Post-production is what we spend most of our time doing and itÛªs what a lot of your budget will be spent on. Therefore I thought it would be a good idea to quickly cover everything thatÛªs involved in it.
Post-production is a word that basically covers everything that happens after the filming of a project. All the final tweaks and changes that turn your video from raw footage into a masterpiece that will capture and engage an enraptured audience.
Editing
The first stage of the post-production process is editing where we cut and slice, trim and move and generally put together the backbone of the final video. Clips will be arranged in an order that makes narrative sense and weÛªll find the best version or take of a shot that took ages to get right. Once itÛªs in a semblance of order weÛªll let you take a first look at what we normally call a rough cut. This will then be refined over time with feedback from you until it arrives at the final cut.
Music
Not always necessary but a lot of videos are enhanced with the use of music. This can range from royalty free tracks, to rights managed tracks and specially composed pieces of music. We work with you to find the right track that will set the mood for the video at a price you can afford.
Graphics
Graphics and titles are often needed to add information that isnÛªt portrayed by the video alone. A lower third will identify an interviewee with their name and title cards can include a web address and contact details.
We always make sure that your video is branded the same way as your website and other marketing materials – after all itÛªs part of your companyÛªs identity. Therefore we use the same colours, logos and fonts in all the graphics and titles.
Motion Graphics
Motion graphics are a great way to add an extra bit of sparkle to your production. They could take the form of an animated logo introduction or popping in some titles in an interesting way.
Colour correction
During production you might spot us holding up a white piece of paper in front of the camera before filming, this is to set the white balance. As long as this is done then all the colours in your video should match. If they donÛªt then we may need to slightly adjust the colours so your video looks seemless.
Colour grading
Slightly different from colour correction, grading is when we decide to give your video a certain hue or tone. Do you want it to be dark and menacing? If so we could desaturate the colours and add more blue. Bright and cheerful videos might have more contrast and yellows added to them.
Exporting
The final step in post-production is when we have to take the video out of the editing software and create a file for you to use. Depending on where the video is going we might create an MP4, WMV or an Mpeg2 for DVD.
Wrapping up
Hopefully this short guide has been of some use and given you an overview of the different steps we go through after weÛªve filmed your video. If you would like more information on this or any of our other services then please get in touch with Echo Video on 01273 911345.