That’s a Wrap! The Last Phase of Corporate Video Production

This is the third of three posts explaining our approach to the video production process. While Part One outlined the questions explored during pre-production, Part Two focused on the actual production and video shoot. This final blog discusses how we piece together the insights gathered in pre-production and the footage gathered into your corporate video.

To recap, we started by identifying a company video pre-production checklist, and delving into how the video will convey your key messages. Then we created a treatment and shooting schedule, before we captured all of the material for your corporate video. That brings us to the final stage, post-production, where your brand video comes to life. It includes editing, client reviews and approval, and of course, the final delivery of an amazing corporate video.

Once the shooting crew has completed filming, they deliver the raw footage to an assistant editor, who begins to preps the your project for an editor, Our assistant editor converts the footage to an edit friendly format (a process called transcoding), and with the help of a producer, starts to organize the footage.

The producer and director meet with the editor to review the background on the project and confirm the creative vision. Depending on the project, a music supervisor can also be called in work on an ideal soundtrack for the finest video. We discuss how graphic design can be integrated into the video and collaborate with a graphic artist, who produce animations or titles for the editor to use. We also discuss if additional footage is needed for the brand video, from stock libraries or other sources. If so, our production department takes care of acquiring that.

The editor spends several days getting acquainted with the footage and assembling a rough cut to review with the producer and director, to ensure the video’s creative vision is being executed.

Client involvement is crucial part to the post-production process, as you often have the best understanding of your audience. We believe that it’s best for you to experience the company film in a close-to-finished form before reacting with comments. Internally, once our team is happy with the cut, the video will be encoded and sent to you for review via our online client screening room. There you will be able to send us detailed comments and suggest any tweaks you feel are necessary for the best corporate video.

At this point in post-production, you can save valuable time and money by having one point person share the company video with your team, and compile one consolidated list with your feedback. We’ll address all your concerns. While sometimes we might push back to explain why we made the choices we have, most often you will find your suggestions are easily addressed. We include two revisions in our base price, so after we’ve addressed your first set of comments and sent a revised cut, you can share with your leaders and get back to us with a second set of suggestions. After that next revision we are usually very close to an approved cut – what we call a “picture lock,” which basically means there won’t be any further adjustments.

Once the video is completed to your satisfaction, we begin finishing your business video production. The video goes through a process called color correction and color grading. Color correction is when the white balance and flesh tones are corrected, multiple camera angles are matched to each other, and the overall image is adjusted to give the video a unifying look. Color grading is when the director and colorist chose a color palette to better communicate the emotion of a scene, (i.e. a heartwarming moment may be skewed toward a saturated orange or warmer tones). The audio track is simultaneously passed on to a mixer to clean up the audio tracks and adjust the levels to achieve the perfect balance of sounds – voices, music, background sound or sound effects.

After the first-rate video is finished, our assistant editor generates deliverables specific to your needs. Our producer will review our deliverables confirmation form with you. This is a menu of options of many the electronic file formats we can deliver. If you’re not sure what you need, this form can help guide your decision with insight from your IT department, or whoever will be handling the video deliverable. Typically we will generate files for websites, social media, BluRays, or projection.

At the end of this process, the company film is closed out and archived to tape for safekeeping, and hopefully a future in the land of repurposed video!

Any questions? Feel free to send me an email at barbara@tribepictures.com.

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“It’s one thing to understand the role of video in business communication, it’s another to know how to use video to solve actual business problems. Vern Oakley gets that.”

LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT

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