What is Post-Production & Why Is It Important to Video Production Services?
Video production services have three main stages: pre-production, production and post-production.
The first stage is pre-production. This is all about planning the video: talking about and writing the script, getting a crew together, scouting locations for the shoot and related tasks. You’ve got ideas but you haven’t really started yet; this is pre-production.
Once that’s done, the process moves on to production. This is the point when the actual footage is shot. A production shoot can involve the cast, director, assistant director, lighting techs, sound techs, green screen, etc.
Finally you have post-production.
This is when you take all your raw footage and you assemble it into your final piece. This often includes adding sound effects, music, voice over, color correction and perhaps a bit of animation.
In other words, this is where you turn a few video clips into a polished and complete piece of promotional video content.
However, some business owners think that post-production is as easy as downloading a video editing app and doing the whole thing yourself.
The truth is, post-production is what separates a bland amateur video from a stellar professional marketing video. And if you’re serious about growing your business online, you need the latter.
10 Benefits of Professional Post-Production Services
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Staying Faithful to Your Brand
Having a consistent look for all your promotional videos is key to making them work for your marketing. You want them to feel like they represent your business. In addition, you want your branding elements there – perhaps your logo, color themes, special font and other elements you want your viewers to associate you with.
A professional video editing company will make sure your videos “feel” like your brand. They do this in several ways, such as custom color grading, sound editing and using the same intro/outro.
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Enhancing Sharpness & Clarity
Overlaying text over a blurred shot is a great way to make people stop watching your content. Worse, it can defeat your call to action. For example, you want people to visit you online or call you today, but they can’t even read your website address or phone number.
Having expertly edited footage means every moment of your video is crystal clear and in focus so you don’t lose any potential customers due to poor quality images.
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Performing Color Correction
Color correcting is a post-production technique that adjusts the overall color tone of a film or video after shooting has taken place. This process is critical, because it will affect your video’s overall mood.
For example, you can take a scene that’s supposed to be serious and darken the colors to give it an ominous look. Or you can take another scene with happier content and brighten the colors so it has more of a positive tone.
In short, color correction can completely change the tone of your video. Professional editors know how to alter the mood of a video in order to deliver you a tailored viewing experience.
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Editing Music, SFX and Voice Over
Adding music and sound effects is another critical element you want expertly handled in your post-production process.
For one, you don’t want to add cheesy music that clashes with your content. In addition you don’t want to have too many sound effects that overwhelm your message or conflict with the video’s tone. You also want to make sure you’re not using copyrighted content you don’t have rights to.
All of these elements must be handled with care to make your video stand out and attract your target audience.
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Adding Animation and Motion Graphics
Adding motion graphics and animation is another powerful way you can enhance your video.
For example, you could have the “scrolling” effect that you often see in news broadcasts or you can combine this with scrolling text to deliver a unique look. Or you might want to use an animated short at the end of your video asking viewers to subscribe to your channel or visit your site.
These are all good ideas you want to springboard off of, but you want expert editors to create these graphics for you in order to maintain consistency across all your videos.
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Splicing Footage Together
Splicing footage together is another brilliant post-production technique you want to be sure your video editing company performs well.
For example, you might need two separate pieces of footage you shot at different locations edited together seamlessly. Or you may have several video files you’re trying to string into one continuous video. Perhaps you want a documentary style where you have interviews you need to incorporate.
No matter your goal, you want all of these to flow together seamlessly so you don’t lose your viewers’ attention or create a disjointed video. That’s why you hire an expert video editing team for this type of post-production work.
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Filling in a Green Screen for Special Effects
Green screens make video marketing accessible to everyone. If you have a video you want to edit, you can go from an average Joe to a Hollywood filmmaker thanks to green screen technology. It’s also far cheaper to take footage in front of a green screen and add in a background you want.
For example, you can have an influencer stand in front of a green screen talking about your product. Then, editors can fill in the background with shots of your product in action.
However, green screens are only effective in the hands of an expert. You need precise coloring, lighting and editing to make everything look natural and harmonious. Otherwise, you can end up with a clunky video with fake-looking scenes you’ll need to reshoot.
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Getting the Right File Format and Quality
Getting the right file format and quality you want is another important post-production activity you don’t want to leave to chance.
For example, you might want your video in a high definition or ultra HD resolution. Or you might need it recorded at a faster speed for a certain application. Or you may need it converted into a specific file type for distribution.
You also want to be sure you’re getting your video in the right resolution or it will lag on some devices, look pixelated on others and you may need to reshoot it entirely.
That’s why you seek out experts who can get you the file you need without any of these problems cropping up.
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Adding Subtitles if Necessary
Subtitles adds an extra layer of accessibility to marketing videos. You can target people who don’t speak your language or you can make your video more accessible to hearing impaired viewers. In addition, some people simply like watching with the audio off or low, so you want to give them the option of turning on the subtitles.
Of course, you also have to consider how you’re going to add this text onto your video. Some companies use tools that generate subtitles based on your voice-over audio. Others use transcription services that have to manually type up the text in your desired language in order for them to sync it up with your video.
It’s best if you have a video editing company you can trust to take care of these details for you so you can focus on your next phase of marketing.
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Carefully Reviewing Your Video Before Publishing
Last but not least, after you’ve had your video edited for content, flow and technicalities, you want to be sure you review it carefully before publishing or releasing it online. Because once you hit that publish button you can’t get your video back.
You want to avoid publishing anything you’ll regret because you missed a typo, annoying voice-over or you aren’t happy with how it looked after editing.
That’s why you want to trust an expert team to review your video and see it with trained eyes.
Grow Your Business with Professional Video Production Services
The popularity of video content is more than just a trend. It’s an integral part of your marketing campaign you can’t afford to ignore.
At Castaway Creative, we specialize in crafting videos that can boost your marketing efforts – whether you need them for social media, your website, your email marketing campaign or you plan to circulate them on TV.
Best of all, we can handle every part of the video production process for you, from pre-production to post and uploading your content to your chosen platforms. Not sure what kind of video you want to create? We’d love to help you brainstorm concepts and ideas, too!
Get started by calling us at 888-971-2278 or messaging us here. We also invite you to check out our portfolio to see samples of our work!
