How do you execute a successful media production project?

As a first step, it is always good to start with a clear brief, who is your target audience and what is the the strategy to reach out to them. Once the who and what is the clear, we have direction to work on the budgets and the deliverables. It gives a clear direction for brain storming on concepts, scripts and execution. Once goals are defined, the process of conceptualising and executing a media campaign can be done with a focused purpose.

A mentor of mine often reminded me of this quote, " A goal without a plan is just a wish". Defining your objectives and boundaries helps everyone bring their own creative abilities to the table while heading in the same direction, turning dreams into reality, and creative into tangible results.

In my experience, it is important to avoid being too attached to your results in this part of the process. Intricate planning and scripting is important but it is equally important to be ready to abandon or modify elements during the production and editing phases in order to give room to developments which present themselves along the way. Your planning will help you to do this in a manner which is consistent with you goals. The military adage which comes to mind is : “no plan survives contact with the enemy”

Once the goals are set comes the difficult part of conceptualising and scripting your campaign or project. I find this part the most challenging as well as satisfying. A creative strategy or a concept can make or break a campaign. I like to begin with mind mapping and then develop my concepts with brain storming and mood boards. Once I have all the stakeholders onboard with the concepts and scripts, I go in for storyboarding and detailing required for pre production meetings and required for the next part of production.

Once the concepts, scripts and talent is approved. I get to secure my resources required to get to kick start my production. That would be blocking dates for the crew talent and locations. This also includes planing budgets and deciding on the camera and other equipment required for production. Once my production or shoot dates are planned and blocked, I will plan and book post production studio and crew and set my delivery dates. All be not work out as planned but having a plan in place helps to control budgets and manage client expectations.

In my experience, before preparing resources you need to fully understand the audience, how they conceive information and a platform to interact with the delivered product. In underdeveloped communicates, radio and television are the best medium so collecting feedback from locals can help you prepare resources to build projects that products that resonate with them.

For the production stage as a practice I have my shoot sequence ready before the day of shoot with the details, of talent, dialogues, props, costumes and other details along with the time the crew will spend on setting up the shot in each location or the camera set-up. This helps me not to over run on time on any sequence and re organise my production day if there are any unforeseen delays and emergencies. After each shot has been recorded I will review the video a well as audio quality before I move to the next shot. Though working under time and budget constrains ensure the talent and crew has the freedom to spontaneously express and make enhancements to concept and script. This adds energy and creativity to the campaign.

The edit table is where everything comes together or falls in place. It is a place where you can observe your brilliance as well as your flaws in production. It is important to give your editor enough time and space to go through the rushes, select the shots and put the sequence together. As a practice i will stick to the sequence planned in pre production but I keep my self open to suggestions from the editors and post production crew that enhances the storyline. As a rule i will first work on the 16:9 masters once theses are approved, i will work on designing the shorter durations and the resizes required for various social media platforms. All along need to keep an eye on the technical quality of the video and audio.

When working on a media production campaign, the most important thing I like to do is put together the right crew that will enable to bring the brief to life. When you have the right talent collaborating...magic happens. Ensure you have the right people onboard.