Video post-production is the phase followed by production when the filming of a video is completed, and the editing of the visual and audio versions starts. Post-production involves various services, skill sets, and tasks associated with editing raw video, assembling the shots, adding music, dubbing, and creating sound effects to create a motion picture.
Many professionals are involved in post-production, and they all come together to create magic on the screen. Whether a feature film is being made, a video game, or an advertisement, the maximum time is spent in post-production because that creates the final product for the audience.
Post-production takes way more extended time than shooting the movie scenes and thanks to technology, what earlier took at least 12 months to complete can now be done in less time.
The Components of Post-Production
Video post-production is an essential, detailed, multi-step process that combines numerous teams working together to create the finished video for release. The following are the various components involved:
a. Editing
This is the most critical step, involving raw footage being reviewed and then working with the script to reproduce a story on the screen. An editor is responsible for editing and combining various shots to produce a flow. The editors make an Edit Decision List, cutting the video how they assume is the best way to tell the story.
This is a huge responsibility, and editors must shoulder it all. A professional production company will likely employ the best editing tools available in the market and cut the film together in accordance with the storyboard and start placing the clips in a timeline to create a full-length version of the video.
Editors can choose to cut the video between different camera angles and scenes by moving the clips around and adjusting the length of the clip individually. And the process keeps flowing until we have reached the desired result.
b. Color Correction
Also known as color grading, it is the art of enhancing the comprehensive look of the video by engineering the color palette of each scene. When shooting at a particular location, there will be numerous issues, including lighting and overall weather. Hence, color correction is essential.
A color grader will rectify how the clips look, saturate particular color settings, add filters to enhance certain scenes and improve the outdoor lighting. The color grader has to ensure that the video seems uniform throughout and only beautified in patches if the script demands so.
c. Adding Graphics
Graphics are designed and illustrated to help viewers understand the video’s message or the person who is trying to make a point on the screen. Graphics may include a person’s name, questions being asked to the summary of what the on-screen person is talking about.
Depending on how much graphics the video needs, graphics can culminate into a big undertaking also. Graphics are employed to help strengthen the copy points and assist in telling the story.
d. Adding Special Effects
Today, we all know how vital special effects are in the movie industry, and they can bring to life any video. It is an essential part of the post-production process because adding special effects needs to be seamless and should not look unreal or out of place.
Modern blockbusters have huge special effects and they look like they are living and breathing. The special effects team is the one who can bring non-existent things to life and make them the hero of the story.
e. Sound Design
The soundtrack of a video is not a minor detail and cannot be overlooked like in past years. Today, audiences associate with music, and every powerful scene has a background score to enhance that scene, characters and also the feelings involved in the scene. Background music needs to be blended into the movie.
It should not be sudden but instead gradual and must match the tone of the video and the pace of the edits and also aid in giving out the crux of the story to the audience.
The video’s tone is primarily created by the music used, but this process is not merely singing a song or picking a billboard chart-topper. A sound designer is one who customizes the soundtrack to match the scene’s speed, the action’s tempo on-screen, and also levels of volume.
The end product should feel like a human body working together with the brain, heart, internal organs, and thought process.
Conclusion
Creating a compelling video is hard work and requires broad expertise . Today, there are numerous companies and individuals offering post-production services that can elevate your video to a level where audiences cannot stop gushing about your videos. Use them to your advantage and bring a world of difference to your videos.