When you’re thinking about making your video content, it can seem like an expensive and time-consuming task. However, you can simplify the process by dividing it into three main stages: Pre-production, Production, and Post-production.
You’ll often hear people talk about all three simultaneously when talking about video making, but they usually mean one of these three stages individually. In this guide to video production, we’ll look at what each stage entails and how long it takes you to get from concept to creation!
Pre-production (Preparation)
Pre-production is the stage where you’re going to focus on doing research and preparing for your shoot. Think about what you want the video to be about, who the audience is, and what the goals are. Doing some preliminary sketches or storyboards before you start is also a good idea.
What type of video content production will work best for your needs? If you need a video that promotes products and services, think about hiring an in-house video production company with the right equipment and who knows how to create compelling videos. (tellyexpress.com)
This phase involves outlining all the work that goes into designing video content before shooting begins. These tasks include storyboarding, scriptwriting for a corporate video or planning animations if required. The stages involved are:
- Video strategy/goals.
- Budget/scope.
- Talent/characters.
- Production team/equipment needs.
- Story selection.
- Location Scouting.
- Project timeline.
- Script creation.
These pre-production tasks typically account for 2% – 10% of the total time spent in video production. If you need something more high-end that highlights your company’s culture, consider hiring someone with experience in documentary filmmaking or an outside videographer.
Production (Action!)
Video content production takes many forms, from a simple banner on your website to a company profile video. It can take anywhere from a couple of hours or up to several weeks, depending on the form and purpose of the video.
In production, you get the camera rolling and film the story. With every story different, the production time changes, too. At this stage, you’ll need to also focus on various features like the quality of the audio, visuals, location, lights, props, and extras.
Audio quality is the quality of all of the production’s audio aspects, from sound effects to dialogue. Visual quality refers to the appearance of any aspect of the production, whether it’d the set, lights, costumes, or any other design element. To produce an authentic experience, these three elements should be of high quality.
Post-production (Follow Up & Marketing)
Each production company will have a different timeline for post-production. It will last anywhere from 6-8 weeks. Post-production is when your producers review everything, such as the script and voiceover narration, as well as any necessary changes. They’ll also design graphics and choose appropriate music for the finished product.
This stage typically takes about an hour or two to complete, depending on the complexity of the video. If you’re doing a lot of editing and graphics, your time may increase by half. But if you need something simpler, you might only need 15 minutes.
However, there’s no set standard because it just depends on how much footage and what kind of content you want to include in the video. For example, this stage should be easy and quick if you use footage with people speaking and some music but don’t have too many scenes with special effects.
However, your production time will increase if you need a lot of images and sound effects. You also might not know what you want at first and may need to do some planning before editing. All these factors will influence how long it takes for the video to go through post-production. Post Production involves the following stages:
- Logging the interviews
- Video editing
- Reviews/approvals
- Producing the final story
- Music selection
- Final Delivery
Again, depending on the level of complexity, it could take anywhere from hours to days to complete this stage of the production process. Make sure you plan your schedule accordingly to account for any needs that may arise in post-production.
Wrapping Up
There are a lot of factors involved in the production process. The good news is that you don’t need to know all the details. Instead, you need to know what your needs are and be able to communicate them with your team.
That way, they can customize a plan that will work best for your budget and timeline. In other words, the amount of time it takes for video production depends on how complex the project is – if you want something simple like an animated logo, then an hour may be all you need.
But if you have a more complex project (e.g., a documentary), expect at least 6-8 months before everything goes live.
