The WeVideo Story (Behind the Scenes)

The WeVideo story began with a simple idea: Create an easy way for people to tell their stories.
We truly believe that video is the best way to do it and we have dedicated our skills and time to provide a tool that will help you create and share yours.
In this video, we turned the camera and tools on ourselves and asked Bjørn Rustberggard, Head of Product and visionary for WeVideo, to share “The WeVideo Story”.

Like this video, we have been producing a lot of content lately, aimed at making it easier for you to become a WeVideo power user. We produce most of our videos in-house and we’ve decided to give you a look inside our process.

The Gear

Our usual setup consists on one camera, one lens a microphone and a set of lights. For this video, we decided to get a bit more creative and we borrowed/rented some extra nifty tools. Here is the full list:

• Canon 5D Mark III & Canon 3Ti - for 2 camera shots and flexibility
• 50mm lenses for both - these have a field of vision similar to what our eye sees, making you feel like you are in the room with us
• 4 point cheap lighting kit - good lighting makes any video looked polished & professional
• Lavalier microphone - keep you mic as close as you can to your subject
• Juicedlink - we use this device to reduce noise
• Camera Slider - to give movement to some shots
• Tripod - to give stability to our interview shots
• Monopod - for flexibility and creative freedom

Pre-Production

For all our videos, we prepare a script and a simple shot list (with some storyboarding).
The more you plan ahead the easier the shoot will go, and the shorter the videos will be, making your life easier in the post-production.
Script writing can be difficult, but whenever possible at least answer these 3 questions before you begin production:

• What is the message? (one clear message per video)
• Who is the audience? (be specific and connect with them!)
• What is the format? (Interview, tutorial, promo, etc...)

Production

Once the gear is in place it is time to record.
For this video we started with the interview shoot. It was very important to keep the interview light and focused on the message. We divided the script into 4 parts and shot them continuously until we were happy with the voice and video.
Once that was set we captured the b-roll. B-roll is meant to illustrate the message of the video. Find creative angles and shots that will make your video dynamic and interesting. Try different things and don’t be afraid to explore!

Post-Production (Editing)

Now, for the main course! Editing! As an editor is your responsibility to build and tell the story with the assets you captured.
Our usual process consists of the following:

1. Download  Gather all assets and always create a backup.
2. Review  Check all assets and pick your files.
3. Pre-cut  Whenever possible pre-cut your shots to keep them short (we use Quicktime for this).
4. Upload  We upload our footage to Dropbox. We keep a backup making it easier for us to reuse and access from anywhere.
5. Sync footage to WeVideo  Straight from Dropbox.
6. Create a project (a rough cut version)  The rough cut is meant to help you visualize your complete story. The idea is to line up your assets and see if there are any gaps in the story that may need extra content or even a re-shoot.
7. Export preview  We export our preview in 480p. This makes the export much faster and allows us to review the story and the flow. The quality and details of the shots can be reviewed in a second export in higher quality.
8. Create fine cut  Once we have all the assets needed we then fine tune our cuts, audio levels, color correction and add all the bells and whistles we want (like a theme or captions).
9. Second or final Export  Our 2nd export is usually in 1080p. Here is where we review all the aspects of our video and we get ready to share the final product.
10. Publish!

We hope this post inspires you to create and share your story. We will continue to produce content for you and share our tips along the way. If you have any questions or specific things you would like for us to cover let us know in the comments below.
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