Pre-Production

Pre Production is the first major phase of the production process. It’s the part of the process where you’ll get clear on your goals for the video and make all the necessary plans to get you to production day. 

Check out the sections below for a deeper dive into this part of the process! 

Planning and Conceptualizing

Identifying Your Video’s Purpose

The first—and most important—step of any video production is getting clear on your video’s purpose. Why? A video that’s intended to drive sales for one product on Instagram will look very different from a video that’s intended to educate viewers about your industry at a conference. 

A great way to understand the purpose for your video is to tie it to a specific stage of the marketing funnel. This clarity helps you tailor every element of your video, from its aspect ratio to its music to the talent casting, to your intended use case. 

Decide whether your goal is to drive awareness, move viewers through consideration, or get them to make a decision and convert. Then, refer back to this purpose as you make decisions through the entire production process.

Defining Your Target Audience

Once you know the purpose for your video, it’s time to define your audience. Your audience may be entirely determined by the video’s purpose itself, or you may have some additional decisions to make about who you plan to target.

For example, if you’re sharing a video on your company’s Instagram page, your audience will largely consist of your existing followers. But if you’re sharing your video as a TV spot or a digital billboard, you’ll want to narrow your target so you know exactly who you’ll be speaking to. 

Brainstorming and Developing Ideas

Now that you know your video’s purpose and audience, it’s time to brainstorm! During this stage, it’s important to set expectations that there are no bad ideas. Let everyone involved in the process know that the goal is to get all ideas out on the table.

As you brainstorm, make sure your video ideas align with your video’s purpose and target audience. If you work with a video production partner, they’ll be able to guide you through the best practices regarding alignment, but make sure to gut-check every idea by asking if it’s the right approach to speak to your audience and accomplish your intended purpose. 

If you get stuck, don’t be afraid to reference other videos you’ve watched and enjoyed recently or explore what else is being created in your industry. Just save this exploration until the end of the process so it doesn’t distract from your original ideas—and make sure to use any reference content as loose inspiration, not an exact roadmap.

Assessing Your Available Resources

Now is the time to determine how much outside support you’ll need—or want—for your video. If you have a robust video production department, an expert videographer, or other video resources internally, you may be able to tackle the entire project in-house. If you need a bit of extra support, you can explore video production freelancers for the parts of the process where you lack expertise. 

If you need more comprehensive support or just want an experienced team to guide you through the process, partnering with a third-party production company is a great idea. They’ll have all the staff and crew members needed to bring your vision to life, and they’ll be able to apply their expertise at every stage of the process to deliver the best results. Additionally, production companies will usually function like project managers for your production, so you can take a bit more of a back seat than you will if you lead the project internally. 

Developing a Timeline and Budget

At this point, you’re reaching the end of the big-picture planning for your project! Most of the steps that follow are focused on getting set up for production day, so this is one of many milestones to celebrate. 

Your budget and timeline are critical benchmarks to keep your production on track. If you skip this step or don’t give it much thought, you may end up with a project that takes much longer (or costs much more money) than you expected. 

When it comes to the timeline, a general rule of thumb is 8-12 weeks for most projects. If you won’t be filming anything at all (which is typically the case for stock video projects or animation projects), you can likely cut several weeks off that timeline. 

How to Schedule Your Next Video Production Timeline

The budget setting process is similar, but the “standard” range varies more widely between projects. The best way to understand the exact cost of your project is to talk to your production partner or to start breaking down specific costs if you’ll be managing the production internally. 

In general, a basic production that you manage yourself may cost anywhere from $500-$5000, while a complex commercial using a production company can cost $25,000+. If you’re on a tight budget, make sure to set expectations accordingly before you start your project.

Script Writing

Structuring the Script

If your video will have actor dialogue, voice over (VO), or on-screen text, having a script to guide these elements is important. If you’ve never worked with a script before, you might be unfamiliar with how it’s broken down. Here’s what we recommend here at Lemonlight:

For each scene, make sure to include a written description of what the set will look like and any other considerations from the environment and the scene’s context. Below that description, you’ll have space for four additional elements: actor dialogue on one line, voice-over on one line, on-screen text on one line, and any visual descriptions, camera or lighting cues, or actor movements on one line.

By structuring the script this way, your crew, talent, and editors can all see exactly how a scene is intended to play out just by looking at the script. 

Writing the Script

Writing a great script is arguably the most important part of your video process. Almost all effective videos start with an engaging hook, then move into some kind of problem/solution format, and end with a CTA. 

For voice-over and dialogue, you’ll also want to keep word count constraints in mind. Your specific constraint may vary a bit depending on how fast you move through the text in the video, but the general rule of thumb is two words per second. By that convention, you’d want to write 60 words or less for a 30-second script, 30 words or less for a 15-second script, and so on. 

Implementing Revisions and Feedback

As you prepare your script, don’t forget to allocate time for revisions and feedback! Depending on how many people are involved and how long they take to share their thoughts, this can add anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to the pre-production process. 

For that reason, it’s best to try not to involve too many people in the editing process. The more opinions are involved, the more likely you’ll water down the power of your ideas just to appease everyone.

Keep in mind that it’s also common to receive suggestions that don’t take into account the time constraint and word count limit. Set expectations early by explaining those constraints when you send the script for feedback. 

Storyboarding

The Importance of a Storyboard

If you’re not familiar with a storyboard, you can think of it as a visual-heavy adaptation of your script. Your finished storyboard will look like a panel-by-panel drawing of your entire video, and it helps your set directors, videographers, and other crew members bring your vision to life as accurately as possible on set.

Planning Shots and Camera Angles

The storyboard phase is also the time to think through your camera shots and angles. Will one particular scene look best as a close-up? To capture your product effectively, will you need to pan from left to right? Do you want specific b-roll footage incorporated at certain moments in the video?

If you’re new to the video production world, you might not have strong opinions on these elements, so it’s okay to lean on the expertise of your production partner or camera crew and let them guide these elements of the storyboard. But, if you’d like to be involved, try your best to think through each shot of the video and document how you’re picturing it in your head. The more detail and context, the better!