The Video Production Process: Convert Your Audience & Elevate Your Brand
Whether you’re scrolling through your feed on Instagram or TikTok, watching an ad before your YouTube video begins, browsing a recipe on a blog, or streaming your favorite show on Apple TV—you’ve likely been stopped by a video that seems to be speaking to your interests or needs.
Maybe it was a service you could use to get your website off the ground. A new retail company that seriously knows your style. Or a medication that could change your life.
Just like photography or copy, video content is an essential way to introduce or reintroduce audiences to your brand—and because video is so ubiquitous (read: everywhere you look), video marketing should certainly be a part of your digital marketing strategy.
So, how do you begin? Here’s what you need to know about the video production process…
Generally speaking, there are five phases of video production: planning and development, pre-production, production, post-production, as well as marketing and distribution.
Here, we’ll give you a rundown of what you can expect, as well as what makes Actuality Media different from other full-service video agencies—specifically, how we make the most of your time and budget.
Before we bring your vision to life—we need to know what that vision actually is. During the planning and development phase of the video production process, we’ll meet to discuss big questions and blue-sky topics, including your target audience, the overall goal of your video content, whether you want it to be live-action or animated, where you want the video to stream, your budget, desired length and more. Most people love this part of the process, because we get to experiment with fun ideas, testing and retesting them, before nailing anything down concretely.
At Actuality Media, we care deeply about your goals. That’s why we put a lot of time and emphasis from the very beginning of the video production process. Here’s what you can expect:
Once revisions are made and everyone is happy, we draft a brief or an outline, then move on to the pre-production stage of the process.
Now that we have our vision, it’s time to make things real. How will this get made? During the pre-production phase of the video production process, our team moves forward with planning, casting, storyboarding and preparing schedules for filming. Much of this stage revolves around practical details like assembling a crew, scouting locations, budget and duration details, plus pre-visualizing for sets and lighting. This phase is also a great time to solve problems before production begins—often regarding budget (aka, whether or not the original plans are too costly). If so, this is the ideal time to readjust. By the end of pre-production, we’ll also know exactly what deliverables we’ll need, including aspect ratios, file types and video lengths.
Oftentimes, video production companies solely film and edit what they're told. We do this, too—however, our passion is to take it to the next level by assisting with the concepting and writing phase. Our team loves working closely with our clients in pre-production to help them create a story or script, while guiding them through an existing idea to make it a stronger plan. Sometimes we’ll even execute on their idea if it's fully fleshed out and approved by your team.
This is where we literally bring your vision to life. During the production phase of the video production process, our team delivers high-quality video visuals, strategic video pacing and messaging, and professional, efficient film sets. Actors and crew will be on the clock—and the magic will begin.
Our main strength? Creating the most value possible with your project’s budget range. In other words, we won’t waste your time or money. That’s why we put a strong emphasis on filming as much content as possible within the time window we’re given, or what the budget allows. In fact, we’ve filmed three months worth of content in a four-hour window in the past. However, quality is rarely sacrificed with this approach (you can thank our in-depth pre-production planning for that). Efficiency is our mission: Quality work on a budget-conscious timeline, with the ultimate goal of getting a return on your investment.
Once the actual shoot is complete, it’s time to enhance the look and sound of your video. During the post-production phase of the video production process, you can expect our team to edit, color correct and grade, implement visual effects (or VFX), music and more. Behind the scenes, we’ll be thinking up ways to repurpose all of our production content together into an entire campaign.
When you’ve wrapped up production on your project, you need professional post-production work. Even better—a reliable turnaround time. The average turnaround for post-production is way too slow. When you work with us, you’ll get first passes and implemented feedback in one to two days. You’ll get strategic editing based on your project’s goals, all while saving money (read: efficient speeds and less errors). Our secret? We have editors all over the world to utilize time zones differences. In other words, they edit while we're sleeping, and vice-versa. This gives us an advantage of editing projects at twice the speed, without ever sacrificing quality.
Years ago, this phase of the video production process wasn’t very measurable. With the introduction of data and targeting, that’s no longer the case. This is where some of the details from the planning and development stage come into play in a big way: You know your audience, and you should know where to find them—now it’s time to place your completed project in front of them, so they know where to find you!
Although marketing and distribution are technically the last phase of the video production process—we create high-level video assets with marketing strategy in mind from start to finish. We’re determined to promote your business in a measurable way. When you work with us, you can have it all: Fun, watchable content with high quality visuals and effective marketing strategies. The result? Higher engagement, higher visibility and higher KPIs—without spending an arm and a leg.
We don’t just listen to your ideas. We take time to deeply understand your business. From there, we offer a personalized approach and unique concept creation process to make the biggest impact in your video project strategy. Let’s bring your vision to life.
