Video production is the gateway between your brand and video content marketing success. It’s a bottleneck for millions of brands because it’s both expensive and time-consuming. What many of these video producers don’t know is there are countless tools and strategies that can help you save time and energy in the video production process.
So what are they? And how can you best use them?
Assemble the Right Team
The best and most powerful way to save time in your video production process is to enlist the help of people to produce those videos. Unless you’re incredibly talented and you have plenty of time, you’re probably not going to produce all your videos all by yourself. Instead, you’ll lean on the contributions in support of an entire team of video production professionals. If you can get more experienced, more efficient, better-coordinated people on that team, it’s only natural that you’ll be able to produce better videos – and produce them quicker.
Arguably the easiest solution is to hire a video production agency. This way, you’ll have access to a team that’s already established. You won’t have to worry about the collaborative dynamics of individuals you hire for your own business, nor will you have to go through the headaches of recruiting, screening, and onboarding. Working with a video production agency is similar in cost to hiring your own in-house production team in most cases. It does require some due diligence to find the right fit for your brand, but it’s the best solution for many types of businesses.
Alternatively, you can build your own team from scratch. You can assemble your team with full-time employees, part-time employees, or even freelancers, but keep in mind that the consistency and internal dynamics of your team will play a role in the efficiency of your video production process.
Which Team Members Should Be Included in Your Video Production?
Depending on the complexity and styles of your videos, you may need team members that include the following:
Director
The director is typically responsible for overseeing the general course of video production. Depending on their position within the organization, they may be responsible for overseeing script writing, coordinating shooting, and finalizing edits. They typically work with most other team members directly, so it’s important that they have a keen eye for quality video as well as excellent leadership and social skills.
Technicians/Operators
Technicians and operators are responsible for operating various pieces of equipment, including lighting, cameras, and microphones. These people should be intimately familiar with the equipment they’re using and should be able to troubleshoot issues quickly if they arise.
Performers
Performers, including actors, voiceover narrators, and interviewers, are the core talent who will be on screen. They should arrive ready to perform optimally and they should have the stamina to film many videos in succession.
Digital Artists
Your digital artists will largely be working behind the scenes, creating digital assets and animations to make your videos more impressive. Skilled digital artists can quickly turn a creative vision into reality. They can follow instructions, recommend creative new ideas, and produce digital items.
Editors
It’s impossible to make a good video without a good editor. Editors know how to find the best takes, trim the fat of a video, and polish a final product. They have an exceptional eye for detail and they know how to carry out the director’s vision.
Marketers/Distributors
Marketers and distributors are mostly focused on publishing the video in ways that get the most attention. They need to be able to take a finished video and get it in front of an audience within a day or two, if not within hours.
How to Evaluate Video Production Agencies and Professionals
When considering various video production agencies and video production professionals, these should be some of your top priorities:
Experience: Experience is one of the best indicators of a person’s professional talent. The longer a person has worked in this area of specialty, the more you can depend on them. However, this isn’t always the case, and you should be aware that more experience usually demands a higher salary.
Past work: Accordingly, you should also consider examples of past work. A person who can produce a good video quickly is more valuable than a person with 20 years of experience who can’t. Consider using tests to gauge the abilities of your prospective candidates.
Discipline/work ethic: You also need to consider discipline and work ethic. Some people are truly passionate about their work, and they take pride in operating efficiently. Other people only want a paycheck, and they’re willing to run out the clock if it means procrastinating a responsibility and earning another day’s pay.
Culture fit: Finally, you need to consider culture fit. Because video production is often a team effort, it’s imperative to consider how the individuals you hire work with each other. In an ideal setting, team members will have similar values and perspectives, and they’ll be able to quickly resolve any conflicts that happen to arise.
With better people in place, you’ll be able to produce videos much faster without sacrificing quality.
Invest in Optimal Equipment
You can expedite the video production process by investing in optimal equipment as well. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, you can get cameras, microphones, lighting implements, computers, and other pieces of equipment that produce higher-quality finished products and are easier for people to use. With less time spent troubleshooting and tweaking with settings, your team can focus on what matters.
Divide Responsibilities Intelligently
Professionals are often either specialists or generalists. Specialists are extremely skilled in one area, while generalists are moderately skilled in many areas. It’s worth considering both for most roles in your organization, but on your video production team, things will flow much more smoothly if you have lots of individual specialists. Make sure you have people who are exceptionally skilled in specific categories, and allow them to showcase their strengths by narrowing their range of responsibilities.
You may also be able to save time by delegating menial and repetitive tasks to entry-level employees who can handle them. Why should your director or editor waste their time on something an intern can take care of between other tasks?
Prioritize Prep Work
The more prep work you do in advance, the smoother your filming and video production will flow.
For example:
Script writing: The script will dictate how the video is structured and filmed, so if the script is perfectly polished, there should be fewer issues on set. Make sure to spend ample time getting the script to the best possible condition before you even start filming.
Scouting: If you’re filming in a live location, you’ll also need to spend time proactively scouting for the best location. Think not just about how this would look on video, but also how easy it will be to facilitate video production here.
Technical setup and testing: Technical issues can hold things up indefinitely, so try to resolve them as proactively as possible. Have your technicians and operators arrive to set early, so they can conveniently set up their most important equipment and test it before it’s time to start filming.
Rehearsal: It’s also important to have your performers rehearse, so they can nail their performance in fewer takes.
Batch Your Videos
You can also streamline things by batching your videos. In other words, you’ll produce several videos in quick succession, one after another. This allows you to save time on equipment setup, since you can use the same equipment landscape for multiple videos in a row. Shooting videos back-to-back also allows your most talented staff members to achieve flow – and stay in a flow state for longer.
Create a Standardized Process to Follow
Create standardized, repeatable processes that your team members can follow. This will eliminate initial confusion and allow your team members to focus on the most important aspects of video production. Additionally, repeating this process will provide your team members with a structured routine. This, in turn, will eventually allow them to get faster.
This will also help you identify areas of improvement. As you follow these standardized processes, you may note areas of redundancy or inefficiency, which you can iron out in future iterations of these processes.
Get Plenty of B-Roll Footage (If Filming)
If you’re filming your video, get plenty of B-roll footage. This footage can help you smooth over any missing pieces in your final video and prevent the need for reshoots. It’s also a great way to add color and substance to almost any video.
Always Have Backups
Any lost material is going to set you back in a detrimental, borderline irreversible way. Accordingly, you should always have backups in place. Record video and audio separately, and automatically back them up to the cloud to minimize the chances of loss.
Managing a busy video production schedule can feel overwhelming. With the right team, better equipment, and some better strategies at the helm, you can produce better videos. You’ll also be able to turn them out quicker and, ultimately, achieve better results.
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Kyle Loftus; Pexels; Thank you.
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