Parc Entertainment - A Video Production Company - Birmingham, AL

I believe that the most exciting thing about the video production process for any client is when they get to see everything come together in post-production. Editing, in a sense, is a form of writing, because it is up to the editor to find the story among hours of footage, then assemble those elements into a coherent whole. Sometimes the final product follows the original script line by line. However, sometimes the final video may bear little resemblance to the original script. That’s because a new and better story can often emerge as the editor and the client sift through the footage. Those that enter post-production with an open mind can often find a new angle to the story that was never thought of previously. And that can be a very good thing. That’s why it’s important to allocate a good portion of your budget for post-production. Things can become very fluid as the client, the producer, and the editor experiment with different possibilities, so you want to be prepared. Anticipate change. More than likely, you and your team will request changes to the edit. Also keep in mind that in a very complicated video (i.e. heavy compositing, layers, effects, etc.) the smallest change can be incredibly time-consuming for an editor to make. He/She will need time to remove old footage, find and insert new footage, apply the same effects, color correction, titles, etc. Then, the video must be rendered out so you can preview the new version. Turn-around time for certain changes might take longer than you initially expect, so be sure you and your team avoid waiting until the 11th hour to request changes, if at all possible. Neither you nor your video production company want to miss a deadline.

I’m excited to say that we’ve added another camera to our video arsenal. We recently acquired the Canon T2i, a great DSLR that shoots full frame 1920×1080p HD video in variable frame rates. Last weekend I spent some time shooting test footage, so I could get to know the camera a little better. Then I brought the raw footage into my editing system to see if I could establish a good workflow. Below are three clips I shot over the weekend. Here are some of my first impressions with the camera:

1. The shallow depth of field that you can get with these cameras is pretty remarkable.
2. Boosting the ISO will always add more grain to your shot. If you are shooting indoors and you don’t want a lot of grain in your image, keep the ISO as low as you can and add more light to your scene.
3. It’s a good idea to invest in some neutral density filters for exterior shooting. Using ND filters will allow you to keep your shutter speed at a slower setting. Increasing the shutter speed will cause your video to strobe more, creating a very staccato feel. Of course, this might be just the effect you are looking for.
4. Unless you are using Premiere Pro CS5, you will probably need to use some intermediate codec to convert the native MOV files into a format that your NLE can work with.
5. The T2i provides manual control over exposure and focus, and offers three different HD movie modes - 1080p/30fps, 1080p/24fps, and 720p/60fps. There doesn’t seem to be any manual control over white balance, but if you know of a way to change it, let me know.
6. Establishing rock-solid focus marks for your scene will be difficult without adding some kind of follow-focus system on to your camera. It’s not impossible, but it will take some rehearsing.
7. Make sure you purchase SDHC cards with fast transfer speeds. That will ensure better recording and better playback.
8. I love the LCD screen. Very large, very clear.
9. The ergonomics of hand-holding the camera isn’t as awkward as some people make it out to be. Is it different? Yes, but you can easily adapt.
10. The image stabilization in both the kit 18-55mm lens and the 50-250mm lens seem to respond very well. I didn’t use a tripod on any of my test shoots and was pleased with how the IS in each lens reduced hand shake.

Again, these are simply my initial impressions and observations. I’m sure I will post more as I start using the camera on client projects.

In my experiences as a video producer and director, I have learned that clients can fall under two extremes: On one end of the spectrum are clients who are heavily involved in every stage of the process.  On the other end of the spectrum are the clients who take a “hands off” approach. They approve the creative strategy and then let the production company produce the video. Then, they will come back in during the editing process to give notes. And, of course, there are clients who will fall somewhere in the middle.

Ultimately, it’s your responsibility as a producer/director to give the client what they want. You need to recognize their particular work habits and learn to adapt accordingly. But if you are faced with a client who prefers a “hands off” approach it can be difficult to determine if you are on the right track. You could be faced with a big problem if you have already shot all of your footage and invested a lot of time in the edit only to discover that your client didn’t like the way you shot a particular scene. Or they might not like the wording of the script in a particular section. Or they might not like the look of a certain location. However, there are things that both the client and the video director can do to avoid costly re-shoots or extra time in the editing suite.

Directors, don’t ignore the client while on set. If you see that they are standing off by themselves, encourage them to come over and take a look at each shot before you start filming. Ask them if the lighting, framing, blocking, etc. is what they had in mind. Before moving on to another scene, ask the client if there is any other shot that they need before wrapping the gear. Clients, make sure that someone from your team is on location to supervise the shoot. Don’t be afraid to look over the director’s shoulder. Ask questions. Be honest about what you would like to see. Make sure that the footage you are getting is the footage you want. Better to have the footage and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Ultimately, a video production is a collaborative process, so both parties should respect each other and listen to any creative input. The client and the production company both want to produce the best video possible. And that’s some common ground from which to start.

Before the project even begins, you realize that you are under a tight deadline. The client needs the video to be completed quickly, and you commit. You are confident in your ability to meet your client’s timetable. Unfortunately, you don’t get very far into post-production before realizing that it will be impossible to get the video finished before the deadline. What happens now? Last year I wrote an article entitled, “Deliver What You Promise,” which stressed the importance of fully evaluating the size and scope of a video project before committing. However, this hypothetical situation is different. In this situation, you are already knee-deep in the project and no longer have the option to turn it down. What can you do?

1. Be honest with the client - This item is listed #1 for a reason. It is imperative that you call your client immediately and tell them what’s going on. They will certainly be disappointed that the project isn’t progressing as planned, but your client will respect you much more for being honest than they will if you waited until the very last minute to tell them of the problem. So, keep your client in the loop. Tell them what you’re seeing from your end. Tell them what you’re up against.
2. Find out if the deadline can be pushed - Sometimes a client will pad out the schedule, knowing that certain unforeseen problems could arise. Therefore, if your deadline is the 15th, you might actually have until the 22nd. Talk to your client. Find out when the actual make-or-break point is.
3. Break up the project into smaller, more manageable sizes - This is the moment when you start farming out portions of the project to other editors in your area. Look through your contact list. Examine your network of video professionals. Is there anyone on that list who could help by editing certain portions of the project while you edit other segments?
4. Offer your client a discount on the work - Sometimes you might have to take a hit on your hourly rate in order to maintain a good relationship with your client. So, take responsibility. Face up to the fact that you over-promised and be willing to finish the video at no extra cost to your client. Or, offer them a discount, either on the current project, or a future project (assuming this is a repeat client).

These situations are never easy, and it causes major stress for both you and your client. However, there is always a solution to the problems that seem insurmountable.

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• Beyond Budget and Scope: Managing Client Expectations and Delivering Value (slideshare.net)

The above scene is from Jaws and it takes place right at the moment that Chief Brody gets his first look at the great white shark. It’s then that he realizes that he and his team underestimated just what they are up against. The same problem can occur in any video production. It’s easy to underestimate the scope of your project. What seemed like a simple, straightforward shoot and edit can quickly balloon into something entirely unexpected. The last thing that you, as a video producer, want to do is to go back to your client and say, “We’re going to need a bigger budget.” That’s not a fun conversation. Here’s what needs to happen to ensure that neither you nor your client underestimate the scope of the video project.

1. Everyone (both client and video producer) need to be upfront and honest at the beginning. You as a video producer should never over promise. Be clear on what your capabilities are. And you, the client, should never try to downplay what’s involved in producing the video. If you are working from a script and are not as prepared as you need to be, then you need to tell the video producer, “I’m going to need several takes to get this right.”
2. All decision-makers need to be involved from the very beginning. If the “higher-ups” wait to watch the video after everything has been shot, you may be forced to re-shoot portions of the video if they don’t like what they see. Re-shoots are costly. You as the client can avoid them by making sure that anyone who has to put his/her stamp of approval on the video is present for all important decisions.
3. When it comes to budgeting for post-production, the “less is more” mentality doesn’t work. More is more. In other words, you will always need more money for post-production than you think you do. Many clients (and video producers) underestimate just how much time will be spent editing the video. You may accurately gauge the hours you will spend assembling the edit, but you may neglect to consider time needed for encoding, making approval copies, delivering approval copies, approval meetings, phone calls with the client, making changes to the edit, re-working sections of the script, additional color correction, audio mixing, more encoding, more approval copies, etc. The list can go on and on, so you need to be prepared. Always budget more for post-production.

Video producers and clients need to work together so both parties clearly understand what’s involved in the production of any video. These tips are intended to help you avoid potentially awkward meetings wherein you have to ask for more money, because you simply underestimated what you were up against.

Editors don’t always have the luxury of working with raw files that are entirely the same. Sometimes, footage of varying formats will come in to the studio and editors are required to convert those files into a format suitable for post-production or for sharing via FTP or for upload to a website.

MPEG Streamclip from Squared5 is a video file conversion program available for a free download. In this tutorial we introduce MPEG Streamclip and provide a brief overview on how you can pull footage from a DVD, an existing video file, or even a website, and convert it into a format suitable for your particular project.

Some people working within Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 have experienced two specific problems while trying to preview their edits on an external monitor:

1. They are unable to send a signal out to their external monitors.
2. They are unable to preview clips from an HD project in full HD resolution on their external monitors.

In this brief tutorial, we show how to properly set up Premiere Pro CSC4 to ensure that you are able to preview your edits on an external monitor and in HD (when working with an HD project).

*Note - You might want to watch the tutorial in full screen mode.

A few months ago I posted a couple of articles outlining ways in which you can help make the post-production process a little more efficient.  The foundation for a smooth post-production is laid during the actual shoot. If you are disciplined and organized in production, then the edit will get off to a good start. There are two major things you need to do throughout the shoot - slate each shot and maintain a shooting log.

Slating each shot means placing a clapboard, card, a piece of paper, etc. in front of the camera before each scene. Written on the slate is valuable information pertaining to the individual shot, like scene number, take number, production title, and date. Having this information appear before every take will help your editor keep track of all the shots throughout post. Even if you are working both as director and editor, a slate is an invaluable tool.

In addition to slating each shot, it’s important to keep a running log of everything you shoot. A log contains a description of each take and a record of what happened during that particular take. It will help you remember, for example, if the pickup truck blocked your main actor on the fourth take or the sixth take. It will help you to remember if the conveyor belt moved at just the right speed on the third or the fifth take. And it will help you to remember when your interview subject used that great sound byte.

This all sounds great, in theory. The reality is, sometimes in the hectic pace of a documentary corporate shoot, or low-budget indie project, it can be easy to get off track. However, the iPhone has apps available to help make the process easier and more convenient. iSlate, from iBuiltThis, is a digital clapper that allows users to conveniently slate and log their shots. It’s perfect for a run-and-gun project with a bare bones crew, because you will always have your phone with you. And since it’s only $3, iSlate is a great option when compared to actual chalk and dry-earse slates on the market.

In the Birmingham film & video production market you can find several independent professionals working away at their craft, creating a wide variety of content - wedding videos, promotional videos, short films, etc. Often they work alone, or at smaller production houses, because of the affordability of production equipment and editing software. This means that one individual sometimes must take on several responsibilities - writer, producer, director, DP, and editor. Some people prefer working solo, but the production industry is all about creative collaboration. Improving the quality of your work is often the result of someone else critiquing you and challenging you to try new things. So, on your next video project, let me encourage you to bring someone else on board who has a stake in the final product. You might shoot while the other person edits. You might like to edit, so let your colleague shoot. The point is to create an atmosphere where different creative voices are allowed to voice their opinions. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Find someone with whom you feel free to voice your opinion, but one who ultimately has a different approach than your own.
• Recognize the differences you have with your colleague and use that to your advantage. An editor I like to work with has a very strong sense of story and structure. He’s extremely talented at seeing the entire arc from the raw footage as it comes in. Me? I like to insert the artistic flourishes in the final edit; the little details picked up in the b-roll that really add a nice element to the finished product.
• Remember that you both want what’s best for the project. If you work with someone who has a different style and/or philosophy, you will disagree from time to time, but realize that you both share the same goal.
• It’s give-and-take. Don’t be stubborn. Be willing to concede to your colleague when he/she is right about a particular segment of the video. For example, for one recent video project, I had a vision for how I wanted a certain portion edited. I shot footage that could only be used for this one purpose . However, when I saw the first cut with my editor, that segment wasn’t in the video. We discussed my vision and I fought to have that section in the final video, but in watching the entire video in context I soon realized that he was right. My scene just didn’t work like I wanted it to.

It can be difficult to hear someone else critique our work. That’s why it’s so tempting to go it alone and do everything yourself. But that approach will ultimately hinder you from taking your craft to the next level.

Based on my last post, I received another question regarding clients and client relations. My last post discussed those who like to include a little too much information into their videos. This particular question focuses on clients who can’t stick with the shooting schedule. Here’s the question:

My client is very knowledgeable about his business, but won’t follow a cut sheet to save their lives! We’ve been there to give directions and they are great about that. However, any general advice on how to shoot this smoothly (even w/o the cut sheets) so the post production isn’t a hair puller?

Let me first say that video shoots rarely stay on schedule. Once you get on location, things can get shuffled around and your day can run late. So, don’t panic if you’re at the end of the first day and you haven’t accomplished all that you hoped. I have written some articles on this blog that discuss shooting schedules. Hopefully you can find some valuable info in my archives that will help you schedule your video shoots.

Second, when you’re talking to your client about the shooting schedule, try approaching the subject from a financial angle. Staying true to the shot list will help everything run more efficiently, which will save your client money. I always tell clients that spending the time in pre-production to create and maintain a solid shooting schedule is vital to staying on budget.

Third, realize that many times you will simply have to “go with the flow.” As I said earlier, things fluctuate. Often, the activity on location will dictate how and what you shoot, not the other way around. For example, while working on a video project for a manufacturing company, I simply had to shoot the action as it happened. I couldn’t tell the foreman, “Hey, we need to shoot ‘X’ at station 2 right now,” because the manufacturing process has its own schedule. Sometimes there was no activity at station 2. I simply had to stay flexible and go where the action was. It did mean I had to jump around quite a bit, but that’s part of the documentary process. Sometimes it can’t be contained in a nice, neat shot list.

If you find that you are shooting your project in this style, remember to do one of two things (doing both would be even better):

1. Maintain a running log of what’s been shot
2. Slate everything (simply write down on a piece of paper what the camera is looking at, hold it up in front of the camera, and film it for a few seconds, just for reference).

Having a reference marker in your footage will help tremendously in post-production. That way, your editor can easily match up your shot with what’s mentioned in the script. Let’s say your video is for a drilling company and the script reads, “With our new, state-of-the-art Hole-Maker 9000, we can…” Well, if your editor has hours of footage showing different types of machinery, how is he/she supposed to know which piece of footage is the Hole-Maker 9000?

Yes, staying on schedule will make everyone happier and it will keep production costs down, but remaining open to new possibilities means that you may find a great storyline when you least expect it.