Preproduction: Laying the Creative Groundwork

I was interviewed recently by a high school senior – she’s working on her senior project and hopes to make a video. She asked some very good questions, but when I started to describe how we prepare for a shoot, I could see her eyebrows go up.

I believe that 80-90% of a good production happens before you roll tape. I started to reel off all of the items that are part of pre-production:

• developing a concept
• creating a treatment
• script writing (and many rounds of revisions)
• drawing storyboards
• casting session
• booking crew
• site survey(s)
• equipment discussion/selection with DP
• coordination with craft services, municipalities, location and talent
• review of props, wardrobe and makeup
• coordination with client

This might look like a laundry list, but preproduction (or prepro as we call it) is a key part of the entire production process – much of the creative development happens at this stage. Initial ideas are created, they’re fleshed out in the treatment and put into words during scripting. Storyboards help us visualize how the finished piece will look.

Ideas that sounded terrific as concepts may need some tweaking in the script. Sometimes they just don’t work and we start again from scratch. While reviewing storyboards, the client may realize they had an entirely different mental picture. During a location scout for a shoot, you may find a feature or element that changes how you’ve visualized the spot. It’s all part of the creative, and it’s all essential.

Mark, one of our producers, likes to say that without prepro and creative development you’re just putting a camera in a room and hoping something interesting happens. What you get is a lot like footage from a security camera – there’s nothing to it. But concept, treatment, script, storyboard, casting, even equipment – these are creative decisions and processes. Creative steps which ensure on the day of production we’re not shooting security camera footage... we’re shooting exciting, engaging, inspired content.

Will the video iPod change how we work?

At a project meeting with a client, we discussed options for distributing a sales presentation video to their salespeople. DVD was an obvious choice, but most of the salespeople had older laptops without DVD drives. We could give them a Windows Media file on CD that they could play back.

Or, we could give them all video iPods.

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. There are some very good arguments for using this new technology in this way:

• Small size
• Relatively inexpensive
• Automatic download and synching with the iPod
• High quality image – on the iPods small screen and when hooked to an external monitor or LCD projector
• It’s very easy to update videos in the future
  

The breakthrough isn’t the video iPod itself (although it is a nifty little device). It’s more about distribution. The video iPod is just a way to play back video. It’s how people get the video and the ability to track downloads that really makes this more interesting.

This distribution method gives you information you just can’t get from VHS tapes and DVDs. You know exactly how many people have downloaded your video. There is also technology to get more information, such as how many times the video was viewed and how much of the program has been viewed. This is information that both we and our clients will find very valuable as we move forward with our marketing and training programs.