After the shoots, your production team will review and log the footage (sometimes called logging and capturing)—they will import it into their editing workstation and mark what action happens in which piece.

From there, they will combine the pieces into a rough edit. Music, narration, motion graphics, and sound effects are added at this point, but may evolve as the piece progresses. The rough edit gives a sense of the structure of the video but may not include final versions of elements that are time-intensive to create—for example, a still image may stand in for what will ultimately become a motion graphic.

At this point, you’ll review the video in progress to approve the given direction and provide any changes you might desire. You have the option of doing a formative review, in which members of your audience watch the video in progress and share feedback.

With this feedback, the production team will develop a final edit, with all elements complete and polished.

Then, you will review again to provide final approval. Congratulations—your video is complete!

Change Orders: Handling Any U-Turns

Picture this: Your video is almost ready, but—oh no!—the main spokesperson in your video has been fired and you need to re-shoot with someone new. It’s not a problem for your video team—just be prepared to incur some extra costs and spend a bit more time re-finishing the work.

Next week: what will the delivery of your video look like?