Video Production can be a tricky beast and intimidating to say the least. Videos come in many different shapes and sizes, and it’s often difficult to really know what you need and how to create it. In order to understand how video marketing can help your business, you need to understand what the video production process looks like. That’s where a well-thought-out process comes to save the day!
At Talus Films, we’ve got years of film and video production and project management experience under our belts. And since we’re a full-service production company, our process has been painstakingly built to ensure you’ve got an expert guide exploring, collaborating, and creating with you from the very beginning of your project straight through delivery!
What’s the Video Production Process?
Often, you’ll hear the film production process broken down into 3 different stages - pre-production, production, and post-production. And sometimes 5 stages if development is added at the beginning and delivery/distribution is added on at the end. Whew, that’s a lot of “production”. But what does it all mean?
Here at Talus, we break down the video production workflow a little differently. While all of those steps are included in our process, we break it all down in a way that’s a little easier for folks outside the industry to understand.
What’s the Talus Films Video Production Process?
At its core, it’s pretty simple:
We EXPLORE with you.
We COLLABORATE with you.
We CREATE with you.
Our goal is to always make you feel like an equal (and happy) partner in this relationship. We know it’s easy these days to pick up an iPhone and shoot your own DIY video, and that can still be a very effective solution. But when you’re at the point of researching professionally produced video production, we believe you deserve a partner who will expertly guide you and provide transparency through every part of the process, who is as passionate about your mission and message as you are, and who is devoted to bringing you new business through video!
We’re also an eco-conscious company and infuse our process with Sustainable Practices. So you can always be sure you’re giving back to our environment while working with us.
How Do We EXPLORE Together?
We love to explore - whether it’s a new backpacking trail, a good book, a town we’ve never been to, or a unique video project idea. And all these things generally have the same thing in common...they start with a conversation.
So, the first thing we do when someone approaches us with a video idea or looking for a quote, is set up dedicated time to have a conversation with them. We call it our Explore Call. It generally lasts about 30 minutes, and during this time you’ll get our undivided attention. We’ll talk about you, the problems you might be facing, and the solution you see with video. We’ll get to know the heartbeat of you and your company. We’ll dig into any video “must haves” you’re looking for along with any “no thank yous” you don’t want. Once we’ve had this initial conversation, our team will take all the information you’ve given us and craft you your very own custom video proposal with our recommendations, project scope, investment, and next steps clearly outlined. The only investment for this part of the process is about 30 minutes of your time - we take care of the rest for you!
How Do We COLLABORATE Together?
After you’ve accepted your customized video proposal, we move into collaborating together. This is an awesome part of the process where we work hand in hand (and you
can choose to be as hands on or off as you want) to plan all the bits and pieces of your video project. This is where we enter what many would refer to as development and pre-production. Those are industry words that simply mean we’ll flesh out the ideas for your video, and we’ll do all the pre-planning necessary to ensure a flawless day (or days) of actually filming it.
During this part, here are some of the things you can expect:
Setting Your Project Timeline:
we’ll work together to map out and align on all the project milestones and then put all those dates into a visual calendar for you
Setting Your Project Budget:
we'll create a complete project budget for you, so there's no hidden fees along the way
we'll go over how much video production costs, and what's included in that cost
we're as transparent as possible with this information, giving you insight into how much professional video costs and whether professional video marketing is worth it for your company right now
For more on this, check out our blog post: How Much Does Video Production Cost?
Planning Your Video:
we’ll plan out, in great detail, how your video will look, feel, sound, and flow
if your team doesn’t already have a solid video idea, our Video Development Workshop is an excellent way to brainstorm with us!
Writing and/or Approve Scripting:
some folks would like us to write the script while others write it themselves with our input - and some projects don’t need scripts at all
Casting Your Project:
based on your video’s unique needs, we’ll work with you to determine who’ll be featured on-screen and find the best folks to fill those roles
Location Scouting:
we select where we’re going to shoot and do an in-person walkthrough (when possible)
Filling Your Crew:
we’ll determine what roles we’ll need to execute your project and fill those roles with folks best suited to carry them out
How Do We CREATE Together?
Once we’ve collaborated and the vision for your project is clear as day, we’ll create together! This is where we enter what the industry calls the production, post-production, and delivery/distribution phases. To us, it’s all creation! We’re bringing your video vision to life and helping you get it to your audiences!
During this part, here are some things you can expect:
Filming:
sometimes this takes place over 1 day or sometimes 2, 3 or more days - it all depends on the project’s needs determined earlier in the process
we actually capture your footage on camera with professional sound and lighting to make it look amazing
we’ll conduct interviews and voiceovers, if your project calls for it
we’ll capture b-roll footage as well - which is just an industry term for additional footage that we intercut with the main footage
Editing:
our project editor will take all the raw footage we captured and our detailed plan from the collaboration part of the process and begin bringing your video to life
you’ll get the chance to review the edit at a few different points in this process
Coloring:
our project colorist will take the edit the editor has cut and infuse it with color that matches your video vision
Selecting Your Music:
we’ll select music to enhance your vision and ensure your audience will emotionally connect to your piece
Creating Your Graphics:
if any special graphics or titles are needed, we’ll create these as well
Delivering Your Video:
once you love your video and approve it as complete, we’ll deliver high-quality files you can begin distributing to your audience
we also love to help with the distribution process and/or continued social media marketing using your video
Hopefully, this has demystified video production a bit and given you a taste of the Talus process. We’re a process-oriented team, and we absolutely love what we do. With a better understanding of the process we go through to create a marketing video for your business, you'll be better equipped to maximize video in your marketing strategy, which will in turn, help your business grow.
Our blog is designed to provide all sorts of helpful and valuable video production knowledge and insights. To be the first to know when we publish a new post, SUBSCRIBE to our mailing list!
Also, if you have any questions about our process and/or are ready to start exploring with us today, CONTACT us! It all just starts with a conversation!
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