Logo

Making a Marketing Video (Part 1)

You have decided you want to make a video.  Now what?

This overview is designed to help you get through your first video.  Each area will be covered in greater detail in later articles.  We are trying to keep it simple so that no one article requires a huge marathon chunk of your time.

Like anything else, development of a video happens in stages.  If you get off track at any stage, your end result is iffy no matter how good your execution is downstream.  Early stages are primarily planning.  Often they don't seem glamorous, but they are where the real magic happens.

Traditionally, we think about video in 3 stages: pre-production, production, and post-production.  Production is where you actually shoot the video.  Pre-production is what you do to prepare to shoot the video, and post-production is what you do with the video after you shoot it.

We recognize a 4th stage: deployment & distribution.  After the video is made, it needs to be encoded and packaged appropriately for wherever it needs to be made available.  This can be anything from broadcast TV to DVDs to websites to mobile phones.

So starting at the very beginning, you need to understand the mission and purpose of your video.  Your video is supposed to do something, right?  Otherwise why bother spending time and money?  Both can be significant.  Video is a massively powerful form of communication, and can change the way someone thinks and feels.  Your best chance of making your video successful starts with knowing your audience, and knowing what change you are looking for in the way they think and feel.

Knowing your mission and purpose allows you to decide on your basic approach.  Do you hire a production company, or do you do it yourself?  What should your budget be?  How much of your own time will you need to invest?

No matter what approach you use, video production is a highly collaborative process.  We have found that the dynamics of the overall team determine the effectiveness of the resulting video far more than the brilliance of any one team member.  This overall team of course includes the client.  Dysfunction anywhere limits the result.

This is the Article One of the  series "Making a Marketing Video".  The series is intended to walk you through the process of creating a successful Marketing Video for your unique situation.

website © Creation Ground Media Video Production. All rights reserved.