Windy Cine Productions • Pre-Production Planning Guide
and Film or Video Production Techniques
A mostly serious, somewhat tongue in cheek, guide to help you think about your future marketing or promotional film. Below we have included some common things for you to consider when developing a film or video project.
1. Who is the audience for this video production?
Is your audience already familiar with your work or are you trying to reach a new audience. Is this a one-off screening (for an event) or will this project have a shelf life of several years? Straight to DVD or CD-ROM? iPod or webvideo? Maybe it is a vanity project for the boss? If that’s the case everything is a great idea and budget is no issue.
2. What do you wish to accomplish with this video production?
“It’s a floor wax AND a dessert topping,” an old Saturday Night Live sketch once said. It is very hard to create a film that covers everything for all audiences. While it might seem like a no-brainer to have one film serve multiple masters, our experience shows that it rarely pans out that way. Leave the two-fers to the late night comedians, the film and video production to us.
3. Can you extend the “shelf life” of this video production?
Yes, but you must have that in mind before shooting begins. You don’t want to interview an employee who in a year will no longer be with the company. You also want to be aware of any future name or logo changes. Those TV commercials featuring Tommy Lee Jones for SBC/Ameritech have been gathering dust since ATT took over the company.
4. Can you write the script for this video production?
Your corporate lawyer might write great briefs, but clear, concise voice-over copy is probably not his forte. If you have good ideas, we can take it from there and work with you to create a script. Windy Cine Productions writes, produces, directs, edits and finishes your film or video production. We are one stop shopping.
5. Where do you shoot this video production?
If a trip to Tahiti or Tuscany is out of the question for your film, then we need to decide if we shoot at your location(s) or on a stage. These decisions all impact the budget of course. If budget is no concern, we vote for Italy!
6. When does this video production need to be finished?
Is there a real deadline- this film screens May 1 in Las Vegas at our annual conference- or an arbitrary deadline? We will work to your schedule, but our goal is always to make you happy. Having to rush to meet an arbitrary deadline is frustrating for everyone. Conversely, if your film does screen in Vegas on May 1, contact us as soon as possible, so we don’t have to make like Ocean’s 11 and black out Las Vegas to C.Y.A.
7. Who will be in the video production?
Assuming Brad and Angelina are booked or adopting more kids, we are probably casting with local actors (which need to be paid union wages if they are in the Screen Actor’s Guild) or using people from within your organization to appear on camera. Our years as producers for film, video and television commercials in Chicago are a testament to our casting ability.
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