Creating What you Want vs Creating with What you Have

From full blown Hollywood movies to a live steam corporate speaker event to a highlight video reel of a wedding, video productions can be done with various techniques, styles and approaches. It can be hard to categorize the vast and diverse types of video productions there are, especially when a lot of those approaches can overlap with one another. But we have determined that any type video production can essentially be grouped into two classes:

• Creating What you Want
• Creating with What you Have

It’s not necessary to know what type of video production you want but knowing whether you are looking to create something from scratch, versus creating from assets you have, will determine what types of video styles are available to you. And for the video production agency, it will determine how we approach your project. Below are further descriptions of each type.

Creating What you Want

Creating what you want means planning out exactly how the video or animation will appear beforehand, giving you the most amount of control of your production.

This process is front end heavy. A Hollywood movie would never be made without a script, storyboard, and immense planning. Animation, likewise, requires intensive pre-production planning. 

Types of videos that fit this category are commercials, character animations, a talking head reading a teleprompter, actor led spots, and more. In a nutshell, anything that has scripted scenes, text or speech.

To deliver the approved message the client seeks, we must be prepared to work efficiently. This means:

• Creating a script and storyboard that acts as a blueprint for the production. 
• Planning out locations, props, schedules, on-screen talent, and more. 
• And being prepared for the shoot day with a list of shots we need to capture, a plan that everyone is familiar with and having all necessary equipment and crew to capture the planned shots. 

Advantages of this type of production are that the client can approve upfront what they will be getting. They know what will be said, have an idea of how things will look, and most importantly, will have more control of the end product. However, more control elicits more costs, such as actors’ fees, time spent doing all that extra pre-production work, and generally a larger crew of people. So, this type of production can be more expensive.

Examples of this type of video from Kohlitz:

DocNetwork – Scripted actors with animated graphics
University of Michigan Center for the Study of Complex Systems – Explainer Animation
HIBLOW XP Series Repair Video – Training video

Creating with What you Have

Creating with what you have means using footage or media that cannot be storyboarded or scripted beforehand, but can still be edited so as to relay a desired message. 

Unlike with Creating What you Want, with this approach, it is heavier on the post-production end. A lot of footage is accumulated, either by shooting it, or the client may provide it if they have it. We then sift through the media, pulling out the best pieces and editing it together to make a story.

Types of video that fall into this category are interviews with people, b-roll, videos, and slideshows. The most common and relatable type video of all, is that of the wedding video. No one plans out a wedding video, scripting out grandpa’s response or storyboarding the first dance. Rather, the videographer shows up on the big day, and shoots footage non-stop. The editor then creates a shorter video using only the best clips from the pile of footage, editing in music and possibly graphics, to convey the very real love story.

But this practice can be applied to all sorts of projects. We can produce testimonial videos by interviewing customers, or a product video by shooting loads of b-roll of that product in use, or an event highlight video for promotion of next year’s event. Or there doesn’t even have to be editing involved at all, if for example, we live-stream a speaker at a big event.

Even animated videos can be made with what you already have on hand. A recent client of ours wanted to highlight their employees’ achievements and activities from the past year by creating an engaging video that would appear at the company year-end holiday party. They had plenty of photos they have compiled but didn’t want to do just a dull photo PowerPoint slideshow. So we edited the photos into a holiday themed animated slide show, complete with music, text and colorful graphics and effects.

Although these videos cannot be planned out perfectly beforehand, they can be guided very easily to the client’s goal.  To create a video with what you have, important aspects to know are:

• What is the message of the video?
• How long should the video be?
• What will the audio be? Interviewees’ voices? Only music? A scripted voiceover?

Advantages of this type of production is that it generally costs less. You’re likely using “real” people as opposed to paid actors. The location is not a professional set but just where ever you need to be. And in some instances, you don’t even have to shoot any video, or don’t have to edit the footage you do capture. 

However, unlike Create you Want, you lose control. An interviewee may not say what you want word-for-word or planned b-roll footage outdoors may get spoiled by bad weather. But even this can be a plus, as it can make a video more genuine which can be particularly fitting for testimonials, service type businesses and anything where a “human touch” is needed.

Examples of this type of video from Kohlitz:
RXO Grand Opening Hype Video – B-roll and Animated Graphics
miLead Consulting Group – Testimonials and interviews
Panelcraft Showcase Video – Product video with B-roll and Voiceover

Whatever your video production, Kohlitz can help you produce it, or if you’re not sure, we can consult on what might be best for your goal and audience.