With more and more people and companies making the switch to digital AV equipment, it only makes sense that anyone seeking employment or wishing to expand their own company into the video production industry should have an appreciation of how the whole process works. While the subject is a broad one, this article hopes to provide you with a basic knowledge of the digital video production process.
An important thing to understand about the digital video production process is that just because a person can do it, it doesn't mean that they can do it well. For example, it seems many people tend to overlook the pre-production planning of the process and want to jump directly to the production aspects. The pre-production process allows time for all of the potential problems to be assessed and resolved by the people working on the video, as well as the video design and layout.
After all of the pre-production planning and preparations are finished, the next step to move on to is production. There are actually two parts to this section of production; the audio and the video. If you film something and need a narrator to guide the story, you will have to invest more time in recording the audio that will later be laid over the video to make the whole story flow seamlessly.
Although the video side of the process is pretty self-explanatory, this is also the time when many filmmakers neglect to take advantage of are the actors and work on only one take. As a rule, if a scene may be questionable in quality, it should be reshot as a priority. This will not only save time and effort, but it will also reduce the amount of money that is spent.
When all of the fun stuff is completed, the hard work begins. Editing the film is the toughest aspect of the production process, as the editors have to lay out scene after scene in order to make sure the film appears in the correct order. For example, if one scene was shot before anything else in the video but it's the fifteenth out of thirty-fifth scene in the script, it will need to be sliced in and made to look natural. This is also the part where any audio that shouldn't be in the video is removed, as well as adding any extra effects and deleting scenes in order to maintain an ideal runtime (some of which may be mandatory). This is all done using advanced computer software to help simplify the process.
Finally, once all of the editing is finished and the filmmakers are happy how the video looks, a final cut is made that is known as the master copy from which all the duplicate copies will be made. The reason duplicates are made directly from the master is that with each generation of copies, the quality degrades. There is also generally a duplicate master that is created to protect against any unexpected mishaps. This duplicate is a direct copy from the master, and will be the highest quality copy that is possible to make.
An important thing to understand about the digital video production process is that just because a person can do it, it doesn't mean that they can do it well. For example, it seems many people tend to overlook the pre-production planning of the process and want to jump directly to the production aspects. The pre-production process allows time for all of the potential problems to be assessed and resolved by the people working on the video, as well as the video design and layout.
After all of the pre-production planning and preparations are finished, the next step to move on to is production. There are actually two parts to this section of production; the audio and the video. If you film something and need a narrator to guide the story, you will have to invest more time in recording the audio that will later be laid over the video to make the whole story flow seamlessly.
Although the video side of the process is pretty self-explanatory, this is also the time when many filmmakers neglect to take advantage of are the actors and work on only one take. As a rule, if a scene may be questionable in quality, it should be reshot as a priority. This will not only save time and effort, but it will also reduce the amount of money that is spent.
When all of the fun stuff is completed, the hard work begins. Editing the film is the toughest aspect of the production process, as the editors have to lay out scene after scene in order to make sure the film appears in the correct order. For example, if one scene was shot before anything else in the video but it's the fifteenth out of thirty-fifth scene in the script, it will need to be sliced in and made to look natural. This is also the part where any audio that shouldn't be in the video is removed, as well as adding any extra effects and deleting scenes in order to maintain an ideal runtime (some of which may be mandatory). This is all done using advanced computer software to help simplify the process.
Finally, once all of the editing is finished and the filmmakers are happy how the video looks, a final cut is made that is known as the master copy from which all the duplicate copies will be made. The reason duplicates are made directly from the master is that with each generation of copies, the quality degrades. There is also generally a duplicate master that is created to protect against any unexpected mishaps. This duplicate is a direct copy from the master, and will be the highest quality copy that is possible to make.
