Have you ever gone into a meeting, sales pitch, or interview unprepared? What was the outcome? I imagine it wasn’t good. Well not having done proper pre-production before filming is no different and can mean the difference between a powerful video and a waste of money.
Pre-Production allows the video to be created before it is ever filmed. Pre-production for us typically involves the following:
A Discovery Call
Script/Outline/StoryArc
Storyboard/Moodboard
Production Day Logistics and Scheduling
Location Scout
A Discovery Call
A discovery call is when we name every detail of the project, from concept ideas to the purpose of the video to the specific audience you plan on targeting. From here we create an estimate and send you a proposed scope of work.
Script/Outline/StoryArc
A script or an outline of talking points will be created for the messaging of the video. You will either do this with you marketing team or you will hire us to go through our storytelling process. We use either the Muse Storytelling process or the Story Brand Framework. For some types of videos we will also create a storyline or story arc showing the heroes journey in the case of a founder story or non-profit origin story. We will also create a list of interview questions for the interview.
Storyboard/Moodboard/Shotlist
Depending on the budget, we usually create a mood board or storyboard for our videos which show the style we are going for visually and the action we want to see on screen to show the story to the audience. We also create a shot list of the shots we need to capture.
Production Day Logistics and Scheduling
We will create an hour by hour schedule for each production day with locations and a list of shots we are to capture for each time slot.
This is where we also schedule the crew. We have managed crew sizes ranging from one person to ten people on set. Each production is unique and will require a certain crew to make it a success.
For some productions we need to secure locations by renting a house or building.
We also may need to rent and then prep any specialty gear such as cameras, lenses, camera support systems or lighting.
Location Scout
Location scouting is where we go to the location we plan on filming at and check where we can film b-roll/interviews and look at existing lighting, noise levels (so we will know if we are going to have issues during the interview) and load in capabilities for our gear.
Corporate Interview Setups
Standard setup time is around 1-1.5 hours
Some of our clients have internal marketing teams who create the script, storyline, outlines, and even the storyboards. They may be experts in creating these things but they typically don’t understand translating that to a production day. This is where we come in to help guide them in preparing for the production day to make sure nothing is missed.
Large Productions
Can take 4-8 hours to setup.
Some of clients do not know anything about creating a script, storyboard or even coming up with a concept for a video. This is where we use our combined knowledge of different storytelling processes to craft the story that needs to be told to fit your goals.
The point of pre-production is to make the production day a success. On the production day there is always a chance we will encounter small changes that need to be made but these generally will not be changes to the script, general style of the video or storyline. Sometimes lighting, weather or other logistical issues come up during production and require us to pivot, making small changes on set. This is where having an expert production team is essential.
Tell Stories of Transformation
Interested in partnering with a group of highly skilled visual creatives? Then schedule a discovery call today to see how we can bring your video ideas to reality!
