“You’ve probably got a device on you that can shoot decent video, so what’s stopping you?” – Steve Garfield
Last weekend, I went to do short video production with a good and talented friend of mine. The actual video was only a 1-minute video and the video shooting took four -(4) hours (not counting the pre-planning and editing of the video). Now I realise that creating content is not as easy as it seems.
Anyhow, when my friend shared with me the edited video, my first reaction to watching myself in action… was to laugh at myself and at the same time, be impressed with what he had done with the video. Well done brother!
What I have learned from this mini-project?
Planning is vital – no matter how we like the outcome to be natural or spontaneous, there has to be a planning element to make the video production a success. The overall concept and theme, the storyboard and some of the points to be covered as the message of the video.
Rehearsal is a must – I trust that the whole video shooting can take a shorter time if I were to rehearse it well before the shooting session. I thought it was going to be easy and took it for granted. Now that I have learned. One needs to rehearse, rehearse and rehearse to get the right feel and outcome.
Materials or I believe it is called assets need to be prepared – for the video editing to be of good quality, the assets have to be of high quality as well. Other photos, pictures, videos, scripts, and the design have to be shared/provided to the video editor for the video production to be great.
Trust your team – for me, this is the most important factor and if we are going to get our team to do it, we need to trust them fully to get the job done. We do not have to micro-manage the job nor chase after them. When they have less pressure from us, they are more creative.
Have fun with the journey – another important factor to consider in a video production project. Laugh, be curious, experiment, go with the flow… be happy.
Well, I have this belief that no matter what we do, there will be some who will not be agreeable to our concept or outcome. Anyway, just do it anyway and experience the journey.