Different aspects & disciplines
As much as we (video producing people & you the clients, who engage our services) know or claim to know, one thing stands clear. There are quite a few different aspects and disciplines in producing videos. For the uninitiated, video is just video. But when we really stop and think about it, we’d know that the scope is much wider. Generally… the breadth of it starts from i) Personal videography (weddings, anniversaries, biographical videos, etc) ii) Event videography iii) Short films… to iv) Corporate video production v) Broadcast video production, vi) TVC (TV Commercials) production and vii) Cinematography in Film/HD for the big screen.
Different practitioners (people who produce videos) from different disciplines have this tendency to frown at each other across that divide. Be it in envy or to despise, it really shouldn’t be (ideally speaking). Actually, each specific aspect and discipline calls for different set skills and if you were to analyze, compare and contrast, you’d know what I mean. This however, only refers to actual formally or self-trained practitioners and not hobbyist or anyone claiming to be a professional, just by owning or having equipment in their possession.
Personal videography is generally the most frowned upon. This is greatly due to the collective lack of standards which has become a common place. Anyone and everyone can point, shoot and compile shots, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re practitioners of the craft or professionals for that matter. Most make bold self proclamations of their talent and ability, while a select few who are natural gifted (with an ability, more than they consciously are aware of), tips that balance slightly.
PERSONAL VIDEOGRAPHY
Videography at a personal level is actually the most challenging. Often, one would be working alone without the support of a team (camera assistant, gaffer, grip, producer or director) or extensive equipment support (camera support, sound recording gear, grip equipment, lighting, etc). One has to re-tell a story through the crafting of shots with angles, motion, spatial placement, relational linking & selective focussing. Each shot has to be also sequenced properly as being shot, in a logical order as if the video was edited on the fly while shooting. Not only that, much has to be processed & executed simultaneously in real time as one crafts, while unobtrusively directing and having the technical sensitivity in photographic fundamentals of exposure, aperture, shutter and framing at the same time. Unlike staged video shoots with a crew, everything happens live and once only. It is indeed a tall order.
As an example to illustrate… an Engagement of Philip & Kate… Philip lost his dad to cancer 6 years back and has his aged mother of 90, as his only family. Kate in contrast, has a bigger family with both her parents, 3 brothers, 4 sisters, 3 nephews & 2 nieces. Throughout the celebration, the videographer randomly steals moments in time by juxtaposing both Philip and his beloved mother. He contrasts the revelry and merry making with Philip’s mother’s silent welled-up tears of contentment. Philip while lost in locked expressions in entertaining everyone, we see his mother at the far corner of the living room, out-of-focussed and alone. The spontaneity and camaraderie of friends express themselves in boisterousness. From laughter to teasing, we see the wrinkled clasped hands of Philip’s mother, struggling to take a sip of tea. With the pursuing din, Philip’s mum nurses the tea cup with her trembling hands and brings it closer to drink. We see her weathered face for the very first time. From a face lost in time, to her hazy grey cataract eyes, we see an out-of-focussed reflection of Philip in his unrestrained, hearty laugh on her glasses. From a room full of well-wishing friends and family, we see Philip’s mum in her dignified red cheongsam, framed against a huge oak wood display cabinet of prized ornate antiquities… you get the idea.
EVENT VIDEOGRAPHY
Next would be event videography. This is more technical than creative. It requires an in-depth understanding of video camera types, their strengths & limitations, low-light sensitivity, lens interchangeability to match each camera’s CCD, width of coverage with different lenses, ability for remote controlling through CCU etc. Besides all the camera technicalities, one also needs to know how to run lengths of cable for transmitting audio, video and eliminating ground loop and hum through various external processors. Depending on the scope of the event videography, vision mixing may also be required and a whole additional skill set comes to play. From operating, switching and cutting to splitting signal paths through distribution amplifiers… Majority of practitioners in this field are veterans from old broadcast days of TCS, SBC and beyond. Not something one pick’s up just through a formal course alone.
Practitioners of this craft will give you great shots every other time in the setting of a staged event, but they are not ones to react to spontaneity or make friends with serendipity.
SHORT FILMS
This is growing in popularity daily. Every other video enthusiast aspires to produce a short or feature length film that will be nominated and/or win some foreign award at some film festival. Some even hope to be talent spotted in the process, and leap frog from the small to the big screen and advance their careers at the same time. Most who share this quest or just the love of producing short films, are busy working professionals and/or students of media and video/film-making. The working professional earn and invest a large part of their income into this. It’s equivalent to a paid mental vacation, to escape from the harsh realities of daily life, together with friends. For the student on the other hand, it’s a natural extension of their curriculum, to showcase their cumulative educational journey. The collective creative process for all, is a very visible one – which makes it seemingly attractive and exciting.
The reality is far from the collective truth. In the process of producing a short film, every single expense is borne by the producers of the film. From the renting of equipment, location & wardrobe for the shoot, to hiring video editing facilities to edit. Even the cost of making copies of the finished film for submitting to various film festivals, is additional expense. So let’s say the film gets nominated or wins an award and the producers are invited, the passage and accommodation are even more additional expenses. With a logical mind, it’s just not viable or feasible a venture to undertake. Even if you have interested investors, what can they be promised and assured as tangible returns?
If that’s possibly the truth, then why the peaking of interest and growing of this phenomenon? Simply put, it gives the average joe, an opportunity to create, produce and showcase an expression or interpretation of the ego. So its rarely about crafting an objective for a cause or organisation. Viability and feasibility are just words that stand in the shadow of the scheme of things.
Anyone who lay claim to the title of a film-maker or one who produces short-films, may not be able to adapt well to understanding and executing set requirements of a client / organisation in producing its videos. This is attributed by the inability of that individual to focus solely on external needs rather than that of his own.
CORPORATE VIDEO PRODUCTION
Everyone from here, are from a very mixed background and training. Some have risen through the ranks from decades of field experience, with some fresh from institutes of higher learning while others stretch and extend themselves from telling personal stories to that of a corporate one.
The challenge in corporate video production is not a technical one, but rather understanding exactly what the client / organisation needs and set about crafting the requirements while having the sensitivity for non-communicated details. Examples of non-communicated details… Let’s say you’re producing an outreach video for a community development centre, the shots of people have to racially balanced, proper age and social class representation, not having obvious religious pendant / amulets work and displaying the right aptitude and attitude etc.
Scope of clients / organisations will vary and some may require motion graphic designing (to create their branding, mission & vision statements, informative segments etc), delivery in various formats from disc media, streaming online, to presenting live to an audience at an event etc. Depending on the intended target audience of the produced video, considerations have to also be made for them. From language versions, to pace of the video, size of presented information on screen etc.
Level of professionalism is as scalable as the size of the team in producing corporate videos. It is solely dependent of set requirements and budget confines. No project is too big or too small for a humble personal videographer, right through to cinematographers of the big screen. It’s just a case of finding the right match of requirements to ability, and pairing them together.
BROADCAST VIDEO PRODUCTION
Just like corporate video production, the background and training of practitioners in broadcast video production, is mixed. The roles however, are fixed in most typical productions. There would be the Director, Producer, Asst. Producer (Not always, but with bigger productions, he/she is the one that generally runs around co-ordinating & assisting almost everyone), Cameraman, Camera Asst (sometimes anyone free during the shoot fulfills that role), Sound Recordist (Sound man), Gaffer (Lighting guy), Grip (one who assists the gaffer and sometimes the cameraman). Having individuals with assigned fixed roles creates a dynamic team as each one focusses only on one specific area of the video production. And for post-production (video editing), the video editor only edits and designs motion graphics if he’s capable. This enables a very high quality control of the overall production.
There’s a drawback in this however. As every role is fixed and defined, the rigidity becomes an issue when you have to scale down the team to keep within the budget guidelines for the production. No doubt there are multi-skilled practitioners who can fulfill the roles of both a Producer & Director, but rarely a Cameraman that does sound and vice versa. Some practitioners welcome the extending of roles to cover missing crew members in the area of lighting & grip, but not always the case.
Broadcast video production crews will give you great shots and clear sound recordings, but require you to direct them specifically. They can re-tell stories well, but it has be either scripted or through directions of the Director.
TV COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION
As with a broadcast video production crew, these practitioners are higher skilled. Higher skilled in the sense of their ability to craft with greater control, utilising higher-end equipment and more elaborate lighting and sets. Why is this so? Most typical TVCs have only 30 to 60 sec of broadcast air time, per broadcast and air time is also very expensive. Because of the high costs involved and the limited duration of the TVC, every single second of the production is crucial. So the amount of detail that goes in to planning and executing the TVC is fundamental.
Besides technical requirements, set expectations are very high. First, there’s the expectation of the Director of Photography (DP or Cameraman) to be met, the Director, followed by the Advertising Agency’s creative team and finally the client’s. Given the high investment of the client with the involvement of both the Advertising Agency & TVC production crew in producing the TVCs, they expect the scale of everything to be large and oversized. So both the Advertising Agency & the TVC production crew have to cater to that need in reassuring the client, that their investment has been well worth it.
Practitioners of TVC production are a select group. As they are specialists in their respective crafts, they don’t really cross any divide to fulfill any other scope of work.
CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR HD/FILM
Take what a TVC production crew does and scale it up, that’s precisely it.
AN OVERVIEW
Having defined the various aspects and disciplines generally, we better understand why oftentimes, there’s a disparity of expectations and budget guidelines. It’s not always the case that when a video production team/crew quotes high to undertake a project, it means that they are over-charging. It could simply mean that there’s a mismatch of project requirements to skill set & experience. Likewise, if the project’s budget allocation is low, the video production team facilitating the scope of work, may just be a simple one-man videographer.
With these changing times, there’s a diversity of practitioners with a mix bag of skill sets to meet what you need for your projects. Seek one that provides you scalable options from simple one-man videography to a full crew. One that has both the ability and the experience in undertaking and managing projects of various scopes and sizes. Don’t just engage a video service provide on an adhoc basis, partner one to be part of your dynamic workflow and grow together!
