Video post production

Editing is where the process where a video really comes together.
There are two main elements to consider when editing. The first is the 'story' or content. The second is the style and feel.

Getting the story right is crucial. To help with this our editors often produce a 'radio edit' as a first step. This is a cut of the film using only audio. If the audience is able to take away the correct messaging just from listening to the video, then you're on to a winner.

In corporate video, the 'story' can often be quite complex - requiring explanations of complex problems, products or concepts. So we build in plenty of time to our edit schedules to make sure the video is hitting all the main talking points.

Once the content is 'locked', then our editors go about adding the bells and whistles. B-Roll footage, motion graphics, transitions, pacing, music, sound design, voice over - these are all tools editors blend together in bringing your message alive. And our teams have years of experience and plenty of tricks up their sleeve to make the edits as slick as possible.

Sometimes this is about letting someone tell their story, or sometimes it's about throwing the kitchen sink into the mix to produce something dynamic and exciting.

As a general rule, our editors need around 2-3 days to produce a first version of a 2 minute film.

Animation is a popular choice in corporate video. Not only is it great for simplifying complex messaging, but it's also cost effective as it doesn't require any shooting.

Our animation tends to break down into two styles. Character animation and motion graphics.

Character animation, as the name suggests, is animation that involves the personification of illustrations. It's useful for engagement as the audience can connect with the characters in the video.

Motion graphics takes a more infographical approach, using shapes, charts, data and icons as the basis for the animation. It's useful for helping simplify dense messaging.

The animation process can vary. But the process tends to begin with us writing a script and visual description. This will usually be accompanied by style frames that show how the animation will look and feel. Once these have been approved, we will provide a storyboard demonstrating what will happen when, as the animation starts to move.

With a signed off storyboard, we tend to produce around 10-20 seconds of animation per day.

Related: Learn more about our animation services, here.

Often our videos are a combination of editing and motion graphics. We call this Mixed Media.

This involves using animated elements or scenes on top of, or interspersed with, live action footage.

The results can help really increase the production value of a film. And help reinforce key messages and takeaways along the way.

Related: Every wonder, “Why video?!”. Discover why video is such a powerful communications tool, in this blog post.

Visual effects and corporate video are not two phrases you might associate with one another. After all, it's not often we need to recreate giant robots from the future!

But used slightly more subtly, adding visual effects as part of video post production can really help enhance your messaging.

Sometimes they can become the basis for the creative treatment, as we did here for Sainsbury's. 

Or sometimes we can use a bit of extra camera trickery to make shots more interesting.

The post production process for interactive video is a little more involved (and less linear) than normal editing. In pre production, we will have created a 'decision tree' that outlines all the possible branches that the video could take. In pre-production, it's all about populating that tree with the right scenes. Extra time needs to be taken to work out the transitions from one branch to the other to give the user a seamless experience. It's effectively tying several smaller videos together into one larger video, making sure they all follow on from one another. 

Extra functionality can involve adding 'hotspots' - moments in the video where viewers can click a button to reveal more information, usually in the form of a text overlay. 

We can also gamify interactive videos, keeping track of the 'score' throughout a video to give users feedback on their performance. This is particularly useful for learning and development videos.

Sound design is usually the last, but no means least, piece of the post production puzzle. We highly recommend everyone adds at least some level of sound design in to their video as the results can take your production to a whole new level.

Much like sound design, color grading can turn a good video in to a great one. By using color correction, and giving a video a color ‘look’, the final deliverable will look far more polished than a film without a grade. The colors and contrast will ‘pop’ that extra bit more, and the tone of the video will better suit the subject matter.

Grading is also useful for any last minute changes or repairs to a video. Making sure your brand color appears as it should. Fixing the shine on someone’s forehead. Dialling back the brightness on a super sunny shot etc…