Best Practices to Streamline the Post-Production Process
To kick off the New Year we wanted to give our perspective about an integral aspect of video creation: The Post-Production Process.
Video production is a service that is increasingly in demand across nearly all industries, especially in advertising and marketing on an array of platforms that are video-first. With the prevalence of Web3, we are seeing a growing need for video as well. This content can create a great ROI for brands, but the making of it can also open up a whole host of questions that marketing teams may not be able to answer on their own—or may not even know to ask.
As CEO of Pitch 5 Productions, a full-service production company with decades of experience working with major brands, I have seen the majority of questions pop up around the post-production process. What is it? Why does it matter? How does it impact my KPI’s?
In this blog post, I’m going to take you through some best practices that I employ that could help you streamline the process considerably.
Post-Production Best Practices
It isn’t a one-and-done type of thing, rather a series of processes that enable you to shape and tell the story—optimized for the platform where it is going to be seen. The workflow associated with post-production centers on understanding the varied stages of editing and the order that they must be performed in before the videos finally go live.
We are proficient in the post-production process, and over the years, we have gotten it down to a science. Of course, this helps us effectively and efficiently meet and exceed our clients’ expectations and contributes to the realization of high-quality videos and content.
Some best practices we coach our clients on, and engage in ourselves are:
Ensuring efficiency when getting the footage to the editor and protecting the master footage. Presently, we are always using new ways to send and receive footage and use Cloud quite regularly. This saves considerable time and money because we do not have to send drives all the time.
Staying organized and creating a project template. Ultimately, don’t rush ahead with your workflow. Editing takes time, and to do it right, you have to invest that time.
Having an understanding of the software platforms available—and picking the best one for your project, i.e., Avid vs. Premier, etc. We don’t necessarily recommend one over another, but in our experience, Premier is definitely much easier to use. Conversely, here at Pitch 5, we used to be all in on Avid, but the accessibility and speed of Premier made us change up our approach.
Recognize that a video editor cannot be one-dimensional as a professional—they must be able to edit, possess a creative mindset, and consider a project through multiple angles. We are particularly passionate about using “Preditors.” These are professionals who are hybrids of producers and editors—and their talent and skill set make all the difference.
Rough cut, first cut, and fine cut. Now, here is where I have a bit of a difference of opinion. I don’t consider these three things separate, rather, I always try to get as close to the final product as possible right off the bat. I don’t show clients a rough cut, typically. I try to make what I unveil to them very finished and polished. Others may have different processes here, but I truthfully find rough cuts burdensome and sometimes overwhelming to a client.
Cutdowns are now a customary part of post-production that we are well versed on. In most cases, we are creating social content for our clients from the 16x9 original. It could be any aspect ratio; 9x16, 1x1, etc.
Seek to be consistent in your approach to editing. This is the only way to achieve alignment with brand messaging, targeted voice, and ultimately the image of an organization.
Lastly, we never charge for extra revisions in post. We don’t put a cap on the number of edits for our clients, it puts them in an uncomfortable position both budgetary and from a time perspective.
Have a successful and great start to 2023!
