In all walks of life, I'm terribly messy. I don't have a fixed location for anything, be it keys, mobile phone or even the ham sandwich I'd misplaced two days ago, (as it happens I'd left it in the garden hanging out the washing). In fact I recently discovered my friends have made a habit of hanging up my keys whenever they see them somewhere they know I'll never find - and I'm sure they're bored of the phrase "can you ring my phone?".
In my defence, I know the general whereabouts of my stuff...sometimes. I just don't have the magic third eye to see where it is exactly. However, having worked on various film and video production shoots, I can honestly say it's evident which shoots have been properly prepared in advance. While no shoot will go 100% to plan, it's amazing to see the difference in a shoot when the key production roles are all working collaboratively and the project has a real sense of forward motion - instead of just stopping and starting to indulge every guy and his 'suggestion'. Filmmaking is an incredibly disciplined occupation and thankfully this has encouraged to focus more on my organisational skills.
Shooting a film is no easy feat. It's a long process and needs far more organisation than one first assumes. As a first resource, this video blog from Lambda Films recommends
three fundamental ways to ease a process that can otherwise be fairly stressful. These include scripting, storyboarding, and a treatment making the final intentions of the project clear to everyone involved.When I'm editing I frequently discover I have the same problem. In one project I'll have an extensive list of unnamed sequences, audio tracks and a bucket-load of footage to cope with. Finding one quick clip will become a ten minute long treasure hunt that only adds to the stresses of video production. What is easily forgotten is that there are very standard techniques that can be used to accelerate the production process monumentally. This process begins before you've even started filming, I mean if you begin editing a film that had no strategic or clear terms of arranging, then you're going to get nowhere when it comes to putting together the footage. I last week came across this video blog, titled Pre Production Checklist from Lambda Films, a web video company in Norwich. The video details some simple ways of generating an idea of what you want your video to look like before you've even started shooting it. It basically talks about scripting, storyboarding and keeping your intentions clear through a brief or treatment.
Once you have a basic way of coordinating what you're going to film, it makes the tremendous task of searching through the footage and putting everything together a lot easier. Then when it comes to editing you just need to take some time and sort the clips into suitable bins or folders. Unfortunately this is something I'm yet to learn, only when I'm ripping my hair out through editing related stress do I think "why didn't I just rename that clip?". I can only encourage you to learn from my production problems and take some time to arrange, beginning with pre-production which will indeed assist you later on. That way you won't have your friends tidying up after you.
Let me know what methods you use to streamline your pre production process in the comments below!
In my defence, I know the general whereabouts of my stuff...sometimes. I just don't have the magic third eye to see where it is exactly. However, having worked on various film and video production shoots, I can honestly say it's evident which shoots have been properly prepared in advance. While no shoot will go 100% to plan, it's amazing to see the difference in a shoot when the key production roles are all working collaboratively and the project has a real sense of forward motion - instead of just stopping and starting to indulge every guy and his 'suggestion'. Filmmaking is an incredibly disciplined occupation and thankfully this has encouraged to focus more on my organisational skills.
Shooting a film is no easy feat. It's a long process and needs far more organisation than one first assumes. As a first resource, this video blog from Lambda Films recommends
three fundamental ways to ease a process that can otherwise be fairly stressful. These include scripting, storyboarding, and a treatment making the final intentions of the project clear to everyone involved.When I'm editing I frequently discover I have the same problem. In one project I'll have an extensive list of unnamed sequences, audio tracks and a bucket-load of footage to cope with. Finding one quick clip will become a ten minute long treasure hunt that only adds to the stresses of video production. What is easily forgotten is that there are very standard techniques that can be used to accelerate the production process monumentally. This process begins before you've even started filming, I mean if you begin editing a film that had no strategic or clear terms of arranging, then you're going to get nowhere when it comes to putting together the footage. I last week came across this video blog, titled Pre Production Checklist from Lambda Films, a web video company in Norwich. The video details some simple ways of generating an idea of what you want your video to look like before you've even started shooting it. It basically talks about scripting, storyboarding and keeping your intentions clear through a brief or treatment.
Once you have a basic way of coordinating what you're going to film, it makes the tremendous task of searching through the footage and putting everything together a lot easier. Then when it comes to editing you just need to take some time and sort the clips into suitable bins or folders. Unfortunately this is something I'm yet to learn, only when I'm ripping my hair out through editing related stress do I think "why didn't I just rename that clip?". I can only encourage you to learn from my production problems and take some time to arrange, beginning with pre-production which will indeed assist you later on. That way you won't have your friends tidying up after you.
Let me know what methods you use to streamline your pre production process in the comments below!
About the Author:
I'm Alex Jones, video marketer and producer. I make useful Video Production & marketing resources to help you earn cash with online video. Check out my Video Marketing Blog and my latest video on the Pre Production Checklist
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