Commercials sure are grand, aren’t they? Commercial advertising on a broadcast basis has frequented our airwaves since the early 1940′s, and since the rise of the internet age advertisements being prevalent in all forms of media has increased tenfold. Maybe you’re a fan of The Most Interesting Man in the World, an old woman asking you where “the beef” is, or perchance one of the many quality advertisements provided to you by Potratz Advertising Partners (*wink). No matter what your poison may be, we all have that small array of ads we don’t mind interrupting our television shows or web videos.

A question we often overlook however, is how do these advertisements come to be? In short, television and web ads come from the world of production, and let me tell you from personal experience – productions seldom go executed without any bumps along the way. Anyone working in the video or film production industry is acutely familiar with the term “Murphy’s Law” – an old adage theorizing that “anything that can go wrong – will go wrong”. Well friends, there is a reason for that. Sure video and film workers can be natively whiny and over-analytical people, but these traits aren’t founded from nothing. Well friends, I’m here to tell you that things don’t always have to pan out so terribly!

In a series of blog posts I’ll be covering the three core steps of production: pre-production, production, and post production. I’ll be covering how I believe you can develop each step efficiently, and reveal some of the mistakes often made that lead to a chaotic production process. Our first stop, pre-production.

I’ll never understand this, but pre-production all too often gets overlooked as a critical cog in the machine of production. Presumably, because this part of the process is usually the most boring. Maybe it’s because anxiety kicks in and you just want to ‘pull the trigger already’ so-to-speak. But make no mistake – “pre-pro” is as detrimental to the outcome of your production as making sure the camera is actually recording. Sure, roll your eyes, but I don’t think a soul has ever uttered the phrase “Well, jeez, if ONLY we didn’t PLAN so much before our shoot…”.

For those who don’t know, pre-production is the period in which (before a production actually begins photography) you concept, develop, plan, organize and strategize your upcoming shoot/production schedule. This can mean you’re doing everything from pitching ideas, writing and editing scripts, preparing equipment lists, props, costumes, shoot dates, transportation and food needs, possible editing milestones…really ANYTHING that shouldn’t need figuring out on the day the camera rolls gets settled during pre-production (again, IF you’re doing it right, that is).

I cannot stress enough how important this process is. It’s truly staggering at times when you take into account how many fine details go into producing even the most seemingly basic product of video or film. What time can the actor make it to set? What will the weather be like? How many camera batteries do we have? Where can we plug our lights in? How many members of the crew are vegetarian? The list of concerns needing ironed out in the “pre-pro” stage stretches on and on. Granted, on a set nothing is ever truly set in stone. If the mood or inspiration strikes you and you can feasibly pull it off, there’s no shame in deviating from the predetermined plan or schedule to attack the shoot from a new angle, get some new footage, etc… The idea is just to swerve away from any potential potholes that may arise through planning prior to your shoot.

In any case, in my experience I’ve often seen people stop short of an actual pre-production cycle. This almost always leads to wasted time somewhere on set which then trickles into losing footage, and finally our favorite – losing money. To avoid this means staying committed and running the full gamut of pre-pro. Being willing to allow yourself and your crew the time to make sure everything is planned. Sit down and don’t be afraid to take the time to go through the script line by line with everyone involved with the production. Get the concept of the upcoming shoot out in the open, and storyboard a shot structure. Determine a full equipment breakdown from the most critical items down, then pack and prepare said items. Develop call sheets (detailed shoot schedules) that are mutually understood by everyone involved. Lay out the potential shooting schedule, and plan time for pickups. Even take the time to review your progress once all is said and done. This way, when things go awry on set (and believe me, something almost always happens) your crew is all the more capable of dealing with it. It’s the planning and that room for error that makes all the difference. You’ll have an easier shoot, have time to get better footage, have time to pickup any extra or missed footage, and you get to look like a total boss while doing so. Again just being willing to invest in the time it takes to plan properly goes an insanely long way. The more you do this, the faster the process will become. It’s completely worth it.