Video Marketing Mastery for Businesses

Videography is a tool that is a hidden gem! It has not been exploited enough and can yield ROI that is beyond imagination. Videos give a face and voice to your brand and can leave an everlasting impact on your target customers. It cannot be denied that videography is a complex task and involves a rigorous process. But if you’ve never heard of potential videography holds or are confused about the services covered under videography services, keep reading this article, and you will get answers to most of your queries!

Why do Organisations Need Video Production Services?

Videography is a dynamic tool that can communicate information your business requires to impart more effectively than a mere news headline or a social media post. Translating your ideas into visual, videos can do wonders that a written piece of content may hardly be able to do. It is one of the strongest drivers and can persuade your audience or customers regardless of the industry you are operating in. 

But videography is a complex and rather tricky process to tackle. It consists of numerous stages and steps that must be balanced and coordinated throughout the whole process of videography. But you need not worry as we have drafted this article to address all your possible queries.

What are the Stages of Video Production?

After due cost-benefit analysis, a business can either maintain an in-house team for video production or hire a specialist production company that will take care of everything related to the videography needs of the company. 

In both scenarios mentioned above, there will be defined majorly three stages of video production: Pre-production, Production, and Post-production. As their name suggests, pre-production is related to everything that happens before the shooting of the video, production is concerned with shooting the video, and everything that happens after the shooting is done is covered under the post-production segment. Let’s have a detailed look at all the services covered under the videography services.

1. Pre-Production 

This is the very first division of video production and is the most important one too. Goals one wishes to achieve through videography are defined at this stage only. It creates a solid foundation for communicating the intended message or information to the target viewers and audience.

It is mainly the planning stage, where creative thinking is required to set out a plan for executing the videography project. This stage includes video production services like:

• Gauging the concept, goals, target audience, and tone of the video
• Brainstorming about situations, characters, settings, and developing themes
• Deciding method and medium of delivery
• Mapping out a budget for the whole process of videography
• Innovative and creative development and pitching the ideas
• Writing scripts for videos and hiring a professional scriptwriter
• Creating layouts and defining outlines
• Listing the shots you wish to include in the video or shot list
• Searching for apt locations considering the weather and traffic conditions
• Creating a set, if needed. This will happen in case a perfect location is not found, or some additional details are required at the selected location.
• Hiring prop masters, set designers, stagers, engineers, etc.
• Assembling cast and crew for videos
• Getting permissions and insurance from relevant authorities, if needed
• Buying or renting equipment
• Hiring subcontractors, if needed

The above-mentioned activities are divided into two main categories, i.e., Creative and Logistics.

The creative portion includes everything from brainstorming, developing the concept, writing a script, storyboarding, market research, and the like. In contrast, the logistics include managing everything that will turn the concept into a final product that is deliverable to the target audience.

Once all the activities of this stage are lined up, the second stage of production begins, which is related to the creation of videos.

2. Production

This part is where the actual magic happens. The video conceptualised in the earlier stage is shot in this segment.

Below are the staffing and some of the video production services involved in the production division:

• The Producer is in charge of the video production and is involved in all the phases- from pre-production to post-production. He coordinates and supervises every aspect related to the concept, budget, talents involved, and more.
• The Production Assistant takes care of communication between different departments.
• The Director directs the cast and crew and shoots the entire video.
• The Director of Photography is the main Camera Operator who works with the director in executing the scripts. He oversees the camera and lights set.
• The Assistant Camera Operator is the coordinating point between audio and video. He works with a clapper board (slating) and ensures that the recording media and cameras are charged at every point in time and changes batteries if needed. 
• The Field Audio Engineer handles everything related to audio, i.e., mixing, producing, reproducing, and manipulating sounds and required effects.
• The Gaffer, or the Chief Lighting Technician, is responsible for the lighting plan and ensures that proper lighting is maintained at the set.
• The Grips develop and build sets and maintain equipment.
• The Hair and Makeup Artists help the cast get ready for video shooting according to the scenes.

Other than the activities mentioned above, several ancillary activities are involved, like maintaining safety and law and order situations in the location where the video is getting shot.

Once the production is completed, the next step is post-production which deals with finalising and delivering the product.

3. Post-Production

This stage generally consists of activities that occur after the filming of the video is done. Video production services included in this segment are:

• Managing video and audio files
• Stitching different videos together
• Altering the order of scenes
• Editing the video and adding animations or graphics where needed
• Coordinating with the director to maintain the originally conceived notion behind the video
• Sound designing and adding voice-overs or narrated vocal files to the edited video
• Colour grading or adjusting colours where necessary

Once the video is edited, it is reviewed by the director and producer and, if needed, by a test audience too! The test audience is a comparatively very small group of people who may or may not be related to the whole production process. Depending upon their feedback, the video is edited again and finally gets delivered to the target audience and viewers.

What are the Types of Video Services?

Every business or industry demands a different kind of video, but there are eight most common types of video production services that are very well in use. These are outlined as follows:

1. Event Video Services 

Lectures, meetings, sports, weddings, conferences, and similar live events are covered through event videos. From a teaser to a full-fledged video, the running time for these videos range from 30 seconds to even more than 3 hours.

2. Commercial or Advertising Video Services

Sponsored, branded, or pre-rolled is included in commercial or advertising video services. It is a scripted video that lasts 30-90 seconds and can be a documentary-styled version or an animated video.

3. Corporate Video Services

Corporate video services include training content in a video form or promotional videos. It can also involve brand culture videos that a business wishes to highlight and are generally 1-60 minutes long.

4. Music Video Services

Teasers and trailers with musicians lip-syncing to create a video fall into this category.

5. Social Media Video Services

These types of videos are created for social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and range from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. These videos generally include text, narration, or music.

6. Educational Video Services

Explainers, tutorials, how-to videos, or subject-specific videos are included in educational videos. They range from quick videos that last for 30 seconds to in-depth longer videos for a better topic explanation.

7. Promotional Documentary Video Services

These are infomercials and promotional videos that may also include travel videos. They typically stress storytelling and range from 1 to 30 minutes in length. 

8. Real Estate Video Services

By using a lot of filming techniques, life-like video experiences are created. These videos typically last 5 minutes and are made using drones, time-lapses, or sliders.

Videography is not limited to just video production. For your videos to work better, you need to apply SEO tactics to them, which may include:

• Creating a video marketing strategy, setting goals, and working towards them.
• Optimising titles and including related keywords (but prevent using clickbait titles)!
• Including video transcripts and not just depending on auto-generated transcripts.
• Optimising your website in line with the videos.
• Last but not least, promote your videos to generate more and more engagement.

In Conclusion

As discussed above, videography is a series of complex and exceptional arrangements of multiple aspects and elements. It is vital that you understand the importance of video marketing so that you can maximize its effectiveness. Videography can provide high SEO value for your website and brand if executed and used correctly. It can increase conversion and click-through rates by an enormous range. Investing in robust videography services can produce cost-effective results and take the brand and business image to high levels.

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Team EMB

Our team of expert writers is committed to bringing insights on topics ranging in the fields of technology, marketing, and business. With a wide-reaching range of services on our platform, we help businesses achieve digital transformation end-to-end.