Video production can often be a very overwhelming process. Where do you start? What are your ideas? What are the logistics you need to organize? So many aspects to consider, so many tasks to undertake. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you had a highly experienced video content agency guiding you through the wilderness?
That’s where we come into the picture. With over 2000 live-action and animated videos in the Charity, Education, Technology and Healthcare sectors, we have 9 years of experience in creating engaging and thought-provoking videos for our clients. These have resulted in boosting their SEO rankings and established a much firmer video content marketing strategy.
Below we have listed how we help you create the perfect video for your business. Let’s get this show on the road.
1. First Things First in Video Production
Before we even start considering the pre-production phase, we analyse your current content marketing strategy. By conducting audience research, competitor analysis and evaluating existing content reviews, we can provide a spot analysis. This highlights in-depth content gaps, giving us an idea of what you can include in your video and how you can overall improve your content marketing strategy. After measuring the metrics, strategising content, planning, executing, reviewing and learning, we can discuss your brief and video content marketing goals. Once we have established this, we can start scripting. We will give you two rounds of amends to provide feedback on messaging, style and overall content. Once you are happy with how the wording reflects your branding, it’s on to the pre-production stage.
These analyses of your current marketing strategy are incredibly important to delivering a high-quality video. With this information and research, we can better optimise your video content production for your brand’s needs and come to a thorough understanding of what you want your video marketing to achieve.
Script approval is also a highly significant stage in this process. We both need to know your branding style so that we can match the words to your business values and company culture. The script also gives us a strong basis for the rest of the video. It gives us a strategy to work with and your vision we can realise. Planning and writing your script in this initial stage enables us to thoroughly outline the rest of your video production procession. The script should give us an idea of what sorts of characters and locations you’ll require. Therefore, getting this phase fully underway really helps us to know what your goal for your video is.
2. Pre-Production of Video Content
Now that we have a script and a thorough understanding of your video’s content marketing aims, it’s time for sorting out all of your logistical concerns. We will action casting, location, art direction, crew, travel, catering, and health and safety. With all of this in our capable hands, you can be as much or as little involved as possible. Whichever you choose, you can be comfortable in the knowledge that we have taken care of everything, lifting those burdens off your shoulders.
We will also discuss with you your time and budget constraints, production team and equipment needs, and ideal locations and talent. Identifying all of these elements will ensure that production day runs smoothly and reassure any concerns you may have. Depending on the complexity and the scope of your project, we may need to have a series of meetings to organize these specific aspects.
Making sure we understand your timeframe is of high importance. Our turnaround times vary from project to project, but our average turnaround is a month. However, we have produced large-scale studio shoots end-to-end within a week. We know that our clients have very quick turnaround times, so clarify with us what your video production requirements are within your specific timeframe, and we will meet that deadline. This is because our processes are set up for speed of execution without compromising on quality.
We can also do a site visit with you so everyone is familiar with the location for the shoot and we can finalise any details regarding placement of equipment and lighting. This will then help us agree on a final schedule and make everyone involved aware of the plans for shoot day.
3. Video Production
This is where the fun begins. Preparation and planning complete, it’s now time to bring your vision for your content marketing to life. If you have any specific visuals and ideas you want to include in your final video, which you feel weren’t emphasised enough in the pre-production phase, ensure that you have communicated these requirements to us clearly before the end of this stage.
The Production phase is all about filming raw footage and capturing interviews for your video. From setting up the sounding and lighting equipment to undertaking interviews and recording voice overs, this phase is where you can see how your video comes to life and what else you might alter when we come to the Post-Production stage.
A crucial part of this process is capturing b-roll footage. B-roll is additional footage we can use to support your video’s storyline. Should you wish to have something else included in the final editing stage, we can use any b-roll footage that meets your requirements in the final video. This enriches the story your video is telling and gives you greater flexibility in the editing stages. As you don’t just want to have talking heads, this extra footage of the premises, your company, and any other facilities will give you a more informed choice as to what you want to include in the final video. These images will add another dimension to your video content and further immerse the audience into what your company is about.
It’s also beneficial to have the person acting as your company’s primary point of contact on set on the production day. This person will be a link between us and your company, ensuring that everything meets your video content marketing guidelines.
3.1 Remote Video Production
We provide a 100% remote option for our clients, where they are able to produce content with just their laptop or phone. From our regular PPM (Pre-Production Meetings) over Zoom or Teams, with email summary follow ups that assign actions and detail progress. And clients being able to virtually log into the set and oversee the shoot. To clients being sent a Frame io link where they can review the edit and provide feedback.
4. Post-Production of Video Content
After we’ve gathered all the necessary raw footage, we get to work with making a marketable video out of it. This part of the process includes logging the interviews, producing the final story, selecting music, editing and formatting, and finalising any details before we send it off to you. All you have to do is sit tight and wait for the magic to happen.
During the editing process, we will begin reviewing and approving any changes that need to be made. We will discuss any specific requests for visuals and sound you may have. Should you also wish to repurpose any content for localisation, we can provide services in delivering videos in many different languages. This includes translating voice overs, captions and audio descriptions.
Finally, we reach the delivery of your video. After discussing the ideal format for your video, we will sort out the sizing and layout. We know that different social media platforms have different requirements for optimal video playback, so we will discuss with you where your video will reach your target audience the most. Therefore, you can promote your video content without worrying about how far it will go to engage future clientele.
Content usage is one of the main elements we discuss with our clients as we know that social content developed organically for its intended platform will increase engagement, accessibility and therefore ROI. We are experts in producing seamless multi-platform content plans.
5. Animated Video Content
Our process for animated video content differs slightly, as more detail is required. Like live-action projects, scripting is the first stage, providing a blueprint for the project going forward. In tandem with the scripts, we will send them across moodboards. These will be select frames from the content to communicate the intended style, colour palette, character design and backdrops.
Like the scripting, you’ll have two rounds of amends to feedback. Following the sign off of the script and mood boards, we’ll start putting together a storyboard. This is a comic book-esque version of the eventual animation. This gives you a great grasp of the structure, pacing, visual storytelling and messaging. Again you’ll have two rounds of amends to feedback on the storyboards. Once the storyboards have been approved we will commence with the animation, using a temp voiceover track if applicable. Once the animation has been signed off we will send across a version with the final audio elements, including voiceover, sound effects and music tracks.
Final Thoughts
As we have detailed, this is our highly effective production process, guiding you through to a high-quality, promotable product, taking the weight off your shoulders. From beginning to end, we can help you devise the perfect video for your content marketing strategy needs, boosting your SEO rankings, entrenching a more solid footing in your industry, and enticing future clients. With video no longer being a mere option but a necessity in digital marketing, we understand the importance of creating enthralling videos, in both live-action and animated formats. Give us a call to get our creative partnership started.
