{"id":94762,"date":"2023-05-30T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/?p=94762"},"modified":"2023-05-31T15:14:37","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T19:14:37","slug":"post-production-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adorama.com\/alc\/post-production-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Production for Video: How to Develop a Workflow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The process for making a compelling finished film or video is comprised of three stages: pre-production, production, and post-production. Each stage has its own series of steps and workflows that allow a project to move forward.\u00a0In the pre-production stage, it\u2019s all about devising a creative concept, scouting locations, creating shot lists<\/a>, and preparing the gear to accomplish the goal.\u00a0From there, the process moves into the actual on-location production, where everything gets put into action. \u00a0In this article, we\u2019ll be covering the third and final stage \u2014\u00a0post-production<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Post-production can make or break the final outcome of a project. All of the work that has been done leading up to it needs to be combined into a final product. It consists of a number of different components. This includes data backup, choosing selects, color correction, sound editing, graphics and titles, music, and more.\u00a0Understanding and implementing a strong post-production workflow for video will ensure that you create a compelling final cut, and will give you a framework to work efficiently and successfully.<\/p>\n

Components of My Post-Production Workflow<\/h2>\n

Backing Up the Footage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is the first thing that I do after returning from on-location productions. Over the years, I\u2019ve developed a system for the backup of my video projects to ensure I never lose my work. I create several copies of my files and store them in multiple places. This is a technique that I adopted from my days as an IT Specialist, where data protection, recovery, and redundancy are essential components of protecting important information.<\/p>\n

Video productions also include crucial assets that are often very expensive to re-create, and need to be properly backed up and protected. I use a system for data back-up called the \u201c3-2-1 backup strategy\u201d. This strategy consists of making three copies of my assets, with two of them being on two different types of storage media and the third copy being off-site, which is typically cloud storage<\/a> for me.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Reza Malayeri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I typically start by off-loading all of my cards from my cameras, audio recorders, drones onto my computer. From there, I make my initial backup to my QNAP NAS<\/a><\/b><\/strong>, which has redundancy built-in to it already, through it\u2019s RAID array of multiple internal hard-drives. From there, I\u2019ll make a second backup of my project to my working drive for editing, which is my SanDisk Extreme PRO SSD. <\/a><\/b>The final copy is uploaded to my cloud-storage platform of choice, Dropbox.<\/p>\n

Organizing Assets into Folders<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is a very important step in my video post-production workflow, and has a significant impact on the efficiency of my editing. After backing up my project, I will turn my attention to curating and organizing all of my production assets. I typically create folders for each type of asset. This is so I can quickly find and manage my files once I\u2019m inside of my NLE of choice, which is Final Cut Pro X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some examples of the folders that I create when curating and organizing my production assets include:<\/p>\n