Your Guide To Training Video Production
More and more companies choose to invest in training videos to onboard or teach their team members new skills. Videos are effective tools due to their higher engagement and flexibility. They also give you plenty of opportunities to incorporate branding and personalization. In this article, we discuss the reasons many businesses turn to instructional video production companies and how video production really works.
What Is Training Video Production?
Training video production refers to the creation of videos for training people within an organization. This goes beyond the basic welcome videos that companies show new hires, introducing them to the company culture. Training videos typically have a more specific purpose. They are most commonly used for teaching employees how to perform certain tasks, or for teaching them about products. Of course, this also extends to volunteers or members of an organization. But you can also make training videos for your clients as an alternative to in-person training.
Are Educational Video Production, Instructional Video Production, and Corporate Training Video Production All the Same?
To some extent, educational video production, instructional video production, and corporate training video production are very similar. They all involve producing videos to teach the audience something. They all require you to think about your learners’ needs and learning preferences. But their target audiences are very different, and that can affect various aspects of the process.
The term “educational video” is usually reserved for external learning that is viewed optionally by people who want to learn more. Instructional videos can overlap with that somewhat, but they will always be procedural. It will tell the target audience exactly how to do something. Instructional videos can be external and for sale, or internal and for teaching people within an organization. Finally, corporate training videos are specific to businesses that want to use video to teach their employees something. They are an increasingly common alternative to in-person company training.
What Do Training Video Production Companies Offer?
Training video production companies offer a variety of services related to creating video content for your learners. They use their experience to make your content more engaging and bring your content to life. Microlearning videos can turn your overarching lessons into bite-sized chunks to fit the engagement levels of your learners.
Importantly, the best companies offering educational video production services will deliver high-quality content based on the unique needs of your learners. They will put your existing content to good use, turning it into high-quality videos that deliver information in an easy-to-understand way. The best companies will incorporate the videos into larger eLearning programs to enhance learning experiences. These can also include things like multiple-choice questions, drag-and-drop activities, and more. Top companies will get to know your audience and their preferences and then suggest the appropriate approach.
In addition to creating the videos themselves, a training video production company should provide you with the finished content files. You will also have full content ownership of those files, saving you from legal concerns. The best production companies will have open communication with you. This will include production meetings to plan, and for you to ask questions. It will also include plenty of opportunities for you to provide feedback throughout the process.
What Is The Process Of Creating Training Video Production?
The production process will vary slightly based on the company you work with and the types of videos you choose [1]. But it will usually follow the same general steps, which can be divided into preparation or preproduction, production, and postproduction.
1. Preproduction Or Planning
During this phase of instructional video production, you start by considering what you need to accomplish with the project. This is the time to confirm your learners’ biggest challenges and make sure you are addressing the correct issue.
It is also when you decide what type of video project you want to tackle based on your learners’ preferences and what makes the most sense for the content type. Some learners prefer lightboard content, while others prefer animated explainers. As such, you need to have a very good understanding of your learners during these planning stages. You will also want to think about what your goal is. Ideally, you should have a measurable goal or a concrete way of evaluating the success of your video or course. Finally, it’s time to get into the details of planning the video.
An education video production company will talk to your Subject Matter Experts to get the relevant information. They will then turn that into a rough outline or plan for the video. Depending on the type of video and your comfort level, you may create a full script. Or you may just come up with bullet points in a general outline. Whether it is a complete script or an outline, anyone who is speaking or appearing on camera will need to rehearse. This will make them more comfortable in front of the camera.
2. Production
When it’s time for the actual training video production, you will start by making sure you have all the visual assets ready. This includes preparing the space for filming, whether it is a backdrop for a talking head or lightboard video, or just getting a microphone for a voice-over video that works with screen capture [2]. After this, you can proceed to record the video.
This process will look different with the type of video. Your Subject Matter Expert may appear on-screen, or just record a voice-over. You may write on a lightboard, record a talking head video to combine with prepared images, or record a demonstration. You can record as many takes as you need for the video. During this stage, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to shoot the full video in a single take. You can combine bits from various takes in postproduction.
It’s worth mentioning the equipment that you will want to use for your corporate training video production [3]. Modern smartphones frequently have good enough cameras to record high-quality video without an issue. You may want to get a supplemental microphone, but you don’t have to break the bank to do so. Yes, there will be a quality difference if you spend thousands on a microphone instead of hundreds, but the difference may not be worth the price. If you hire a production company, they may already have the equipment. But if you are filming yourself, a mid-range microphone should be good enough. Just make sure the sound is clear.
3. Postproduction
After recording the video, it will need at least some basic editing. At the very least, you will need to remove dead time. It is also very likely that you will need to combine various takes to create a high-quality video. There will also be any corrections or larger edits at this stage. This is also the time to confirm that nothing needs to be reshot.
Don’t forget to evaluate the success of the video. Show it to a small sample audience to confirm it accomplishes your goals and is easy to understand. Then, distribute it to your learners. You should also get feedback on your video, as you can use that when creating your next training video.
Training Video Production Cost
The educational video production cost depends on a lot of different factors. The price ranges will be influenced by the company you hire for training video production, and by how much content you need to create. It will also depend on what content you already have. For example, a smart corporate training video production company will save time by turning your existing slideshows into screen capture videos. This can reduce the cost of video production somewhat.
The type of video that you want will also affect the price. Do you just need a screen capture? Or do you need to record a new video with explanatory content? Do you need animation as well? If so, is it 2D or 3D? To give you an idea, talking head videos are fairly simple and cost between $300 and $1000 for basic 1-minute videos. But add in special effects and higher-quality production elements, and you can expect to pay around $5000. Presenter videos combine talking heads with text. These can be $300 to $2000 for a minute, depending on what they include.
Meanwhile, the cost of an animated video tends to run about $600 to $1500 on average for a minute. Live-action videos where your Subject Matter Experts act and interact with others can be $1500 to $10,000 per minute (and aren’t usually recommended). Another expensive option you likely don’t want to do would be Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR), which would cost about $1500 to $3000 per minute. Some of the expenses these rates may or may not include are:
- Project management and coordination
- Script development
- On-screen talent
- Other visual assets, including stock photos, still images, licensed photos, custom photography, licensed videos, 3D models, music, etc.
- Special effects
- Location costs (studio rental, travel, fees, etc.)
- Video production costs
- Video rendering and compression
Depending on the type of video you choose, you won’t really need all the above, which will lower your video costs. So, overall, you can expect to pay somewhere between about $300 and $1500 per minute of your training video if it doesn’t have special effects. Add in effects and the price will quickly rise. When getting a quote for quality training video production services, always ask what is included in it. Remember that the price ranges vary greatly because of what’s included, among other factors.
Effectiveness Of Educational Videos
When deciding whether training video production is worth the cost, you will want to consider how effective it is. The bottom line is that, yes, educational video production and the resulting videos are an effective strategy to teach learners. There is plenty of research to back up the effectiveness of video for learning in various situations. One study looked at nursing students, in particular, while others looked at more general situations. The effectiveness of videos is due to several reasons, including the following:
1. They Have High Engagement
One of the biggest advantages of Instructional Design video production is that videos are highly engaging. You can easily add emotions like comedy, suspense, or drama into videos to keep them more interesting. On top of that, most people today tend to consume a lot of content via videos, especially through social media. As such, they already find this format engaging.
2. They Are Flexible
Yet another reason for the effectiveness of educational videos is their flexibility, especially if you opt for microlearning videos [4]. Quality training video production companies know that microlearning maximizes flexibility. It lets learners choose how long they want to learn, as they can just watch one video or several. That contrasts with an hour-long training, which would be much harder to pause.
This flexibility also applies when learners want to refresh their memory on a specific lesson. Microlearning videos are highly searchable because each one is only a few minutes long and has a specific topic. So, instead of having to skim hours of content to find the information they need, learners can just go right to whatever they need to refresh their memory.
3. They Encourage Active Learning
By using guiding questions, offering flexibility, and maintaining engagement, training videos can encourage active learning. This gives your learners all the additional benefits of active learning, further improving the effectiveness of the video [5].
Final Thoughts
The training video production process can be intimidating, but you don’t have to do it alone. If you just need a small-scale video, you may be able to handle it yourself. But for larger projects or ones that require a professional touch, it’s smart to work with professionals. While many of our clients only need about an hour of content for their learners, we are happy to work with you to create even more eLearning content.
References:
[1] How to Create eLearning Videos With Lightboard?
[3] What Kind of Equipment Do I Need for Training Videos?
[4] What Is Microlearning And Why You Need It?
[5] Active Learning
Originally published at www.e-learningpartners.com.
