The reliance on footage
Unfortunately for the video production industry, the biggest resource in use to being video production in the first place is live footage. There was, of course, no live footage available because there was not much movement on the streets and in studios during 2020. A vast majority of production houses have had to remain at a standstill because of the fear of the covid. Putting together a large cast and crew was no longer possible in the past year, and this put a severe and debilitating hold on the video production process.
While a small number of production houses have begun shooting again, and the film-making process has slowly moved its way back to normalcy, things are still nowhere near square one. To respond to this, video production houses have had to get creative in their endeavors to secure raw footage.
Using talking heads
Documenting the events of the virus and all the madness that unfolded across the past year was one of the major themes of video production around the world. While it wasn’t always possible to interview people in person, the “talking head” interview began a new phenomenon that was utilized heavily this past year.
Individuals, businesses, politicians, and corporate representatives from around the world were seen in this “talking head” form. They managed to deliver important news and start a dialogue regarding the virus using this medium.
Editing video calls
The smartphone became the top medium of communication in 2020 as many zoom calls and video calls were utilized heavily to stitch together a narrative for productions.
Even smartphone cameras were seen as the new video camera, with amateur footage forming the crux of numerous important narratives during 2020.
Zoom conference calls were conducted by almost every company from around the world. The events of these conferences were later edited into presentations so that many employees could catch up with the important details.
Using stock footage
The world of advertising can never come to a stand-still, especially when you consider the number of companies that continue to spend heavily on their marketing budget. To match the need of the hour, marketing firms and advertising agencies had to rely on the stock footage available on various sites to stitch together a new concept.
The shooting schedules were kept to a minimum, and a vast majority of advertising executives had to get creative with their concepts to engage with their viewers. We can expect the stock footage industry to continue booming right until the end of the covid situation.
Green screens and digital worlds
As the idea of outdoor shoots had to come crashing down in the post-covid world, the use of green screens became more important than ever. The technology associated with green screens became invaluable during this period.
It isn’t easy to create a visual narrative when you’re limited to shooting within a studio. Green screens, however, help to radically expand the scope of the narrative by offering immense space for creativity. We see a vast majority of DC and Marvel films being produced in the green screen studios. When such large budget endeavors that span several worlds and dimensions can rely on this technology to create compelling narratives, we can certainly use this tech for anything else.
The concept of creating digital sets has also been on the rise in the recent past. We see these sets in use in various popular shows such as Disney’s “The Mandalorian.” They allow production houses to create realistic sets within a studio and utilize technology to create elaborate worlds behind these sets.
Thanks to this technology, the realism that’s seen on large budget productions have been boosted substantially as well. We can tell just by watching a show such as “The Mandalorian” that the realism in such productions is far better than green screens.
This is indeed a fascinating turn of events as it greatly improves the scope and scale of productions going forward. Regardless of how long the Covid situation will take to sort itself out, video production does not necessarily have to come to a standstill now. We can continue to rely on technology to make things a lot more accessible in the future.
We may have to take some time before we get back to the world of large-budget productions filled with hundreds of actors on set. This, however, does not mean that we have to give up on creativity and video production altogether. We still have had plenty of content being released across the year.
The number of amateur productions has certainly been on the rise, but even big names haven’t stepped out of the ring. Instead, they have looked to innovate and create new methods of producing stories and content for the audience.
