to poor audio and watch an obtrusive thumb, so please, just test your shots.
- Step 7: Shoot it. And shoot it again. And again. Oh, and did we mention to shoot it again?! More footage is always better than less. You can always edit out whatever you think is irrelevant, but having to reshoot is a huge hassle. Save yourself time and money by taking as many shots as you can the first time.
Post-Production:
- Step 8: Gather, upload and organize your work. When not done properly, post-production can be a tedious, time-consuming task. Stay organized so this stage will be a breeze (well, at least a lot easier). Gather all your footage and audio from the shoot and store them in named and organized files.
- Step 9: Choose your editing software. There are many different types of editing software out there: Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, Pinnacle, iMovie. Your choice will depend on your experience and preference—iMovie is great for beginners and Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro cater more to professionals.
- Step 10: Edit, revise, and export. You’re almost finished! Sync the audio in your clips and cut the footage that you’re not using. Weave all the footage into a compelling story. When in doubt refer back to your intended audience and goals.
Finally, your video should end with a strong call to action. Engage your audience by encouraging them to immediately react to your content. Statements like “call now” or “follow us on Instagram” hook the viewer into finding out more—the more specific the better. If you liked this post, click through to find out how we can help you create an actionable video for your brand. (See what I did there?)