Video production runs in three stages, and the proportions surprise people. Pre-production is the planning, production is the shooting, and post-production is the editing and finishing. Shooting is usually the shortest of the three, and the one most dependent on the other two being done properly.
Every problem is cheapest in pre-production
Changing a shot on a storyboard costs a pencil line. Changing it on set costs the whole crew's afternoon. Changing it in the edit may be impossible, because the footage that would make it work was never captured. This is the single most important idea in the unit.
Starting from the brief
- Define the goal and the audience. What should a viewer think, feel or do afterwards, and who exactly is that viewer? Everything downstream is judged against this.
- Write a treatment. A page of prose describing the finished video — what happens, what it looks and sounds like, and how long it runs.
- Write the script. Dialogue and narration in the right-hand column, visuals in the left, for anything with spoken content.
- Storyboard it. Draw the key frames so the whole team can see the same film before it exists.
- Build a shot list. Every shot needed, with its size, angle and any movement — the document you actually work from on the day.
- Schedule and scout. Which shots happen where and when, what permission is needed, and what the light will be doing at that hour.
Storyboards
A storyboard is a sequence of drawings, one per shot, showing what the camera sees. Drawing quality is irrelevant — stick figures are completely normal. What matters is that the framing, the shot size and any movement are unambiguous to everyone reading it.
- What goes in a panel: the framing sketch, the shot size, the camera angle, arrows for any camera or subject movement, the dialogue or action, and the estimated duration.
- An animatic is the storyboard cut together in time with scratch audio. It is the cheapest possible way to discover that a sequence does not work.
- A shot list is the storyboard turned into a checklist, usually reordered so all the shots in one location are captured together rather than in story order.
Shoot out of order, on purpose
Never shoot in story order. Group shots by location, then by lighting setup, then by actor availability. Moving a camera and re-lighting a room is the slowest thing on any shoot, so doing it once instead of four times is where a schedule is won or lost.
Coverage: the shots the edit will need
Coverage means capturing enough different shots of a scene that the editor has real choices. An editor cannot cut between two angles that were never filmed, and the most common reason a student edit stalls is simply that there is not enough footage to work with.
- A wide establishing shot — shows where we are, and lets you return to it when the audience needs re-orienting.
- Medium shots — the workhorse of any scene, showing people and what they are doing.
- Close-ups — reactions, detail and emotion. Almost always what an edit ends up short of.
- Cutaways and B-roll — hands, objects, the room, the street outside. These cover jump cuts, compress time and make an interview watchable.
- Hold every shot longer than feels natural — five seconds before and after the action. Handles are free on the day and impossible to add later.
B-roll is not optional
An interview cut purely from the interview itself will have visible jump cuts at every edit. B-roll — footage of whatever is being discussed — is what covers those cuts and lets you shorten an answer without the viewer seeing the join. Gather far more of it than you think you need; it is the first thing every student production runs out of.
Practical planning
| Document | What it holds | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment | A page describing the finished video in prose | The client, for sign-off before work starts |
| Script | Dialogue and narration, with visuals alongside | Performers and the director |
| Storyboard | A drawing per shot with framing and movement | The whole crew — it is the shared picture |
| Shot list | Every shot with size, angle and movement, grouped by location | The camera team, on the day |
| Call sheet | Who is needed where, at what time, with what | Everyone — it is the day's schedule |
| Release forms | Written permission from people and property owners | Legal, and required before publishing |
Location scouting saves shoots
Visit the location at the same time of day you plan to shoot. Check where the sun will be, whether there is mains power, how loud the room is when nobody is speaking, whether a fridge or air conditioner hums, and whether you actually have permission to be there. Every one of these has ruined a shoot that was otherwise well planned.