Digital video production has come a long way in the last decade. The solid state camera revolutionized the industry, and now there are many options for recording footage both on location and inside studios.
This article will discuss some of these solid state digital cameras and how to operate them properly in content creation.
What Is Digital Video Production?
It represents the creation of digital video content, from the pre-production planning of storyline and shots to the filming and editing footage for distribution either on television or online.
In today’s digital world, video production companies can create a wide variety of footage for distribution online. Audio-video equipment is a must to take your productions up a notch!
The digital video production process is the collection of tasks involved in creating a film, television program, or another moving image.
It encompasses everything from development to post-production and distribution. The term refers to physical cameras and computer equipment that allows for manipulating ideas beyond what was previously possible with traditional analog techniques.
It includes photo editing software, animation software, recording hardware (e.g., soundboards), and even special effects platforms like Adobe After Effects compositing application.
Stages of video production include
Development Phase
The development phase involves the creation of ideas for video content. It includes storyboarding, scripting, and other pre-production work that will be done before any media is created.
During this phase, the video production team asks the client a few questions such as:
-Why do you want a video?
-Who is the audience?
-What action do you want viewers to take?
-What does success for this project look like?
-Where will the video initially be published?
-What is the marketing and distribution plan?
Once these questions are answered, they get to the pre production phase.
Pre Production Phase
During this stage, all aspects of production are planned, including shot lists, schedules, logistics (such as travel), talent needs/casting calls etc.
During pre production, it’s essential to create a program that allows actors or talent to read scripts, do their research on characters, practice lines, costume design, secure equipment such as memory cards, video camera, digital camera, video recorder.
Essentially anything necessary to make sure your shoot goes well when you get set up at a location.
This phase involves thousands of decisions that affect the success of the subsequent three stages and the quality of the final product. It’s essential to spend appropriate time here and get all those decisions right.
Shooting Phase Or Production Phase
The actual recording of the media being produced takes place, whether it be live-action video or animation.
The production phase is where all of the content you created in pre production comes to life via actors and talent who are physically on location before your camera(s) recording what’s happening “live” as if taking place right now.
It is the most demanding phase as it requires a lot of attention and camera operation to detail if one wants their final product to come out looking professional. It is in this phase where interviews are conducted and visiting the appropriate websites.
The quality of these types of equipment (video camera and digital camera) will primarily affect the kind of video you produce. A good video camera and digital camera will have quality video.
These cameras should be used when making a professional video or a corporate video. Digital images and digital media are used in this phase and equipment for the audio video.
Post Production Phase
The post production phase is a collaborative process between the video production team and the client. This stage covers all aspects of making the footage from your shoot(s) into a finished piece that can be aired or put online for viewing by your audience/viewers.
During this phase, raw footage captured on location gets turned into something more than just an unedited video, including transitions between scenes, overlays such as titles and graphics; audio editing (voiceover narration if necessary); color correction, etc.
The quality of each step in post production will depend mainly upon how well you executed everything pre production, but good planning even at this stage can save time & money. It will be where audio mixing occurs (if necessary) and where you insert music for background purposes if it fits within editorial guidelines.
During the process, graphics may also need to be created depending on what kind of project you are working on – corporate videos vs TV shows require different types of pictures.
The post production phase may also require a voice over if there isn’t one already included in the raw footage from the shooting phase and any other work that you’ll need to do, such as color correction or adding titles/credits at the end of the video before sending it off for approval by the producer(s)
The post production phase is often the longest and most tedious part of the video production process. It also opens up a lot of room for error, from simple things such as not having enough hard drive space for your raw footage to more complex issues like poor audio due to a microphone being accidentally bumped during recording.
If this happens, you must have someone experienced in sound editing available or at least some means by which they can fix their mistakes via an external device if necessary. Otherwise, you may end up with unusable footage(or worse still- no usable content whatsoever).
One must use technology correctly while executing all four phases above. Unfortunately, many companies spend too much money on equipment while neglecting hiring/training talent.
In addition to this, digital video production has many moving parts, which means that even the tiniest oversight on any one component can have a domino effect and lead to disaster for your project.
For example: using low-resolution cameras (such as 480P or 720P) with giant memory cards will only slow down post production; shooting in portrait instead of landscape orientation is not optimal when it comes time to edit footage; poor lighting & sound recording leads to significant problems such as having no usable audio etc.
These are a few examples, but you get the point – each little detail adds up and can make all the difference between an amateur looking production vs professional-quality end product.
Marketing and Distribution Phase
Once your project is complete, the final phase of video production involves marketing and distribution. It may include online ads or social media posts on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, which are targeted to reach a particular audience group interested in what you have created for them etc.
It can also make promotional materials such as flyers that will be distributed throughout your community via businesses – think about local coffee shops, bakeries or grocery stores who would welcome free advertising on their bulletin boards.
The key here is to create original content that people want to view more than once, so it’s worth investing time & money into this aspect during the shooting stage (if necessary) because if no one sees your finished product, then all steps are pretty. Much useless anyway!
Pre production production and post production are essential parts of digital video production; however, the marketing and distribution phase is vital since it depends on the above two stages.
If you want to be very successful in this business, it takes a lot more than just shooting footage – it’s about creating content that people want to watch!
Importance of digital video production process
The video production process presents an opportunity – not only does it offer value through entertainment but also education. It helps you win new business leads since people are now informed about who you are/what you do etc.
– Video is great for explaining your product or service to potential clients or customers.
– Video is a great way to show off your company culture by recording staff interviews & events.
– Videos have an impact on social media, which can lead to more votes, shares, and followers for your brand.
– Digital videos with compelling content will inspire viewers to buy what they see because it’s something that they feel connected to (even if it’s simply nostalgia via old family movies)- leading them into purchasing said product or service from your business. An excellent example of this would be brands like Apple Inc., Coca Cola
– Videos increases sales conversion rates by as much as 80%. The more often your videos show up on search engines like Google, the higher your chance of converting visitors into leads and then new customers.
This is because it’s easier to sell something once someone has already seen what it looks like/what features it offers. However, we naturally want what we can’t have, so make sure that your content IS NOT readily available, or else no one will expect anything in return – they’ll take whatever they find from the Internet & move along.
– Videos are also an effective way to market services and products or raise brand awareness for a non-profit/charity organization
– Videos are a great way to stay in touch with your audience since they get instant gratification.
Digital video production can be executed quickly and at any budget. Still, it’s crucial to have the right team & equipment in place, or else your final product will suffer from poor quality resulting in lost revenue.
Importance Of Hiring Talent
It takes time and effort to find quality talent that understands digital video production best practices. If they don’t do things correctly, they can cause more harm than good with their shoddy work ethic, which leads to the lackluster end product(s) for customers, clients &, etc.
It becomes vital for companies who are serious about being successful in this business – choose wisely! The last thing you want is poorly produced videos showing up on your website/social media because then no one will be interested in your brand.
Hiring trained talent is a must for digital video production; however, one also needs to hire corporate training videos for their staff so that they can be suitably prepared before any actual filming takes place.
Many companies forget this step and get burned because the person operating the camera doesn’t understand how things work within their department/organization – which leads to more headaches down the road(or worse, still no footage at all).
It’s not enough just having quality equipment on hand if you don’t have someone who knows how and when to use each piece of technology correctly!
Conclusion
In conclusion: there are many facets involved with digital video production aside from just pointing a camera at an object/person and hitting a record – it’s about knowing the end goal and how to get there efficiently.
You must be able to organize your time, keep track of expenses (budgeting) and stay on task with specific deadlines for each step in the process, or else everything will fall through & no one will benefit from it!
