Production gets you raw material. Editing turns that raw material into something people actually want to watch.
That holds for both video and photo. If you have ever wondered about video production vs video editing, or why one quote for video production in Roanoke can look so different from the next, here is the plain-language version. And if you are still deciding whether professional photography and videography is worth it for your business, I covered that too.
What production is, and what editing is:
Production is the planning and the shoot. It is everything that happens before and during the time the camera is rolling or the shutter is clicking. What comes out of it is raw material, and raw looks exactly like it sounds. The lighting might shift a little from one shot to the next. The color might not match. It looks like what it is, which is unfinished.
Editing is what happens after. You will sometimes hear it called post-production. This is where the lighting gets matched, the color gets corrected, and the pieces get shaped into a finished product. It is where the cinematic look comes out of a photo or a video, the richness and polish that make someone stop scrolling.
The two phases are not separate worlds. What I do on set decides how much work the edit has to do. As a photographer and a videographer, I try to control as many variables as I can during production so the editing gets simpler. Better footage going in means a better finished piece coming out.
What production looks like at Novum:
For video
It starts with an intake. I ask what you are looking for and what you want the finished piece to do, and we agree on a direction before anything gets scheduled. Then we pick a location, or walk the one we have, and check the lighting, the sound, and anything that could cause a distraction or overlap. Every problem I solve in the room is a problem I do not have to fix in the edit.
For a testimonial, I prepare the questions ahead of time and I do not share them. Your interviewee knows what the shoot is about, but not what is coming, so the answers are fresh instead of rehearsed.
On shoot day the room is calm, the setup is done, and the questions are ready, so when someone walks in they can step right in front of the camera. Plenty of people are on edge around a camera, so we start with a few warm-up questions, things like their favorite sports team or what they think the weather is going to do, and a couple more once we start rolling. That gets them talking and comfortable before the real questions arrive.
For photo:
Same idea, different tools. I ask questions while I shoot to get people smiling or thinking, and I click the shutter when they do not expect it. For sports portraits and graduation portraits especially, a silly question or a thinking question pulls out an expression a posed smile never will. Those in-between moments, where someone is not posing and not performing, are often the best frames of the session and often the ones that get used. We shoot the posed shots too. But getting the person comfortable is what makes the good ones happen.
What editing looks like:
Editing is where scope really shows up. It can be as simple as cleaning up a photograph as it was shot, or as involved as replacing an entire background on a sports portrait. For video it means matching the lighting across clips, correcting color, and building the finished piece, or several pieces, from the footage.
Where the time and the cost land:
Cost follows scope, and scope lives in both phases. On the production side it is how many people, how long we are on site, and what we are trying to capture. On the editing side it is how many videos you want, how many photos you want, and how deep the editing goes.
That is why I do not hand out one flat number for everything. Every project is priced around that client and that project, because no two are alike. If you want a feel for how it works, I break down how photography and videography pricing gets built in How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Photographer? The short version is that more depth takes more time, and more time costs more.
What happens when the plan falls apart:
Clients rarely skip a phase. What goes wrong is oversight, sometimes on their end and sometimes on mine, and I fix what I can in editing. The better answer is planning, so I confirm ahead of time that the interviewees are booked and that a room is available and set aside.
Even then, things go sideways. I once walked into a video testimonial shoot and none of the interviewees showed up. We ended up pulling people in off the street who happened to be waiting on a ride. Their ride had just shown up and they were about to leave, and we rushed them in front of the camera anyway.
The footage was not the best I have ever shot, but it was good and it was usable. That worked because everything was about 90 percent set up before anyone sat down, so it only took a couple of extra minutes to get going. A few things went to the wayside, like a thorough mic check, but it still came together because I run three audio sources: the camera, an external microphone, and an external recorder.
Sometimes the stuff that goes wrong turns into content too. People like behind-the-scenes. You never know what you are going to capture, and when you are prepared, you can turn a rough morning into something good.
What to do before you hire anyone for photo or video:
Vet the person. Make sure they know what they are doing, that they are available when you need them, and that they will be responsive when you reach out.
One misconception I would like to put to rest is that you can judge a photographer or videographer by the size of their portfolio alone. A portfolio tells you something, but not everything. You also have to weigh the person, their mindset, their ability, how they represent themselves, and whether other people are referring them. It is the same reason I wrote about why people buy you, not just your logo. The work is only part of the picture.
Where to start:
At Novum, nothing goes in a cookie-cutter shoebox. Everything is built around the client, because no two businesses are alike. Photo and video live in Content Studio, and it is a good place to see what we do.
If you are planning a shoot, or you have a quote in hand and want it explained, book a free consultation at novumcreative.org/contact. No pressure, just a straight conversation about what you need and what it would take to do it right.
