01 Jun Six Steps to Create a Video

Most people become quickly overwhelmed at the idea of producing their own video. If you engage a production company, the price is usually the source of the overwhelm. If you try and do it yourself, its the pieces and parts that go into creating a video.

Below are 6 simple (though not easy) steps to help you familiarize yourself with the production process.

Step 1: Begin with the end in mind

• What do you want to say?
• Who do you want to say it to?

Before you think about what you will look like on camera, or what shots to get, you need to get clear on what you want to say and who you are saying it to.

The first questions will organize all other priorities in terms of video production. The second question will help you get clear about your specific audience and will narrow down your goals resulting in efficient decision making that is right for your project. If you haven’t answered these questions the rest of the process will lead down a very frustrating rabbit hole where you accomplish nothing.

Whether you are making a 60-minute training video, or a 30-second teaser, at the end of this process you should be able to answer, in one sentence, what you want your audience to learn at the end of the video.

Step 2: Decide on a budget

You don’t have to have an exact number on this, but before you can get into the fun stuff of deciding a visual concept and style for you video you need to know what resources you have available for creating the video. Consider money of course, but also time. How much time are you willing to spend learning about editing, or lighting. Setting a rough budget will help to streamline your decision making for your specific goal and keep you on task and organized.

Step 3: Create a Production Plan

The first question to ask is how will I capture the narrative? Will it be you telling the story? A hired talent? A hired voice? Graphics or animation? This question can be answered by referencing step 2 and knowing what resources you have available to complete the project.

Video is a combination of story and visuals to create an experience unlike any other. You need to use this medium to the best of your ability to create the combination that separates it from a blog, book or photos. This is where you get creative; funneling all ideas through steps 1 and 2. If it fits with your specific purpose, and budget, then go for it.

Step 4: Capture your story.

Typically a shoot day or 2 is involved, meaning hiring a crew or a couple crews, possibly securing a location. Maybe you’re light on production budgets so its more a gathering of existing video, creating a graphics package or writing a script and scheduling a session with a voice over artist. To complete step 4 you simply need to get your raw materials so you can move onto step 5.

Step 5. Finish the story

The key to having a quality-finished video is having a quality editing session.

First you need to decide how long the video should be? A good rule of thumb comes from Winston Churchill’s comments on speeches “ a good speech (video) should be like a women’s skirt, long enough to cover the subject, short enough to create interest.”

You should have a narrative design that tells the story you want, and a visual design, to compliment; beauty shots; montages, “b-roll” anything that visually describes the narrative. You want to weave this all into your edit with music to give polish and movement.

To accomplish this you will need editing software of some kind. Something that will allow you to combine all the wonderful ingredients and render them together. There is plenty of free software out there to cut your teeth on. However, if you are planning to do a lot of videos I suggest investing in premiere pro. A cloud based software that installs updates directly to your computer and is simple and easy to learn. That said, if you don’t plan on becoming a full time editor I suggest developing a relationship with someone who is. A lot of high-end professional editors will work for $50/hr. If you are very good about steps 1-4 you can maximize those hours tremendously.

Step 6: Distribute your video

A completed video isn’t enough; you have to get it in front of people. Use the questions in step 1 to decide where the best place to put your video is. i.e. where is your audience most likely to see it? You need to host your videos.  I recommend YouTube or Vimeo. While there are pros and cons to most I prefer YouTube. It is the best encoder and player, making it compatible with most computers. Vimeo is great too, and has a more polished look, but I get far more player problems with Vimeo.

After you have hosted it, get that link out there. If it’s a sales video, put it in your sales emails. If its “how to” content, post it to Facebook. Maybe it works as ad and you want to invest in YouTube adds.