April 4, 2023
Considerations for Video Production
The Communications Solutions team loves to hear from specialists to local units with updates on all the great efforts they are leading to affect the lives of Kansans. Often those efforts include an ask, “We’d like Communications Solutions to do a video for us….”
That’s great! However, the Communications Solutions team would like to stress that the timeline to ideate, execute and produce a video is substantially longer than other communications tactics we develop and/or distribute. With that in mind, we’d like to remind Extension of the general timeline to develop a finished video project.
First, to place an event on our master schedule, we typically need to know at least one-month in advance of that date. Second, time needs to be made between the A/V team and the requestor to meet (maybe more than once) to decide what the outcome of the video will be (or if a video even makes sense). How do we want to shoot the event? What’s the goal of the video? Who is the target audience? Has a strategy been laid out about distribution platform (YouTube, Facebook, etc.)?
Post event, Communications Solutions will need two to three weeks of editing time (ex: think cutting out the “uhs,” shooting b-roll, developing graphic elements, adding music or background photos, etc.) depending on the length of the video. Please understand that we aren’t staffed to turn a video project around in 24 hours. Finally, a couple more points: if we are waiting on a third party on their video, photos or b-roll, this will only add more time to completion of the project.
When it comes to other communication tactics, such as KSRE News stories or an interview on Agriculture Today, Communications Solutions can be more flexible and turnkey. Video just does not fit this model.