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	document.write('I love to cook. <strong>I love to edit.</strong> I love to connect things that I love and stretch metaphors to their very limit. When it comes to making video, there are three primary phases. Just to be confusing, I suppose, film people long before my time started using the word “production” to mean both the overall act of making video and also the phase that revolves around gathering assets (typically video footage, but sometimes photos). Prior to the production phase there is the appropriately named planning phase called “pre-production” and at the end of the process, there’s the manipulation of assets into a cohesive piece, and yes, it’s called “post-production.” That’s probably not new to a lot of you, but have you ever considered how closely cooking parallels making videos? Step 1: Planning. Pre-production is always kicked off with brainstorming, even if it’s you and a friend drinking coffee and one says to the other “someone needs to make a how-to video on risotto.” If this, or a similar situation occurs, then congratulations, you’ve officially entered pre-production. A good meal (the overall experience, including people and atmosphere) requires a good menu (the actual food being served), and that, of course, takes planning. You need to ensure that every individual recipe you use is a good one, but don’t lose sight of the big picture. The entire meal needs to be both harmonious and thorough. Mashed potatoes and chutney are good on their own, but probably won’t mix into a harmonious whole (I dare you to prove me wrong). The best bread in the world alone won’t make for a very thorough meal. The same principle applies to video. A dramatic change in lighting style, camera style, or format during the piece will hurt the harmony. The best interview in the world will not feel thorough without b-roll to cover the cuts and visually illustrate the topics. Chefs meticulously pair the protein with the beverage, and a video professional needs to put this same amount of care into combining the myriad aspects of the video, like the style of their titles with themes of the video, for example. Pre-production tackles everything from the overall presentation of the meal, all the way down to the quantity and type of seasoning. Take a lot of notes. Step 2: Shopping. Hopefully in pre-production you were able to make yourself a shopping list of everything you want to go into your final product. Maybe you need footage from multiple locations, of multiple people, with multiple camera angles, lenses, and times-of-day. All those different factors need to be accounted for before you start shopping to make the best use of your (and your crew’s) time. You can’t shop forever, but during this phase you do have to ensure that later you’ll be cooking with only the freshest goods. If one shot isn’t working, try a different one, just always keep an eye on the clock and don’t deviate too much from your pre-production. You can’t always get back to the store to pick up something you forgot. Video production, especially non-fiction or low budget, is one big mess of ticking timers. You’re usually racing against the sun (going down or coming up), your subjects or actors need to be other places, locations are closing, budget is running out, etc. If you have too little time, you’ll have to prioritize and grab what is absolutely essential for the project. If you have too much time, consider getting a little extra. You may later find that you unexpectedly got just what you need to top of the meal. Be picky, but hustle. Step 3: Putting it all together. Now comes the fun part. It’s time to take your pieces and put them to work! This is the part of the entire process where you get to create your harmony. And just like cooking, post production is both an art and a science. You’ll need to be methodical and creative. You’ll need to be organized if you want to stay on schedule and eccentric if you want to make it memorable. Hopefully your pre-production included some kind of time-line or layout so you know where to start. In cooking, you’ll probably prioritize the foods that are going to take the longest or have long rest periods first. In movie making, you’ll want to break down your project into chapters or themes to keep it manageable. Don’t focus too much on one thing while others are burning, so remember that it’s always ok to ask others for help or have a third-party taste-tester on hand towards the end. More opinions are good, but beware having too many cooks in the kitchen. There are countless different techniques, workarounds, and shortcuts that you can use if you have to. You can add all kinds miscellaneous tid bits in, but don’t get super fancy right off the bat. If you’re going to have a savvy connoisseur in the audience later they probably won’t be impressed if you don’t have the basics down. And for the record, page curl and other gimmicky transitions are rarely the right choice. Stick to the salt and pepper of video transitions; cut and fade. Or, if you’re editing Star Wars, I suppose you could use a wipe, but you probably aren’t, so you probably shouldn’t. Step 4: Serving & Consumption. Once you pull the final product out, it’s time to serve it. Thanks to all your hard work, you should be fairly confident by now that your audience is going to like it. Sometimes, things just don’t mesh like you had hoped, and that’s ok, especially your first time. It’s a learning process. Now you can sit back and experience the gestalt that you have just created. Hopefully, you’re able to share it with friends and see their enjoyment. Final Note: Farm-to-Table video. Sure, there are some really great viral videos out there where very little of this applies. Some video is fresh from the source. No planning, no processing. You can just walk by and grab it. Whatever it is that was captured on camera may have happened unexpectedly or for some reason was an otherwise normal moment gone awesome (or in some cases, terrible). They’re like fruit picked straight from the bush. You take a risk, sometimes you get a worm or mold or what have you. Sometimes you just get normal fruit. But if the combination of factors is just right, then it really can be spectacular and fresh. I like this one. It’s a nice blend of cute kid, well humored father, shaken up and mixed with some post-anesthetic befuddlement. I laughed really hard when I first saw it (maybe too hard), but I couldn’t watch it 5 times in a day, whereas I could eat my sister’s methodically constructed thanksgiving stuffing about a dozen times in a row. Sadly, I think this year I did just that. Alright, end of metaphor. Thanks for reading!');
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