The pre-production process of creating a video is crucial to developing a successful video for whatever purpose you are creating it for. Video pre-production is a step-by-step process that allows the creator to fully develop the whole idea in a well-executed manner.
Pre-Production: The Story
The story is the overall concept of the film. It sets the tone and deals with any of the morals or lessons your video needs to convey. This is basically the idea behind the video and the basic guidelines for where the video will go.
Pre-Production: The Plot
The plot is where you take the story and make a more detailed version of it. Really fill out the blank points in the story and make it all work cohesively. Remember that the plot is more detailed than the story but not as detailed as a script. The plot is where you will deal with the timeline and developing who the characters are and what their roles will be over the course of the video.
Pre-Production: The Script
Detailed manuscript of the story that sets the exact order, interactions, character development of narrative productions or detailed dialogue of information for documentaries. To develop your script effectively, you should start with a brief with all of the team to answer any important questions and to be sure that you are all on the same page. Once you are all understanding where the story is going you can begin to write the script.
Pre-Production: The Shot List
You’re so close to the end of the video pre-production process! Essentially this is where you create a series of shots based on the script. Whether you use a shot list template or create yours entirely from scratch, remember details and timing are both key in your shot list preparation. It is usually written scene by scene it will list wide, mid, close-ups, reverse angles and pickups that need to be filmed during the production phase.
Pre-Production: The Storyboard
This is a collection of pictures like a comic book, that represent the shots in the shot list. A storyboard is arranged in the order the script is written and can be used to create pre-visualisations for pitching to producers, clients, investors or used on set during production to convey to the crew (DP, camera ops, grips etc). It is also helpful during post-production to help the editor understand where each shot needs to be. For more information about storyboard creation, download our eBook How to Create a Storyboard.
Video pre-production is crucial to creating a successful video. Whatever your purpose is for creating a video, remember to put in maximum effort into the pre-production part of the process in order to really show your audience what you intended from the beginning.
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