What is video production and its process?
Video production is an art. It involves visualizing, planning, and filming video content for a specific product. Moreover, Video production involves much more than just pressing "record" on a camera. Making a short film, feature film, marketing video, TV commercial, or music video usually follows a similar process. The details may change, but the overall structure remains the same.
Bringing a video project from concept to final product includes three main phases: Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production. Let’s discuss them in brief:
Pre-Production
The pre-production phase involves planning and laying the foundation for a successful video. This is the time to research, address challenges, and organize everything for a smooth project. Preparation here helps make sure the next steps are clear and on track. It's essential to figure out what you want to say and how you want the final video to look and feel.
Production
After planning, it’s time to start filming. During production, all the footage and interviews are captured.
This is the stage where your story starts to take shape. Make sure to communicate any specific ideas or scenes you want before the end of this phase. Production is where the essential parts of the video come together.
Post-Production
After filming, the team moves into post-production. Here, the producer and editor organize the footage, review the interviews, and edit the video. The producer selects the best parts of each interview, and the editor works to craft a smooth, engaging story. This stage is where all the pieces are polished and brought together into the final product.
Stages that Video production companies should follow
Know Your Target Demographics
Identify your core audience in terms of demographics, psychographics, and influencers. Tailor the video to the right people.
Define Your Video Purpose
Does your video purpose outcome include sales, increased brand recognition, entertainment, or something else?
Define Your Core Message
What is the key message that you want to convey through the video? For example, AT&T focuses on connecting people, not just selling phones. At the same time, Nike talks about empowerment, not just selling shoes.
Choose a video type
Decide on the style of your video. It could be a training video, a testimonial, brand content, educational material, or a product explainer. In other words, you can also say it is a video on a narrative basis.
Plan for distribution
In this case, every video distribution channel has specific technical requirements regarding the video format and resolution.
Plan Budget and Timeline
Based on the video's complexity and marketing goals, estimate it accordingly. We need to think about the release date, the expectations of other stakeholders, and the production needs. This can range from a simple interview to a complex shoot with special effects in multiple locations. Budget for contingencies as well as timeline management to ensure on-time completion.
Which industries require video production?
Real estate
Video marketing is highly effective in real estate. Most buyers and sellers prefer agents who use it, as it can boost inquiries on listings up to four times. Agents use videos in many ways. Testimonials help build trust.
Listing videos attract more views. Neighborhood tours showcase the area.
Brand videos introduce the agents. These videos can be shared easily. You can post them on websites while web designing, social media, emails, and texts. This helps agents connect better with clients.
Travel and hospitality
The tourism industry thrives on visual marketing, now amplified by video and social media. Most people book hotels and vacations online, often influenced by peer recommendations. Nearly 90% of millennials choose travel destinations based on friends' posts, and 97% share their own travel experiences online.
Video testimonials, especially from influencers, are key to attracting travelers. These videos are friendly for social media. They are cost-effective and often work better than traditional marketing. They reach a large audience through peer influence.
Healthcare
The healthcare industry increasingly relies on video marketing to reach patients and build trust. As per Forbes's recent survey, about one in eight people search for health info through videos, which help them remember 95% of the message, compared to 10% from text. Hospitals, clinics, insurers, and pharmaceutical companies use video for patient testimonials, virtual tours, and staff introductions. Nearly 75% of patients trust providers more after seeing positive reviews, making video an effective tool for connecting with patients.
Education
The education field uses video marketing effectively to attract students. As per the Google survey report, about 80% of students start their college search online.
Schools use videos for campus tours, course descriptions, tutorials, faculty insights, event promotions, and student testimonials. Video helps prospective students explore colleges from home, showcasing school features and encouraging enrollment. Social media is cheaper and more effective than traditional mailers. It reaches a large audience and shows more of the college experience.
eCommerce
The e-commerce industry is huge and keeps growing as online shopping expands. With over 5 billion internet users, there’s a constant demand for online purchases. Videos are essential for e-commerce websites, allowing customers to see products more closely before buying.
Video production service providers create videos that help buyers make smart choices. These videos help buyers find products that fit their needs and preferences. This creates a better shopping experience and boosts purchase confidence.
Restaurants
Restaurants and bars commonly use video marketing to boost business. Videos let customers order directly from a menu or website, making the process quicker and clearer than phone orders.
They also help clarify menu items, creating a more engaging experience. With videos, customers enjoy a dynamic view of dishes and drinks, which can encourage them to order more. By simplifying the ordering process, videos make it easy and fun for customers to decide what to order.
What questions should you ask when hiring video production companies?
Video types
You should inquire “What video types do you offer?”. There are many types of videos that can be made. These include short videos, documentaries, client testimonials, social media videos, and corporate or promotional videos. From that, you can choose what sort of video production has been aligned with your requirements.
Timeline
You can ask “How long will editing take?”. It is necessary to know the specific deadline of the work done, to schedule the other tasks. If they can’t provide you the estimate timeline, would be consider as impractice.
Awareness of equipment
Inquire about “What equipment do you use?” . Ensure they are using the advanced equipment for videography. Meanwhile, they have updated their software for video editing. This helps improve the video production process.
Budget Alignment
Discuss over budget, have the conversation by “Determine your budget”. It is prominent factor to stay aware what they are demanding for our expectations. You should ask about their pricing structure for the different variations of video production. Ensure you are negotiating with them to get the best offers.
Communication
Communication is key to getting clear conversations and determining the future trajectory of your relationship. Make sure they are having clear and transparent communication, such that there would be no misunderstandings.
Portfolio
After asking and knowing about their experience and expertise in video production, checkout their portfolio. The portfolio helps you to show , if their expertise and experience can be showcased in the projects. Moreover, you can show them what you want from them, or if have already worked on the similar projects.
Specialization
Get the information about their specialization , You should ask “What kinds of videos do you specialize in?”. This information let you get inform about their major work domain and if their specialization aligns with your requirements.
