Video Production: Pre-production and Planning

A knowledge base article about Video Production: Pre-production and Planning provided by the UC Berkeley IT Service Hub - Knowledge Portal

This content is no longer being updated. Please refer to the DIY Media web site for help with general questions about video production. (For Kaltura questions, refer to the Kaltura Knowledge Base.)

This article will deal with pre-production and planning in video production and will inform about producing your own video.

Pre-Production

Pre-production is the blanket term for everything that you do before the video shoot. There are many elements of creating a video that need to be planned for ahead of time in order to have a successful end product, many of which aren't obvious upon first consideration. 90% of a production should be an execution of an existing plan!

Fundamental Questions

What am I trying to achieve with my video?
What am I going to shoot?
What locations/people/resources do I need to accomplish my goals?
What can I remove to simplify the process?
Where is my video going to be shown and what do I need to do during production to make sure it displays correctly? (This includes addressing accessibility issues; refer to accesscontent.berkeley.edu for best practices and resources for making course content accessible.)

Additional Resources

Video Pre-Production Checklist for Teachers - An excellent overview from PBS
Video Production Checklist from Red Pine Studios - aimed towards their clients, but useful for anyone making a video
Choosing a camera - Tutorial from Vimeo

Using video in your course? Request an equipment loan from ETS - video camera, tripod, microphone available to instructors, faculty or Graduate Student Instructors (GSI) for use in classes with a valid course control number.

Important Accessibility Information

Instructors are encouraged to reference accesscontent.berkeley.edu for best practices and resources for making course content accessible. In particular, you should refer to http://accesscontent.berkeley.edu/resources/help-guides/video-captions-transcripts

and http://accesscontent.berkeley.edu/resources/help-guides/adding-descriptive-audio to ensure that your content will be accessible to all students who may be in your course (now and into the future). Keep in mind that it is harder and more expensive to make content accessible after-the-fact. Also, know that you are required to ensure your content is accessible if it will be made available to the public or if you have been notified by DSP that student accommodation is required.