How To Be An Online Video Producer/Director

Why pre-production is important

What is the budget

• Amount of films they want

• Output location: YouTube, Projector, Cinema, etc

• Audience for film: 18-21 year old’s who like Superman

• Length of films:

• Description of film: What is going in to it? Amount of contributors?

• Purpose of film: What do you want it to accomplish?

• Assets/Archive: Do you have any pre-exisiting footage you would like to include in the edit, graphics, photos, old videos etc?

• Location of filming: Studio or on-location?

• Filming date:

• Date film is required by:

You should have:

• Defined their audience

• The type of content they are looking for

• Which platforms they would like to place the content

Sometimes the client may not know what they want, you are a creative resource feel free to help redefine the brief.

You are a creative!

Give people the brief ahead of the brainstorm

• Have a warm and friendly atmosphere

• Define clear audiences and goals(CTA’s) the film needs to accomplish

• Have a mood board

• Doodling is good J

• No idea is a bad idea!

• Do not put anyone’s idea down

• Everywhere!

• Music videos – Bug Videos http://www.bugvideos.co.uk/

• Deconstruct directors you admire

• Collate mood boards and save them

Start by writing ideas, doodling and get the creative juices flowing. You just need to do it now, do not procrastinate. Find the time to do it!

There is no perfect length for an online “viral” video. Not everything needs to be short and snappy, it just needs to retain engagement!

• Find out what they are watching

• Who are the best content creators in that space?

• Tubular Labs have a fantastic paid tool for finding digital influencers which I highly recommend. Alternatively there are free tools in Social Blade or VidStatx

• What are the current trends?

• Who are the biggest online publishers for that audience

• Look at how they consume there content, is it mainly on mobile, at what time of the day?

• Try to find as much data as possible!

What is the videos goal? What are you trying to achieve?

• Unlike TV & Film, with online you need to grab your audience in the first 5-10 seconds so put a strong hook at the beginning

• Write from what you know

• Do not give the viewer everything, they should be working out the video as you go along

Have a clear and strong call to action at the end of the video but not too many

• If you are working with influencers/creators do not script everything otherwise you will lose authenticity and their fans will know, sometimes it can even do detriment to the brand

• Why is someone going to want to share this video? The Lad Bible have something called the Pub Test – Would they discuss it with there friends at the pub?

• Always read your scripts out loud before going into production

• Act them out as many times as possible before the shoot days to really refine the messaging

• You will always have to justify your costs, so always question an expense before you apply for it. A great production manager/exec will work with you.

• There are numerous great budgeting and project management tools out there a lot of my friends use Trello. I just use Excel and my emails.

A great top line production budget contains:

• Talent

• Crew

• Location

And it will have a topline figure of the incoming and outgoings so you know at all times how much budget you have left

Always save 10-20% budget as costs especially on big productions will go over!

• What is the budget

• Amount of films they want

• Output location: YouTube, Projector, Cinema, etc

• Audience for film: 18-21 year old’s who like Superman

• Length of films:

• Description of film: What is going in to it? Amount of contributors?

• Purpose of film: What do you want it to accomplish?

• Assets/Archive: Do you have any pre-exisiting footage you would like to

include in the edit, graphics, photos, old videos etc?

• Location of filming: Studio or on-location?

• Filming date:

• Date film is required by:

• Who are the talent?

• How many are there?

• Who are the crew?

• How is everyone getting there?

• Is their catering?

A great schedule:

• Will get the big or tough scenes of the shoot done first

• Write a shot list in priority order so that if the shoot does run late you can cut the scene rather than miss it or run into expensive overtime and go over-budget

• Give your crew good amount of breaks and FEED THEM!

• If you have multiple units plan the schedule so that talent is not double booked and there is buffer in between scenes in case filming runs over

Filming days are long, this is because setting up great shots take time and it’ll usually be cheaper to do a longer day and pay your crew a slightly higher rate than have to pay for a two day shoot, this will dramatically increase costs because of your talent and location costs.

Work with your production coordinator and production manager on the schedule it’s vital that everyone agreed on the flow of the day. Shoots can fall apart very quickly if the simplest of logistics are not schedule correctly.

• Once you know your genre, look at that community online who are the influencers that match with your brand/film. Use Tubular labs, Peg, social blade or vidstatx.

• Subscribers are great but engagement is key!

• How much do I pay them?

Depends on scale of shoot, amount and where the content is be placed. A good resource is Social Blue Book, it will give a rough guide on pricing for influencers

Estimate costs for a one day shoot (4 videos on your channel and 1 on theirs, all production will be done by yourself)

• Low tier creator 0-100K subs – £300 - £1,000

• Mid tier creator 100-750k subs - £1k-£5K

• Top tier creator 750k+ - £5K-£25k

The UK’s main talent agents for digital influencers are:

• Gleam Futures

• James Grant

• MHA Talent

• Flipside Talent

• Triple A Media

• Contego 360

• Red Hare

• Kameleon

• NVC

If you’re hoping to build another YouTube channel the best way to do that is to promote content with creators on their own channels

Average viewership on their channels videos over the past 90 days

Engagement rate over the past 90 days (Tubular labs)

Estimate subscriber count return

Think about: 

• What the audience is going to see in the space? Ignore rooms that will not be filmed

• Is it within your budget? Everything can be negotiated, especially if it becomes a regular slot

• Are there sound issues? Train tracks, music studios, noisy neighbors

• Is there daylight? How big are the windows? How many daylight hours will you have on the shoot day?

• Are there any props you can use?

• How close is it for your talent and crew? Will it cost you significantly more in travel?

• Does the location have any restrictions? Can you use it for the full day?

• What is their overtime policy?

There are a few good location sourcing companies, that usually take between 5-15% for helping you find a location. If you have a big shoot I have found these to be really beneficial as they will be able to save you lots of time, you can then just recce a handful of locations.

ALWAYS do a site survey before doing any shoot. 

ENG crew – Producer/Director, Camera Person & Sound Recordist

Bigger shoot you may have:

• Grip & Riggers – cabling, scaffolding, etc

• Gaffer – lighting

• Spark – electrics, pyrotechnics (report to Gaffer)

• DIT – Managing media on-location

• First Assistant Director – makes sure that the crew sticks to the schedule, helps arrange the crew and setup the shot

• Assistant Camera – lots of gaffer tape

• Editor – if you need to do quick turnarounds

• Post-production supervisor – if your shoot is VFX heavy

• Production manager & coordinators – if you have a big shoot with multiple units

• Researchers – helping to execute a plan they most likely put together

• Runners – assisting with the general running of the shoot, guiding talent around

• Hair & Make-up

• Talent agents

• SNG truck & operator – if you are doing satellite interviews on-location

• Encoder & operator – If you are doing live streams

• Catering - FOOD!

• Photographer

• Set designer

• Stedicam operator

• Drone Operator

• Executive Producer – The Boss

Ahead of big shoots I would always work with a production manager or head of operations at a production company to plan out exactly what kit & crew will be required

Every video should be designed to be shared

Here is a TubeFilter article that looks specifically at Buzzfeed, this is definitely worth reading yourself: http://bit.ly/1Syl49d

There are three types of shareable content (in this context):

1. Identity - You

2. Information/Utility - The World

3. Emotional Gift - Feelings

Identity Title Starters:

• Things only __ will understand

• Which ___ (character) are you

• Before you die

• In your life

• # Reasons you (should)

• Signs you should

• Photos that prove

• # things that happened

• In real life

• Things that happen

• # things you

• # signs you’re

• You should be

• Things you didn’t

• ____ People Try ____

Information Title Starters:

• You probably didn’t (know/think/feel)

• Reasons ____ Are the most

• Reasons you should

• # You Probably didn’t know about ____

• Most important

• ____ You didn’t know about ____

• ____ Of all time

• Blow your mind

• # Things that happened

• # Things you didn’t know about ____

• What ___ People Think About ____

#Relatable

Be niche! Audiences are more fragmented than every before, find your niche. Those audiences are more likely to identify with you and share your content to their friends.

Exercise: With your audience in mind why not try coming up with your own titles, remember an effective title will make someone ask Why, Who, Which, What, Where, When or How?

Before each shoot your PM or PC should send out a call sheet with all shot details in it: (example call sheet attached)

• All talent & crew contact details (put agents contacts for talent)

• Top line shot list & shoot details

• Schedule

• Location details & directions

• Production notes

• Weather, sun rise & sunset on shoot date

• Closest hospital

Think about your final shot!

Colourama’s are great for mobile viewing

Do not over prop your set

Make sure your colour’s complement each other 

(look back over your mood board)

• Largest or most difficult shots come first

• Plan your content so the shots at the end of the day can be cut

• Allow for good setup times

• Make sure that the crew are setup before having the talent arrive on set make up ready

• Plan in good lunch breaks at least 30 minutes ideally 1 hour

• Make sure food will be ready for your crew as soon as the break starts

• Have a separate area where social media managers can produce shorter “snackable” content whilst you’re setting up the next shot

YouTube 16x9 - 1920x1080

Facebook 9x16 or 1x1 - 1080x1920 1080x1080

Instagram & Twitter 1x1 - 1080x1080

• Work from your script, think about the angles you need to reflect the emotion in the piece

• Visualise your story

• Add a short description and any actions below

• Your drawings do not need to be amazing (I use stick men)

Activity: Try drawing a story board and writing a shot list. Templates should be attached.

• As the producer you are responsible for everyone on the shoot

• People have been taken to court, gone to prison and even died because a proper risk assessment was not done

• A risk assessment needs to be done for every shoot, no exceptions

• You should have an certified first aider on every shoot, no exceptions

• Most insurance firms require that a risk assessment is done ahead of filming otherwise any injury or damage is not covered by them

A risk assessment looks at all the potential risks and hazards that could affect anyone on set

• A hazard is: something that could cause harm

• A risk is: the likelihood of the hazard to cause harm

It is important that you or a member of the crew does a safety briefing with everyone at the start of the shoot, pointing out entrances, exits and fire safety equipment.

Every production no matter the size should have insurance, you should make sure that if anyone is injured or your break a piece of expensive kit, you will be covered. Always ask what if?

What if that lamp falls on someone?

What if the jib snaps?

What if the pyrotechnics aren’t timed correctly?

Make sure you have the correct insurance or that whoever is running the production does.

Activity: Do a risk assessment for a shoot. A template is attached

• The best producer/director only shoot what they need

• It’s important in both pre-production and on shoot day to remember exactly what you’re trying to capture, sometimes creativity can run away and you lose time on a shot that is not that important to the main story and miss the essentials

• What can you afford?

• Future proof your content – if you have the budget

Standard kit:

• For TV & web I would use: Canon C300 with 27-70mm

• For commercials: Sony FS7, Arri Alexa with a set of prime lenses

• Favourite piece of kit : Jimmy jib with spider dolly

• White balance and grey cards

• Standard broadcast mics are Sennheiser G3’s

• Always put your boom (usually a rode shotgun mic) on the second

channel

• Standard 3 point lighting system is 2 x 2ft Kino-flo and a dedo as a

backlight

• Always bring spare batteries and lots of gaffa tape

Pro's

Multi 

• Multiple angles for the same scene

• Quicker record

• Can be vision mixed for live output

• Better for multiple talent

Single

• More focus on getting the perfect shot – lighting is setup just for that shot

• Lower cost

Con's

Multi 

• More expensive

• Take’s up more space so if you’re filming in a tight space or have lots of props it’s not ideal

Single

• Slower to record

• Have to fake ‘noddies’ after interviews to have footage to cove cuts in the edit

• For large scale big budget shoots

• This is to save on production time, so expensive things like actors and locations are used for little time as possible

• It can create problems with different styles of filming and continuity, unit directors need to be in sync with the film director

Pro's 

On-location

• Nicer backdrops

• More authentic

Studio

• Controlled environment (sound, light issues)

• Easier for talent (make up, green rooms, etc)

• Extra kit and resource available

Con's

On-location

• More potential issues with filming (sound, lighting changes, etc)

• More releases to arrange

• Harder to organise (catering,

trucks, power, etc)

Studio

• Can become boring

• 360 video – hasn’t really broken through to mainstream yet

• Clickable stories – do not really work yet

• Cards on YouTube – good examples of limited interactivity

• Event spaces – VR and reactive content, great but expensive and difficult to move

List of questions when putting a live together

• Filming date:

• Location of filming: Studio or On-location

• If on-location where:

• If in the studio, what background would you like: Colourama, green screen or set background

• Target length of live stream:

• Output location(s): YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (Periscope), Instagram, Cinema, TV Broadcast

• Audience for film: eg. External – 18-21 male

• Description of film:

• Amount of people talking on camera:

• Purpose of film:

• Assets/Archive: Do you have any pre-exisiting footage you would like to include in the edit, graphics, photos, old videos etc?

• List of all people’s names on set; crew and talent:

• Does the location have a dedicated LAN connection they can provide to us: yes or no

• Do you know the speed of this connection:

• How many cameras would you like to use:

• Amount of budget you have:

• Filming permits, visa’s, filming location, flights, hotels, vaccinations

• Local crew & fixer

• Emergency contacts

• Quick turn around edit – laptop & connectivity

• Back up footage on-location

• Mainly done by the DIT (Digital Imaging Technician) but not their main job, some times it makes sense on large shoots to bring an edit assistant or just have a runner send the footage back to the postproduction team

• For large or expensive shoots I would strongly recommend backing up on location, capture cards can corrupt in transit

• There will always be times when you have sound interruptions or light changes, do not be afraid to stop rolling no matter how big the shoot!

• Think from the edit are you going to be happy with the footage going out. This may mean cutting some of the questions to fix the lighting or losing one of the talent completely, it maybe better to do that than not have any good footage to deliver at the end of the shoot

• There are things you can ‘Fix in post’ but weigh up how much time it will take versus how quickly it will take to fix on-location. Ideally you never go into the edit with problems.

• When you deal with large amounts of footage it can become difficult to manage, so it is important if a file is misplaced that the person that finds it knows where it should go

• It also gives the post-production team a great amount of information that sometimes get’s lost in emails or on call sheets. This is the camera team talking directly to the edit.

• Lighting is key with green screens

• It may help to bring someone from the edit for the first shot of the day

• The most important thing to remember is that the lighting in the background needs to lit exactly the same across the board. That means no shadows, no stray hairs and equal balanced light across the backdrop

• Also if you talent is blonde it’s better to use a chroma blue screen

Different types of filming use various stereotypes, for example news style interviews you typically show the mic, a clip mic on the blazer whereas drama’s would be ruined by mics so they either tape them to the actors or use booms and potentially add in ADR (Automatic Dialog Replacement)

• Safety first!

• Planning is vital

• Trained stunt teams only

• Make sure you have done a thorough risk assessment ahead of the shoot

• Post-production supervisor can really help with special effects too

• Make sure that the appropriate release have been secured by your production team

• Everything that is on film needs a release for broadcast if you are making it on behalf of a company

• You can have your footage taken down or be fined if you have not secured these before or during production

• If you are doing interviews with members of the public make sure they fill out a release form, allowing you to use their image on screen

There are loads of great resources out there for more production information

• BECTU – UK Union

• Events – BVE, NAB, IBC

• Websites – nofilmschool.com

They can drastically change the way your content comes across to an audience. A bad edit can ruin great work by the rest of the team.

• Early 1900’s the first few reel films were created

• 1940’s more narrative led films were created

• 1980’s the first digital editing system

• 1991 adobe released the first edition of premiere

• 2001 the first feature film was edited with final cut pro

• 2007 No Country for Old Men was the first Oscar-winning film edited using Final Cut Pro

There are 3 main editing programmes; Adobe Premiere, Final Cut X, Avid

Operating system and output will determine what works for you

My personal choice is:

For work is Premiere

For personal is FCP

Have a clear folder structure in your edit is vital to an efficient edit, I would usually go with:

• Audio

• Assets – GFX, Photos, thumbnails, etc

• Exports

• Rushes

• Sequences

Codec stands for COmpression & DECompression

Each machine uses various codecs like H.264 and Mpeg2 to decompress the video signal so it can play it. When editing you want to work with the uncompressed footage, this is usually a type of Prores

For anything online in the UK I would suggest:

25 frames per second progressive (25p) H.264 1920x1080

• Good music defines the mood & tone of edit

Places for good royalty free music:

• Audio network

• Epidemic Sound

• Soundcloud (with creative commons credit)

Depends on the platform:

• YouTube you can add titles in the player, so do not burn them into the video

• Facebook and other social platforms are currently having a silent revolution

SEO, Tagging, Keywords, Metadata, Custom Thumbnails, Subtitles

The main goal is to have the sites algorithm deliver your video to as many of your potential audience as possible. Optimising your content makes sure that when you publish you can reach those audiences.

This job is usually done by a community manager or social media manager.

In our digital age it can be argued that having an amazing title and thumbnail is as important if not more than the actual content itself.

I worked with an exec producer who would just give titles with one lines synopsis’s to producers and that’s it.

Native video will always be promoted over pushing other social media channels, but you can always put teasers and push to the main video

YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world behind Google, making sure your content is found by the right audience is key.

• Spend money on targeted AdSense – include this in your production budget, it’s well worth it

• Use a tag generator to make sure you are using all the words in that field

• Always use a custom thumbnail

• Try to add subtitles (closed captions) if you have time, if not use Rev.com

Be consistent in your upload schedule, both with style and timings, fans should know you for that thing, become the best at whatever it is

• Facebook is pay to play, it’s very difficult to have organic traffic through the site anymore, as a result it is important to spend money on targeted boosts

• Always subtitle your videos on Facebook

• Make the comment with the video an addition to it, not just a description of what the video is, this could be a question or a relatable quote

• Try to use 9x16 or 1x1 videos, use 16x9 as little as possible. It’s all about the amount of news feed you can take up

• It’s becoming more like Facebook with boosted posts but you can still get good organic traffic with influencers

• Tags are vital, you can put them as your first comment, you can have up to 50. Look for similar accounts as see what they are tagging.

• Only use 1x1 video, ideally these all work without sound

• If you have a good following apply to use video.twitter.com

• Use manageflitter or other analytics tools to work out when are the peak times your audience is online, and share your content then

• Only use 1x1 video with subtitles

• If your video is under 10 seconds it will automatically loop like a gif

• Never forget why you are doing it

• Make me care!

@MrPeterRossiter