Producing : Video Steps by Eyal Fill Filkovsky

Enter the wonderful world of video production. Here, you can make your dreams a reality, put your visions into practice, and let your voice be heard. Whether your goal is corporate, consumer, or entertainment in nature, video production is the key to your success. Before getting too excited and jumping into any video production, it’s important for you to understand that the process is quite extensive. In order for a video production to succeed, a long list of steps must be followed. These steps largely fall into one of three categories: pre-production, production and post-production. While each step is an important part of the video production process, pre-production can make or break a project. In a nutshell, pre-production is the planning stage. Pre-productions is where the brunt of the work takes place: from conceptualizing and location scouting, to casting, making shot sheets, storyboarding, filing for permits, gathering crew, and gathering props. Pre-production is especially important as just about every production throws you a curve ball. However, while my College Professor, Dr Don Dexter, once said, "There is no thing as a perfect production,” pre-production provides a means to preparing for and managing the uncertainties that pop up during a video production. In fact, the more you plan in the pre-production stage, the easier the next two steps will be. When most people think/hear the word "video production," the production step is what comes to mind. Production is where you see all the glitz of the video production process: being on location, playing with cameras and lights, engaging with the talent, and watching all of the hard work in pre-production pay off. However, this step should be the shortest step out of the three. In other words, the more time you put into pre-production means less time you spend on production, and less money you have to spend on cast, crew, locations, and whatever other necessities the project requires. It’s on that note that my motto is “get in, get the shot, get out.” Believe me, absolutely no one likes to sit around on set bored for hours. The sooner you can get into post-production, the better. This brings us to the last and final step: post-production. This is where the magic, per se, happens. While most people think of post-production as special effects, this is only part of a much larger picture. Post-production, though including special effects, also encompasses everything else after production. This could be anything from logging the footage, to getting a rough cut, to audio soundscaping, color grading, adding motion graphics, and rendering. This sounds like a lot, and rightfully so. With all these things to do, it’s hard to imagine how anyone keeps track of what needs to happen. Well, as I’ve emphasized early on, the answer is pre-production. If you did your pre-production correctly, then you have a manual to your final product. By utilizing your shot sheet, storyboard, and script created during the first step, you can easily find your way through the project. Although each step in the video production process requires a ton of work, I cannot stress enough how valuable and important pre-production is to the success of a production. Video production is fun and all the tools needed are at your finger tips. With that in mind, get out there and film (or hire a production house that will do it all for you)!  By Eyal "Fill" Filkovsky www.efillfproductions.net