Why All The Magic Happens in Video Post-Production

Why All The Magic

Happens in Video Post-Production

There are three main stages that go into making a marketing video. 

The first is pre-production where everything is planned in as much detail as possible. This includes creating the script and putting together a storyboard. 

The next stage is the filming. By the end of the pre-production stage, this should be clearly mapped out so that everyone knows what they are doing. 

While a lot of work goes into pre-production and production, your marketing video doesn’t start to really come together until you reach the post-production stage. This is where the scenes are ordered, soundtracks are added and the final marketing video finally emerges. It basically transforms your individual scenes into something engaging and entertaining.

Here are just some of the steps taken by the team at Square Pixel Productions once we get your video content back to the office. We like to think it’s where most of the magic happens. 

1. Creating the Rough Cut

Most editing nowadays is done digitally by downloading the film onto a computer and then putting it together using editing software. 

The first job of the post-production team is to bring together all the various clips to make an assembly cut. This is basically a rough cut of the final intended video, following the original script or storyboard. At this stage, we don’t worry too much about timing issues, it’s more about getting everything in the right order.

Once this is done, the rough cut is passed around the team for comments and ideas. That may lead to some more editing, moving around clips or removing some that don’t seem to fit. 

2. Putting in the Picture Lock

Once everyone is happy, we put in a picture lock which means we’re confident of the basic structure of the video and everything is generally placed where we want it to be. It’s sometimes useful to include rough visual effects if they are being used in the video so that we know where they are going to appear. Again, this is done fairly quickly and doesn’t have to be high quality. We can sort that out later. 

Once the picture lock has been agreed, the next step is to work on the sound. 

3. Sound Production

This can be the most difficult part of the process. There’s no doubt that sound plays a vital role in video production and a wide range of factors will need to be considered to get everything spot on. 

First of all, there’s the range of different audio components. You may have actors or interviewees talking, sound effects that need to be added, possible voice-overs and music as well as background noise. 

Whatever the quality of your filming, there’s nothing that damages a marketing video as quickly as poor sound quality. This is an important area of the video post-production. 

One other point that needs to be taken into account is any music that is going to be used. This needs to be cleared for use on the video and not have any copyright issues – for obvious reasons, you can’t throw in the latest number one single if you don’t have permission to use it. For corporate and marketing videos, we only use music that has been cleared.

4. The Visuals

This includes options such as animation and fading in and out to different scenes. The amount of work that is needed here can depend on the number of scenes and the nature of the script. You might, for instance, have planned to swap from live action to animation to get your point across. This will have been settled in the pre-production stage when you did the storyboarding and scripting. 

You may also like to add text to the lower third of your video. This is used, for example, when someone is being interviewed and their name and title appears in the bottom part of the screen. The key here is to keep the text short and make it as unobtrusive as possible – you don’t want it distracting from what else is going on in the video. In marketing videos, however, the lower third of the screen can also be used for adding a range of information as well as making calls to action. 

5. Correcting the Colour

When you splice together a number of different shots from your time filming, there are going to be differences in colour and exposure. Once you’ve got the meat of your video together and are happy with the results, it’s time to even everything out so that one scene doesn’t jar against another. This might include doing an exposure correction on some sections or improving any white balance issues. 

The key here is that, when the audience watches the video, they see it was one continuous story rather than being distracted by sudden changes in quality. 

6. Adding Title Cards and End Cards

These are essentially branded notices or calls to action that are fitted to the beginning and end of your video. They are not always necessary, though the end card is generally more important as it can be used to dictate what the viewer does next. 

This is a fairly simplified account of what happens in the post-production process. Depending on the type of marketing video being created, it may obviously be a lot more complicated. Post-production doesn’t happen in isolation, however. It doesn’t matter how experienced and talented you are, if the planning stages haven’t been implemented properly, you will have difficulty creating a video that really catches the eye and maintains attention. 

Hiring a professional video production team means you get help producing your marketing content from the initial development stage right through to the editing and final product. If you’d like to find out how Square Pixel Productions can help, contact our friendly team today.