The Perfect Post-Production Process

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We finished all of the shooting, but now we have to edit.

What happens after the shoot can feel like a lot, but if you organize your post-production process, you can create amazing ads from what you shot.

You can have the best research coupled with the best video and talent on camera, but the ad can flop if you don't edit the videos correctly.

Most editors are not set up for success.

Editors are editors - not direct response ad copywriters.

You shouldn't expect them to just make an ad that converts.

Even with training, that is not their job fully.

It is the creative strategist’s job to build the framework of the ad.

Most people don't have an organized system and it is left on the editor who is not ready to create an ad from scratch.

Let's change that today by walking through the full editing system of Goodo Studios.

What’s in a post-production?

At the core of a great post-production process, you need a few things:

• Editing

• Collaboration

• File Management

• Project Management

Most people could create more ads and better ads if they just clarified their process.

These four elements can make or break your success within post-production.

Editing

A great edit starts with a great brief.

You can make a great brief from our process I discussed a few weeks ago.

An editor can't save bad footage or bad scripting.

A video is just a visualization of a script.

It is the editor’s job to go through the script and find the best video clips that connect with what is being said in the script.

Hook

To make a great video ad, start with the hook.

If the hook is not clear or makes sense, then the rest of the video won't perform.

It is better for the editor to focus on the hook to make sure it pops and stands out just like you would with writing.

B-Roll

Beyond a great hook, the key is to match what is being said to what is being shown.

Too often I see ads where what is being said is not connected at all to what is being shown.

In our briefs, we have b-roll suggestions for every line of copy so there is less guessing by the editor.

It is up to the editor to keep the edit snappy and quick.

There are times we might go slower in the edit if we are talking to an older audience but even then, you can't have a clip holding for 5 seconds unless there is a lot of action within that clip.

The best way to think about if the clip is too long, if you are itching for the next clip, it is too late. You want to give people enough in each clip to understand what they are seeing but not too much making you want more.

Fast is not always better because too fast and you confuse your viewer which is just as bad as boring your viewer.

If you wanted a range, .8 to 1.7 seconds is a good range to play in.

Captions and text on screen

I am in the belief to caption all of your ads on social.

Some people listen with sound but most don't.

80% of viewers are more likely to finish a video with subtitles according to Verizon and Publicis Media.

But your captions should not take up the whole screen.

Captions should be on one line between 13-15 characters in a line. This keeps the captions snappy but not too fast where it is easy to read them and enjoy the video too.

If you put multiple lines for captions it can be hard for the eyes to read.

Beyond the captions, having text on screen can help enforce what is being said and shown. We don't want the text to be so distracting or in the way, so simplifying that copy on screen is key.

Music

Music is a key player for the ad but not a lot of people talk about it.

Music sets the vibe and there is nothing worse than a song ruining the ad and vibe of the brand.

I like to think about pace of the song first, do you need something fast or slow paced. Then I try and get a genre that is connected with the brand and feels aligned.

Don't play a techno song for a kids brand and maybe don't play a country song for a workout video.

It is okay to go through a lot of songs to find the right fit.

And please for the love of God do not use copyright music.

You will get fined.

You have been warned.

Talking on camera

The other basics of a great edit and making sure that the script doesn't have gaps between lines, and the talking flows well together.

Ideally the actor or creator has done a good job at this, but the editor can make sure there are no dead spaces between lines and picks the best takes.

When you do have talking and the actor or creator is on screen talking, you can use jump cuts or zoom in or out to keep the talking engaging versus it flat.

This doesn't mean go crazy and cut every .2 seconds but use a little movement to keep the pace of the video.

Collaboration

I never expect the first draft to be perfect.

It shouldn’t be.

It is a first draft.

Great feedback is the make or break of a great edit.

It is hard to talk about an edit when you are just talking theory.

It is easier to talk about the edit when you have a first draft and something to work off of.

I push my editors to get that first draft out as fast as possible because I would hate from them to try to "perfect" the edit and be completely off from what we actually wanted in the video and then we wasted their time, project time, and it will be late.

To minimize confusion, the first draft goes out and the creative strategist needs to make sure we are in the right direction.

Here is how to review a video:

1. Watch all the way through. Do not comment or write notes. Just watch. Did it convince you? If not, what needs to change? If it did, you can move on to next stage.
2. Watch the ad again and make sure all of the visuals are what you want. Start to add comments for editor.
3. Watch again, and make sure the talking is fluid. It is okay to cut lines that feel extra.
4. Watch again to make sure you feel good about the edit comments you made.
5. Lastly check captions, text on screen, coloring of video, and music.

A lot goes into just reviewing one video but you are doing a disservice for not being thorough.

The same people who complain that the ads aren't working are the same people who aren't willing to get their hands dirty and actually collaborate.

No one said this work was easy but if you are willing to give feedback, you end up less frustrated and happy that your vision is actually coming to life.

Over time, as you work with your editor, they learn how you communicate and your style that you want in the ads.

Some people look negatively at having to give edits.

That is a bad posture to have.

You need to know that collaboration is necessary, and very rarely will a person get your vision immediately.

First draft fast, then course correct.

The reason I like to use Air.inc is because you can annotate and have timestamps for your comments making it easy for the editor to understand what you are saying in the comments.

The ease of collaboration is important for the editor to get back to their job versus spending hours on admin and figuring out what you are saying.

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File Management

File management is the most unsexy part of editing but the most critical part.

If you spend 5 minutes searching a folder and then another 15 later, and over the course of editing 4 hours, you spent 45 hours in file manager.

The worst part is that every time you cut out of the editing program, you lose concentration making it hard to get into deep work.

Unorganized files = distraction and confusion.

Those two items is not what you want your editor to have.

My team uses Air.inc for our file storage (no not sponsored but I love this product).

We have all of our files on Air for our editor to grab and edit.

Also clients can get access to the final edits.

The goal for file management is to make it easier for your editors to find files and edit ads.

There are two ways to organize content.

1. Use Air to tag your content.

I love this feature from Air, because you could tag your content by certain attributes or product and then the editor doesn't need to click through a hundred folders - they just use the search bar and pick the content they like.

2. Tag all content in Premiere.

We shoot a lot of footage that might suck.

In a two minute clip there might be three seconds of gold because we were trying to get this one moment.

Tagging 2 minutes of bad footage doesn't make sense for us.

So we cut through all of our footage for the brand, and then we label the footage based on what is being shown in Premiere.

Later we can use that footage easily.

Also in future months, we stay in the same Premiere project so we can actually pull clips from months before.

It is very efficient for us and all in one program.

What not to do with files

Most people just randomly toss footage in folders with no system and then never end up using the content.

Your organization becomes person dependent.

Your current marketing manager knows what is in each folder, but what happens when they leave?

What happens when a new person joins?

They don’t know where anything is.

With a tagging system, you can transcend folders and find files quicker.

It is worth the time to make a system that works for you because it will save headache later.

Project Management

Slack is not your project management tool.

You need a true tracker.

Especially when you get to a bigger scale, it is hard to keep track of what is being edited and being revised or launched.

You do not need anything fancy, but you need something to track your content progress.

We use Coda and have a table where we have a video per row.

We make sure there is a due date, an editor assigned, who is managing the video, and who is reviewing the video.

Lastly and most importantly, we have a stage of where the video is:

Assigned
Ready to Edit
Editing
Internal Review
Internal review revisions
Client Review
Client Revisions
Ready to Launch

You might have a different process internally but essentially map out your stages of a video going from start to finish.

Some people include filming and creative strategy in these stages but those are separate tasks for us by separate people so we have editing stages for the editors specifically.

These stages help us understand where videos are in the pipeline and who is editing what.

The last special part about using Coda is that we keep all comments in Coda.

So most people might talk in Slack or email, we do it in Coda.

This keeps a record of all discussion on September Video 1 for She's Birdie without distracting or losing information for other videos in that project or even across clients.

The streamline of the communication is very helpful to manage tasks.

The process to have an editor start

We have an internal doc that is a crazy step by step guide with all things Adobe Premiere and more. I am going to highlight the most important steps and let you build out your own version from there.

1. Send brief and files to editor.
2. Editor should review the brief and the creative strategist should explain the brief, initial vision, and anything about the footage.
3. Editor organizes the footage in the editing project.
4. Editor will go through all of the footage clip the best footage
5. Editor will place the a-roll/talking onto the sequence. The script should match the brief.
6. Then editor places the clips they liked as b-roll over the a-roll on the sequence based on the brief suggestions.
7. The editor will play through the video and tighten up the pacing and add cuts/movement on the footage.
8. Add captions and text on screen
9. Add music to match the vibe and footage.
10. add any sound effects if needed.
11. Finally add color on the footage if needed.
12. Export out and upload Air. Notify creative strategist to review content.
13. Once the editor gets comments, they will go back into the project and make the final edits.
14. If the videos need another look, the creative strategist will. If not, then the editor will also reframe to other formats.
15. Export all formats and upload the content to Air to have media buyer download and launch.

You will thank me later for being organized with your files and editing.

This is the key to a successful ads process.

The last part to go through is reading creative data and how to create based on feedback you get.

Until then, keep creating!

Matthew Gattozzi

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My team and I create hassle-free creatives for consumer brands. If you are thinking about getting content, let’s set up a chat.

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