Producing video can be a lot of fun.
It can also be a royal pain in the tush. 🙂
I hear from people all the time who realize they need to do videos to promote their business on the Internet, but have no idea where to begin.
Learning everything necessary to do the production themselves seems daunting.
I understand completely. I feel the same way about learning web mastering and HTML!!
Outsourcing video production can be money well spent. Especially if you wish to do any sort of complicated production. Doing a simple talking head is one thing. Producing a documentary style video with five interviews and eight locations is another thing all together. You may not have the time to fully produce a promotional video for your business, for example.
If you want to do a complex style of video, I highly recommend you outsource. In order to outsource effectively, you need to learn enough about the basic video production process, so you can communicate effectively with a video crew.
Let’s talk about how to get our video done by outsourcing.
First, think about it this way.
There are three phases in any video production:
* Pre-production
* Production
* Post-production
Now, how easy is that?
To outsource effectively, you probably don’t need to hire help for all three phases.
Here’s an explanation of the three phases, and you decide which you want to outsource.
Pre-production includes all planning.
- Who is your audience?
- What do they want/need to know?
- What do you want to shoot to illustrate this?
- Where do you want to shoot it?
- How will it be pieced together? Editing is usually planned (at least somewhat) before shooting ever begins.
Pre-production is the easiest and sometimes the most creative, fun part. Even if you don’t do it 100% yourself, you can do a lot of it; experience helps, but the process is largely logical.
Sit down and think about it, using real TV shows as your guide. Read through other articles on my blog to get a clearer picture of all the things you need to consider before the camera ever comes out of the box.
- What kind of show are you going to do? Decide on the style and format.
- What video do you need to create or gather?
- What other storytelling elements do you need to create or gather?
- Where and how will you do all of this?
The production phase includes anytime the camera is out taking video or a microphone is in use.
Getting video and audio onto a tape or hard drive is what production is all about. For the novice, this is probably the most complicated stage. This is what you should outsource by hiring a professional videographer.
Post-production includes all editing and duplication.
Post-production is time-consuming and therefore can be expensive. Computer video editing does have a steep earning curve, but it’s not so darn complex that you can ‘t learn if you want to. So I do not think it is at all unrealistic for an inexperienced person to do their own editing if they wish to endure the curve. However, if you hire a videographer who also edits, it can be a huge time saver to outsource editing too.
There is a learning curve, so be prepared for it. And as I said, editing is time-consuming. If you’re editing a standard, professional-quality video, you can count on it taking about one hour of edit time per finished minute. Seriously. If I did a 7-minute video, I’d allow at least 7 hours to edit.
Simplistic videos that are mostly talking heads will go substantially faster. That is why I recommend you keep it simple.
Now that you know the basic video production process from start to finish, your next step in getting your video production done is to go through the pre-production phase.
Part 2 in this series will cover how to go about finding professionals who will work cheaply to outsource those tasks you wish to hire out.
