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How To Make A Video Worth $500k In 48hours Pt.2

In the second part of our grant winning video blog post I’m going to take you through planning your video (Pre-Production), shooting your video (Production), and editing and delivering your video(Post-Production).

PRE-PRODUCTION

The first thing you should do when planning a video is to figure out what message you want communicate to your audience. This is the foundation of your creative decision making and will act as your beacon if you feel like your purpose is getting lost. By keeping sight of the message you want to communicate, you will be able to clearly and concisely hold their attention. It is helpful to write down the message of your project and refer back to it while working. For example, in our Compass video, the goal we wanted to achieve was: “Effectively communicate the value of the program through the relationships between the volunteers and their students”.

This was our compass back to the video's purpose every time we got lost in the process. Once you have your message it’s time to create a script or a storyboard to plan out the chronology of your video and figure out what you need to shoot. Some tips on other things to do in pre-production are:

Cast your actors

Lock the script

Scout locations

Finalize your budget

Hire your crew

Set up vendors for equipment

Rent gear

Do a tech scout

PRODUCTION

The following tips for production will make your video look and feel much more professional:

1. Find charismatic and knowledgable subjects

During production for our Compass video, we recorded interviews of two charismatic volunteers that had deep knowledge of the program. This is key because you want people speaking on camera that know a lot about what they are talking about and that can go into a clear and inspired conversation about it.

2. Interview Lighting

When doing an interview lighting is important, Use available light from outside or a three point light set up. This will help make your subject look much more flattering. Proper lighting will soften the shadows on your subjects face which makes them look better which make your video better. If you can’t bring a light kit, place your subject by a big open window you can still get some great soft light that way. Lighting will separate your subject from the background and make your videos even look cinematic.

3. Location, Location, Location.

Location is also very important, place your subject in an interesting but not distracting location. The location should be related to your subject in some way. Try shooting them in their work environment or home. The helps cement the identity of the subject and subtly deepens the connection between the subject and audience. For example, if you’re interviewing someone that is bubbly and funny, you could place them in a candy store with lots of pinks and purples. Get creative with it!

4. Audio

When recording interview audio try and use a lav mic and attach it close to your subject to get the best audio possible. Lav mics are great because they are small mics that can be tucked under the shirt or collar that get close clean audio from your subject. You should also always try to record a second line of audio. A shotgun mic attached to your camera is a great backup incase anything happens to you lav mic audio or you forget to record.

5. B-roll

Capture tons of B-roll. We captured shots of the students interacting with the volunteers and going through their day in the program. Then proceeded to shoot the facility and anything else we could find. If your shoot is time sensitive, be smart with what you shoot, but make sure to shoot a lot of B-roll to work with in post-production.

POST-PRODUCTION

Once you’ve planned and shot everything, it's time to edit your video and get out to the world.

1. Organize your footage

The first thing to do is dump your footage that you’ve shot into a drive and organize it. You should try to organize your footage in a way that make the most sense for your project. A great way to start organizing your footage is by the type of footage (start with: B-roll, Interview, and Closeups). You could also organize by events being filmed (Running in the rain, Playing with kids, Jumping up and down, ect). Post Haste is a great app from the guys at Digital Rebellion that can help you quickly create a nice project folder structure to get you started as well. This is important to do because it allows you to know where everything is when you’re looking for shots and different takes, and allows you to begin to start mentally structuring your video. You begin to learn where your B-roll is, where your interview footage is, and which takes are good, bad, and alright.

2. Review your footage

Next, go through all of your footage and make sure you know what you have ( I know it’s boring sometimes with multiple takes, but you have to do it!). At this point you will have a great understanding of what footage is working, allowing you to piece together your first edit.

3. Editing

While editing, remember to refer to your video goal when questioning what shots to use and whether or not the structure, pacing, and story is working for your video. Once your first edit is together, share it with people for feedback, adjust and repeat until the video is feeling strong.

4. Finishing

Once you have your final edit completed it’s time to start the Online Process (I will explain the online process in another post).

a. Color Correct.

You MUST color correct your video. Set a look for your favorite shot and match all you other shots to that as best you can or find a film you love the color on and match to that. This will help bring consistency and make your video look much more professional. You can also try using a LUT through your application. A LUT is LookUp Table that applies a color correction preset on your footage so you have great looking footage with the click of a button.

FREE LUTS!

b. VFX.

Here, you can do some simple cleanup or beauty work depending on your level of knowledge in VFX to make your video even more professional and less distracting. I will be going over some of these techniques in future blog posts!

c. GFX / Motion Design.

Add clean and simple titles and lower thirds. Text will help to emphasize the structure and give identity to your talent on camera. Add a little animation to the text and it will make your video look even more professional and dynamic.

Now you're ready to upload your beautiful video for the world to see!

If you’ve gotten this far and still have any questions feel free to reach out at [email protected].

Thanks for Reading!

#cinema #filmmaking #video #vfx

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