A Video Production Primer

Building a Production:

Producing a video has been compared to building a house. A builder can erect a one-room, unfinished empty building like a barn or shed at relatively low cost, but something more specialized, like a house or hospital, with multiple rooms and greater refinement will cost a great deal more. It's the quality of the design, the materials used, and the craftsmanship in putting it together that counts.

In this analogy, the "empty barn" might correspond to the live shooting that we do, where the content of your presentation is the content of your video (We provide the barn, you provide the contents!). This live presentation style is certainly the most direct and economical way to make a "video", but as such, it isn't a production. The live shooting approach is discussed on its own page, but I mention it here as a starting point-as both the simplest form of video production, and literally the starting point for many productions have their genesis in a live performance, presentation, or interview.

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Archives into Productions
This piece began as a live shoot to archive the present-to document the historic completion of the first phase of construction of a new hospital building. By spending some more time in getting the necessary shots and then editing it all together, it is now an important part of the hospital's fundraising campaign.

Like the house or hospital in our analogy, a video production includes and integrates a lot more content. By gathering and editing multiple sources of sound and picture together, we can take full advantage of video as a storytelling medium to inform, influence, and inspire your audience.


Show & Tell

It took numerous interviews and site visits to gather enough information and examples to describe The Hampshire Educational Collaborative in this promotional piece. The Collaborative serves to supplement the many areas of education where schools might fall short; they offer their own programs and provide many other resources for teachers and school systems.

Plan Ahead!

An even more direct analogy to the building trade is how a video script acts as the "blueprint" for the production. Just as a builder can look at blueprints to choose materials, calculate costs, hire crew and specialists, and work up an overall timetable and budget, a producer must have a script in hand to do the same. The good news is that I have yet to be handed a complete script, but have managed to produce lots of videos! Our pre-production services are described in greater detail on their own page. They include research, writing, and planning, and will help you strategize a game plan no matter what stage of the process you are in.

Food for Thought

Today's non-linear computer editing systems make arranging and re-arranging content very easy. But you should know that editing is still a very time consuming process, especially when important decisions about the overall content are left for the editing stage. Video projects, like any creative process, tend to take on a life of their own. This is a good thing, a good sign, artistically speaking. So it is just as important that the resources of enough time, materials, content, personnel, and budget all be available to support the process to a successful result.

Tell a Story
One of the universal principles of any media production is that of telling a story -- following a storyline with a beginning, middle and end. I find it helpful to think of informational programs (educational, training, marketing, etc.) in the same way, where some tension and resolution can play out in the way the ideas and information are presented.

Moving Images, Sound Ideas.
Another organizing principle is to think about the synergy of images and ideas. What can we do to mix and match sound and picture to enhance the meaning or emotional impact of the scene? One approach is to discuss the ideas and information in the soundtrack, while the picture can both broaden and deepen your message by showing images and scenes that demonstrate the results-the benefits, the consequences, and other far-reaching implications of those ideas-that viewers will respond to on an emotional level. Most TV advertising does this, especially political ads.

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Keep it Real
This clip from our first all-digital production in 1998 is a good example of Moving Images, Sound Ideas. The information is all in the soundtrack, while the feel-good emotion is apparent throughout the whole piece. The video continues to be an important piece for fundraising and promotional purposes

"Moving Images, Sound Ideas" is certainly not a new concept. In fact, it's probably the oldest convention in story-telling, or human communication for that matter, as it makes use of the natural pairing of language (verbal, auditory information) with facial expression (visual, emotive interpretation) to convey meaning

In the complex process of media-making, a model such as "moving images, sound ideas" can serve as a starting point for developing a script. It's important to have some sort of convention, or way to organize and think about the myriad of ideas, information, and other content in a presentation or program. You'll find that most television and audio-visual media generally follows the "moving images, sound ideas model, and that your own ideas for a media production will as well, simply because it's the most natural way to communicate.

The Learning Process

This 33 minute documentary required more then 33 hours of footage. The viewing, evaluating, and eventual editing took hundreds of hours more. The style here is cinema verite, showing real teacher/student interactions, along with reflections, observations, and other unscripted commentary by the teachers. Even narration was not used in order to stay true to the educational method of the study itself, which followed a group of 3rd graders for 3 months using a non-prescribed, curiosity-driven method of teaching.

Think Outside the Box

Having said all of that, there are plenty of instances where the exact opposite is true-The more "informative" content is pictured on the screen, while the more emotional component is in the sound. You can probably think of some examples of this in movies or just about any drama, but how about in a news documentary or TV commercial? How is the overall effect on the audience different? Is there some way we can mix and match sound and picture to inform, influence, or inspire your audience?

These are just a few questions to get you thinking about your message and your goals. It will be our job to work with you in creating a plan that brings your message and goals to reality.

	Recycling History By doing some careful and clever editing to an hour-long documentary called The History of the Pioneer Valley (produced 10 years prior, when there was an endowment for such things) we pieced together a nice 18 minute Cultural History of the Pioneer Valley for an exhibit at the Springfield Museums.
This panoramic shot for the title scene was the only new material needed-to replace the old title.