With the new Captain Marvel in cinemas and Avengers Endgame right around the corner, it’s a great time for Marvel fans. Every single Marvel film has been a visual masterpiece. Amazing sets, brilliant cinematography and stunning special effects, it all combines to pure cinema pleasure. As cinematic video producers ourselves, we love to digest everything when it comes to films. That’s why we always get inspired by the Masterclass video series from Cooke Optics. Cooke are a world renowned cine lens manufacturer with decades of experience. These lenses have been used by cinematographers by the likes of Roger Deakins, Geoff Boyle and Stanley Kubrick. We love the episode below so much that I’d like to highlight three key elements that we can learn to improve our own video production.
Video Production is about teamwork
When you listen to the wise words of Ben Davis. He continues to state that he needs experts around him. Yes, he is a brilliant DoP (Director of Photography), but he works with set designers and gaffers to get a vision on screen. To create the ultimate experience for your audience, you can’t rely on just the expertise of one single person. Equally, in video production, the same collaboration is key. In video production, you’ll need someone who can focus on your story. You’ll need someone who’ll focus on image quality. Combining the two in one role isn’t possible if your looking for quality.
Video Production is about preparation
In the segment where Ben talks about ‘World Building’, that’s when you’ll see the level of detail that’s needed. All the questions he asks: what does the planet look like, what do the streets look like, how do the lights on the streets look, what is their power source. You need the answers to these questions to build a credible experience for your audience. Good preparation helps you to create a better audience experience. Similarly, the same goes for video production. You need to prepare. As such, you need to be asking the right questions about your content and your audience. That is all part of the Pre-Production stage of Video Production.
Video Production is about communication
This segment should be obvious. In a creative process, with multiple stakeholders involved, everyone might have their own vision of how the end product should look. Just as Ben talks with his team, in Video Production, all stakeholders should be involved in the right way to ensure visions align. Every contributor to a multi-disciplinary video production team has their own expertise. As such, it is important to ensure that it is fully in line with the collective mission. It’s about putting the expertise to good use to deliver a quality end product. In the long run, great communications manages expectations.
In short
All in all, I’ve written many blogs about pre-production. However, when it comes to video production, I feel that there is still work to be done. Given that we still have to explain the process and it’s importance in most of our sales meetings, I feel it’s still worth sharing. So next time you are thinking about video production to market your product or service, remember that it is a process of teamwork, preparation and communication.
