Post Production Guidance

Here are the steps involved in the post-production process. These are guidelines and not intended to be all-encompassing. However, they will help you organize yourself for this phase of production. These steps are what video producers must do to prepare for an edit session. Learning the actual editing application you plan to use must be accomplished by studying the application's manuals and tutorials. This may be a challenge but once you have accomplished your first video, you will have a valuable new skill as a video producer.

Review your videotapes, using your Videotape Pre-Edit Log to write what is happening on the tape making note of the time code. Time code is the reference information on a videotape given in hours-minutes-seconds-frames. There are 30 frames to the second in video. You can generally see the time code in a window on the camera itself or if you are using an editing application, it will be noted. At this point, just note the basic information, not frames. While you are reviewing, think about what shots are most important to include in your video.
Write your pre-edit script. Use your word-processing program to set-up a two column format with video selections in the left column and audio in the right column (See the Sample Pre-Edit Script in PDF format; you will need Acrobat Reader.). This is when you must encapsulate your lesson for your viewing audience since you will not be able to include all of what you videotaped in your final product. Sequence your shots in logical order selecting the best and most representative shots. You will want to clearly identify the content, information skills, strategies, and procedures used. You can excerpt parts of your de-briefing segment to help with this task. When you are finished, roughly time out your script by reading it outloud leaving pauses for video shots as necessary. It should not be longer than 5 minutes. Ideally, you have encapsulated all the action into a 2-3 minute script. Once you are satisfied, identify any passages you intend to read as narration by giving them a number.
Record your narration. Narration is used to support video shots. Narration can also be referred to as voiceovers. You may need to record introductory or transitional narration to create a weaving thread throughout your video or to encapsulate long segments. (What may have taken 15 minutes in "real time" could often be compressed to 30 seconds to a minute on videotape.) Set up your videocamcorder in a quiet area and record your audio on a blank section of your videotape. Be careful not to record over anything you have already shot. It is an easy mistake to make! Try and use a microphone to achieve good audio quality, if possible. Otherwise, stay close to the camera for better pick-up. To make it easy to identify the narration on your tape, write the word NARRATION on a piece of paper and put it in front of the camera lens. It is not necessary for you to be seen in the shot; only your voice (or that of the person you have selected to do the narration) is important. You may not be satisfied with the first few takes so do an audio slate for each attempt. For example, before trying to read narration (or voiceover) #1 for the third time, with the camera rolling, simply say "Voiceover #1, take 3." Pause, then read the paragraph. The pause is necessary to make it easy to separate your content from your slate when you are editing. Make a note on your script of the voiceover you want to use. Then, you will only have to capture that section of tape when you begin the editing process. It is safer to do additional takes than to keep rewinding the tape to re-record; that scenario can both lead to unintentionally erasing good takes and causing wear and tear (i.e., loss of quality) to your tape.
Capture your video from your camera into your computer using the application available to you. You must be selective (unless you have unlimited space on your computer) because video takes up a great deal of space. There are many programs available for capturing and editing video. The S.O.S. video team uses Pinnacle software for capturing and Adobe Premiere for editing, for example.
Edit your video. Again, you must become very familiar with your editing application before you attempt to edit your S.O.S. video; otherwise, it could become a frustrating exercise. Rather, we hope this experience will be rewarding and exciting to you! Once you are familiar with your program, choose a frame size of approximately 320 X 240 pixels for the end product since your video will be used on the Web. Incorporate your voiceovers with the video footage you shot and excerpts from your de-briefing segment. Add music (that you have copyright permission to use, of course) and graphics, as desired. If possible, provide text for the title of your video, and your name, title, and school district when your face first appears in the video. Do not cover any part of your face with the text. Using text in the lower third of the screen is generally the safest approach. If you feel comfortable adding text elsewhere to reinforce your video, feel free to do so. If you use music, make sure it is well-balanced with your voice. A common tendency is to make music overshadow the voice. Your voice is the most important content unless the music is used in the clear during a section of the video.
Compress your video. Your finished video is not actually ready for Web delivery even though you selected a resolution of only approximately 320 X 240 pixels. It is still a very HUGE file. The next step will be to compress your video. Many editing programs allow you to compress your video files right there. Although we edit in Adobe Premiere, we use Media Cleaner to compress video files. We use a quicktime compression for many of the S.O.S. videos but you might like to experiment with your program using different compression schemes. You will find there can be amazing differences by changing a few settings. Remember, this is a learning process so be excited by what you are accomplishing and do get too frustrated with minor setbacks.
Upload your video to the S.O.S. database. The final step will be uploading your video in conjunction with your lesson plan. You will accomplish this by using your preferred FTP program with the settings provided by S.O.S. for connecting and uploading your video file in Step 2 of the Submissions process.

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