Find out how to plan a successful production. Methods, tips and best practices to deal with every detail and achieve high quality results.
For the success of a photographic or video production, method and team chemistry are crucial. Nothing replaces direct experience in the refining of method: if not error, at least unforeseen events always remain a possibility, but most of the time they can be coped with and are still important opportunities to learn. On team fellowship, on the other hand, one can influence with sensibility and the right attitude. However, if we had to choose a single word to remember as a mantra, that’d be "prepare, prepare, prepare!"
The production project is divided into three basic phases: pre-production, production, post-production. Each stage will work just as well as the previous one was conducted.
The pre-production phase: clear objectives
In the pre-production phase, a concept, or idea, is created on which there must be agreement with the client. On this conceptual basis, documents related to the type of production to be tackled are built: shooting list, moodboard and setlist for photo shoots; subject, script and possibly storyboard and treatment for video productions.
Beyond the formal aspects of each of these documents, the purpose is fundamentally to always be well aligned with the client on objectives, create realistic expectations, and organize the production machine by enabling everyone's work with clear internal communication.
It is therefore of absolute importance to involve the operations team well before production, whether it is photographers or videomakers, director, etc. everyone must be perfectly clear on how to move to bring home the best possible work within time and budget.
This is why the production of documents borne by the creative couple, or more often the art director, must adapt to the needs of the project and not vice versa: for a treatment film, production references will be essential, a still life shoot will require sketches of the compositions and a moodboard, for a video narrative a storyboard and dialogue outline will be needed, and so on.
Experience also teaches how to assemble the right team for the job being defined, always keeping the budget in mind. Those who lead a production must know how to converse with important figures who are different depending on the type of production and cost: extras and actors, make-up artists, live sound engineers, gaffers, production assistants, director, cinematographer, dronist, stylist, etc.
Having to potentially interface with professionals from a wide variety of specializations, it therefore becomes a great advantage to know the techniques that will be used and to be able to speak effectively with a common jargon.
A less obvious question depends a lot on one's own style, but I feel I share this personal approach: the project is the sum of the work of many people; to aim for excellence, it is essential that they all feel personally involved and not just "put to work". How? By asking their opinion, and really considering it. Gathering the vision and experience of different professionals can only improve the product, and it makes everyone feel more involved. Consider it an exercise in situational listening and leadership.
One final pre-production issue is talked about too little as easily as it can be tripped up: side issues such as logistics, breaks, food and drink, weather, reservations and permits should not be forgotten. There is no set list that holds if travel time and breaks are not taken into account, and no one works well if they have slept badly, are too hot and don't have regular fresh water to drink, or don't feel safe.
Production stage: attention and care to detail
Arriving at the moment of production, however, the key qualities are cool-headedness, lucidity and good communication. Times are tight, margins for error minimal, and it is a time of natural psychological stress that one must be able to handle. Not everything is predictable, and having a plan B in your pocket for the most critical issues provides some peace of mind.
The production phase requires the utmost attention span to take care of all the significant details for the finished product: location, styling, lighting, general photography, and the completeness of the material gathered for later editing. It is also a time when one must be able to interpret the emotions of others, mediate conflicts, and pose in a reassuring manner.
In production, it helps us a lot to have built the vocabulary of the craft: we need to be able to describe camera movements, lighting styles, cinematic fields, optical characteristics and everything else in the right words to improve the result and solve problems. Is the light too harsh? It will need diffusion, a wider or closer source. Doesn't the brand stand out on the product? We will need to work on background compression with a narrower optic or introduce a solution by involving the focus puller.
None of this can be put in place without leaning on a reliable time lineup and list of subjects/scenes to collect, which remain well in view of art, director and/or photographer throughout the day. There is generally no time to "rehearse" on the day of production, the schedule thus serving as a constant reminder of how well the pace has been achieved as in a race. If you think this causes anxiety, know that not having a set list is much more dangerous than having a tight one.
What does an art director do on set? He communicates all the time. If there is a director, he or she assesses with him or her how well the work is going, keeps an eye on critical issues and timing, proposes solutions to problems, is a reference for detail choices on styling and in general for the client present. That is why it is a good thing for the production to equip a second direction with real-time audio and video monitoring.
The post (production) stage: mistakes to avoid
Someone shouts "it's a wrap!" and everyone cheers: the day is successfully over and we are all tired but happy. This celebration is sacred, but the next day we must remember that the work is not finished.
For a post-production without surprises, it is essential to have worked well in the previous stages, having for example shot all the necessary material in an orderly manner, and having solved in production the problems that in post-production would take ten times as long for a perhaps mediocre result. Was the exposure of the shots correct for a single pose, or were shots produced to composite? Had the color profile and other technical aspects of the shot been defined?
Without getting too technical, there are two main mistakes that will cause us to accumulate delays and bad karma:
- Postponing a production problem by saying "we'll correct it in post anyway"
- Handing over the material without explanation to the person who has to do the retouching or editing
And let's add a third that if not worth hell still guarantees a good dose of purgatory: not putting revision numbers on deliveries. Let's not be ashamed of reaching high numbers, from the fourteenth "_rev" onward the problem is not us.