Write a detailed outline, treatment or script for your film. The treatment should be a succinct tense summary of your proposed video. Visualise what you want to say in the video from the moment it begins to its conclusion. Remember video is a visual medium, think it more like a short story, you’re not writing a thesis! The more you work out on paper the less time will be wasted overall. This is also the basis through which you communicate you ideas with the rest of the people who will be involved in the film.
Work out a budget. This requires experience to do accurately: You will need a camera and sound person, how many days? What equipment will you need? What format do you use? How long do you need a producer to organise the shoot? Do you need travel costs? Do you need the video logged and transcribed? How many days will you need to edit?
The production process involves three distinct phases :
Pre-production. Just before you start shooting you need to tie everything and everyone down. Make sure your actors/interviewees are available and not going on holiday, double check that you have permission to use the locations you want, be sure that the people you intend to interview know what the film is about and are willing to let you interview them. Check that you have the equipment booked and that it works. You may need to arrange training for the crew.
The following check list might help :
Production. Allow plenty of time for your shooting (Think how long it will take and double it!) Once you start shooting, you’re in production and it’s too late to get organised - if you haven’t got it together in pre-production then your film won’t be as good as it could have been. Even when you have done your preparation, you can assume that Murphy’s Law will apply - anything that can go wrong will go wrong. You can allow for this by not filling your schedule to bursting point, allow for a contingency in the budget (at least 5%), and prioritising food and transport during the shoot. Don’t underestimate this: film shoots go on longer than you expect, average 12 hours a day, people get tired and hungry! Always bear in mind that you may not be able to shoot everything you planned on shooting so you should have priorities about what is essential and what could be dropped if need be.
Post-Production. After you finished the shoot, you have to get the video edited. This tends to be a long process and is highly skilled using expensive equipment. You may have access to an edit suite but check it out, connecting two VHS recorders just won’t do. Again preparation is vital and much of the work can be done on paper or on your PC. You should view VHS copies of your original tapes (rushes) and these should have burnt-in timecode (BITC) on them for easy reference. You can then write down the timecodes for the sections you will want to use in the edit. With some non-linear editing systems these can be entered on your PC to save time in the edit suite. You can go on to work out on paper how the finished video will be put together. Get all your interviews transcribed, this is essential and will greatly assist in making good edit decisions. All this will minimise the time spent in the edit suite which can cost hundreds, if not thousands of pounds to hire. The more preparation you do the cheaper it becomes. Once the film is nearing completion, you need to think about music, narration and archive material.
Work out a budget. This requires experience to do accurately: You will need a camera and sound person, how many days? What equipment will you need? What format do you use? How long do you need a producer to organise the shoot? Do you need travel costs? Do you need the video logged and transcribed? How many days will you need to edit?
The production process involves three distinct phases :
Pre-production. Just before you start shooting you need to tie everything and everyone down. Make sure your actors/interviewees are available and not going on holiday, double check that you have permission to use the locations you want, be sure that the people you intend to interview know what the film is about and are willing to let you interview them. Check that you have the equipment booked and that it works. You may need to arrange training for the crew.
The following check list might help :
- Script/treatment prepared
- Budget matches funds available
- Crew/technicians booked
- Training completed
- Camera, sound, lighting and other equipment booked and checked
- Interviewees informed and interviews arranged
- Rehearsals completed
- Locations agreed and confirmed
- Transport arranged
- Catering for crew, cast, interviewees etc arranged
- Insurance arranged
- Purchase tapes
- Shooting schedule confirmed
Production. Allow plenty of time for your shooting (Think how long it will take and double it!) Once you start shooting, you’re in production and it’s too late to get organised - if you haven’t got it together in pre-production then your film won’t be as good as it could have been. Even when you have done your preparation, you can assume that Murphy’s Law will apply - anything that can go wrong will go wrong. You can allow for this by not filling your schedule to bursting point, allow for a contingency in the budget (at least 5%), and prioritising food and transport during the shoot. Don’t underestimate this: film shoots go on longer than you expect, average 12 hours a day, people get tired and hungry! Always bear in mind that you may not be able to shoot everything you planned on shooting so you should have priorities about what is essential and what could be dropped if need be.
Post-Production. After you finished the shoot, you have to get the video edited. This tends to be a long process and is highly skilled using expensive equipment. You may have access to an edit suite but check it out, connecting two VHS recorders just won’t do. Again preparation is vital and much of the work can be done on paper or on your PC. You should view VHS copies of your original tapes (rushes) and these should have burnt-in timecode (BITC) on them for easy reference. You can then write down the timecodes for the sections you will want to use in the edit. With some non-linear editing systems these can be entered on your PC to save time in the edit suite. You can go on to work out on paper how the finished video will be put together. Get all your interviews transcribed, this is essential and will greatly assist in making good edit decisions. All this will minimise the time spent in the edit suite which can cost hundreds, if not thousands of pounds to hire. The more preparation you do the cheaper it becomes. Once the film is nearing completion, you need to think about music, narration and archive material.
[How to make a Video]
