If pre-production isn't a priority, take that as a warning.

Twice last week the topic of pre-production was made a key topic around the office. The first time with a new client, who needed the process to be explained and second working with QPAC on a live simulcast, with content that had to be produced in real time.

When I was asked last week on a teleconference to explain the process, quite simply I explained that I am delighted to spend more of the client's money, but if they would like the shoot be be quicker and more cost effective, we need to lean in to pre-production.

When I talk about pre-production in this context, it is very much the exercise of uncovering the creative process, bringing out the ideas and creating a shot list or storyboard. This also requires a visiting the filming site and walking through the space, allowing for a creative analysis of the best approach and thinking through the logistics. There is a great deal of planning that we go into, but at the very lest, a shot list must be the starting point.

A decade ago, I could just turn up, film some stuff, cut it together and that would be good enough. For many who just pick up a camera and start filming, that is enough and there is generally a lower expectation of quality.

For the style of work that we create and the clients that we assist, we work through this process to mitigate risks. The risk of delivering a sub-par product is at the forefront of my mind in these planning sessions.

To give a real world example, on Saturday night we cut together a package of social media images uploaded to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and delivered those to the outside broadcast van. Seems reasonably simple at face value, but the entire project had to be created, with location titles, a draft uploaded and approved off-site, then a physical media delivery via car.

So we ran a full test, scraping images from the web, testing the export time, upload, conversion and everything that we had control over during that process. From that test we were able to identify area of concern where we were able to make changes to speed up the process. Ever minute counts and for anyone that has worked in production, you would know how quickly things can spiral!

I often find myself repeating the words of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov,

"Train hard, fight easy."

This mantra is applicable in so many instances, but when discussing with my clients or team, we work though in great detail what we can control, so that when something outside our control occurs, we are not on the mental limit and have the capacity to problem solve on the fly.

So when approaching a production project, take the time to prepare. If the team you engage don't make pre-production a priority, take that as a warning.