The Seven Most Important Aspects When Planning for a Web Video Production
Back in college a computer science professor at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, introduced me to the phrase “The 7 Ps of project planning”. He explained that the 7 Ps stood for “Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance”. I apologize for the mild expletive, however, the humor in this adage made me remember his advice. I keep the 7 Ps in mind whenever I plan a video project with our video production team.
Therefore, I like to outline the seven most important aspects we employ when planning for a web video production for our clients. We found the following guidelines work well for small and mid-sized companies and organizations.
- Objective: Who is your audience? Define your buyer persona. What is the video to convey to your target audience? Spend much time understanding your clients’ audience and what problems you are addressing or solving for them.
- Concept Development: Develop a storyboard for review with your client. Decide on the format for the video, e.g. documentary style, talking head, story-based, news magazine, interview, etc. Depending on the type of organization or individual which is featured in the video, one format may be better suited than another. For example, we’ve worked with many non-profits, and the documentary approach has worked very well for them. The talking head or news magazine format for instance might work better for educational and informational videos.
- Pre-Production: At this point, you will need to focus on location and production set design. Most of our video shoots take place at the clients’ location, therefore, a visit to the actual shoot location is important. Begin planning the set design, camera placement, lighting requirements, and audio layout.At this stage it is also very important to prepare your client for on-camera protocol. Keep in mind, most of your clients may have never been in front of a camera. They may be nervous and unsure of what to expect. Make them feel relaxed and outline in detail what to expect. (In an upcoming post, I’ll outline in more detail how clients may prepare themselves for their moment in the spotlight and enjoy the process.)
- The Video Shoot: Review your check list the day before and arrive early at the shoot location. Expect the unexpected and give yourself plenty of time to improvise if necessary. Set up can take anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours depending on the scope of the video project.
- Post Production: During the post production process, be certain to have regular communication with your client regarding the progress of the video project. You will also need to make sure that your quote indicates how many rounds of changes and re-edits are included. Re-edits can take a lot of time and end up being costly in time and effort for the video editor or the client.
- Client Previews: Upon completion, have clients preview and approve the video project. This can be done via password protect web sites.
- Video Distribution: Distribution of the video is important to get maximum Return on Investment (ROI) for your client. If your proposal includes video distribution to major video hosting sites then you may want to decide in advance the scope of the video distribution. Less tech savvy clients may need assistance with YouTube, email campaigns, Facebook, Twitter, and Digg.
Did you find these video project guidelines helpful?
