Pre-production is the foundation of video. Skip out on it, and the quality of the video will certainly suffer. I can arrive on set, put up lights, and run a camera in a technically perfect way, but without pre-production, I won’t be telling the best story.
That is what pre-production is about. Preparing so that everything from the interview to the cut-away footage serves the purpose of the project, and ultimately the brand story that is being told. Video is a powerful tool, but it can easily become a fancy gimmick that only looks cool, instead of a medium through which a powerful connection is made between a brand and its audience.
When we prepare for a project, we create storyboards, shot lists, and go on site scouts. All this work ahead of time sets us up with extra room for creativity and inspiration at all points in the project. If we didn’t prepare, we would spend more time on set simply making sure we got the shots we need instead of having time to add creativity to our shots to tell a better story.
Instead, knowing in pre-production that we have all the bases covered, we leave room for inspired adjustments to the plan during the shoot and in post-production. An inspired deviation from the original plan always produces better results than the alternative of making all the shot decisions on set, on the fly.
Good planning leads to excellent execution. With a plan, we can be more creative and efficient, a production is a lot less stressful for all involved. With good pre-production, each project can reach its full potential.