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Corporate video production – A guide to getting it right!

How to manage your corporate video production

We all know that when doing project-based work, effective time management is important. However in the world of creative video productions time managements becomes crucial in avoiding spiralling costs and lengthy delays. Now video doesn’t always have to be an expensive item, but get your time management wrong when producing it and your initial costs are going to rapidly climb. So here’s a few tips from our series of “how to make a promotional video” blogs on time management.

Have an Incredibly Clear Yet Simple Brief

Effective and creative video productions require a good solid foundation, yet some of the least effective video briefs that we’ve ever seen are always the one pagers. Providing your production team with the bare minimum at brief stage will prove counter productive in the long run so don’t rush this stage. If anything, this should be the one part of the process where time management should not be at the forefront of your mind, so don’t rush it.

If you’re stuck for the correct structure of a video production brief then don’t waste time trying to invent it. You can find countless guides online to help get this part of the process moving.

So keep your brief simple, concise and accurate. By investing time into this initial starting point of your production you will save countless hours of back and forth communication.

 

Corporate Video Production

Do a Location Recce

Before you shoot your video, have the director and/or camera operator visit the location that the filming will take place at for a ‘location recce’. Now this may initially seem like overkill and in fact a waste of time but you’d be wrong.

Getting to your shoot day with all the crew and talent on the clock only to find that the power supply is insufficient or that the background noise makes it impossible to shoot is far more expensive than allow a small amount of budget for a location recce. If a key member of the crew has performed a location recce then any and all technical issues can be flagged and averted and set up/get out times will also be reduced as the logistics will have been pre-planned.

Allowing the director and/or camera operator an opportunity to see the location prior to shooting can save time, stress and money when it comes to the actual shoot day and we would wholeheartedly recommend it.

Trust Your Editor

Once the filming is done don’t think that you need to sit through every single frame of footage with your editor to make an edit selection. If you’ve briefed your Editor well enough they should be able to take the project right through to “edit version one”. This version one edit should be pretty much the finished article in terms of content and presentation yet allow you the opportunity to ask for any and all tweaks you desire. If the editors done their job properly these tweaks will be quick and enable you to review an “Edit version 2” very quickly. So fully briefing and trusting your Editor can save you countless hours of doing watch throughs.

 

Corporate Video Production

Collate Feedback

Within creative video productions there are 3 key people. These are the Producer, the Director and the Editor.  If you have (and most corporate video projects do) multiple stakeholders in the project then always collate all comms and feedback that needs to be relayed to these key crew members. Providing them with clear and consistent communications throughout the process is critical to avoiding multiple repeated back and forth emails.

Delegate the Key Stuff

Video production has many elements within that require a high degree of skill and experience. Camera Operators and Directors etc are obvious examples but don’t be afraid to also commission script writers and video production managers if your budget allows. The video production industry has probably one of the richest pools of freelance experts of any industry and by bringing in the right talent you’ll save lots of time. As mentioned this is not for all budgets but if your production allows then we always recommend getting the best people in place.

Corporate Video Production

Allow for Upload and Share

Finally (and something that often catches people out) you’ll need to allow time to upload your content to YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook.

Make sure you allow time within your plan to do this as its surprisingly time consuming and if rushed can undo all your hard work. To save time if you’re uploading multiple videos then you can bulk or group upload on most platforms. Once they’re uploading you can get on with other work, so factor this in when you’re thinking about the time needed. However once they are uploaded then do allow time to properly tag, arrange and share them.

After all, this is how you’ll get the most bang for your production buck and hopefully it will reduce the dramas that creative video productions sometimes provide! But most importantly it will allow you to generate maximum impact from your new video marketing asset.

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fortyfoursixteen films

fortyfoursixteen films has over 15 years experience producing high quality video content for leading brands and organisations throughout the UK. Headed up by lead producer Neil Waddington we aim to create innovative, inspiring and engaging video for a wide variety of digital delivery platforms.