Pre-Production Planning

Before making the movie, there are several questions you should ask yourself.

1. Why do I want to make this movie? What am I hoping to accomplish?
2. Does the information already exist somewhere else in another format?
3. Do I need to include video or will sound alone convey my message?
4. Who is my audience? Are they located around the world, within Austin, Texas, or on UT's network?
5. How will the video be delivered? Online (streaming or downloadable), on a CD or DVD, or both?
6. If it's online, will my audience be using modems, cable or DSL, or ethernet networked computers? How many simultaneous viewers will there be?

Answering these questions will help you create a plan for making your video. Write a project definition and include project specifications, such as minimum system requirements needed by viewers of your movie. The project definition will be your master plan and help you stay organized during the actual creation and preparation of the elements of your movie. A storyboard is highly recommended to keep your story organized. And a script is needed to include with your video as closed captioning. This provides complete accessibility by your audience. Be sure to build in some time for unexpected problems. This process can be complicated and is cutting edge. Challenges will come up and you will need time to address and resolve them.

There are many multimedia formats from which to choose. This Guideline provides examples to three of them, all supported at The University of Texas at Austin. The three format options are: RealMedia, QuickTime and Windows Media. Each of these technologies provides streaming and downloadable video options and free media players for viewers. RealMedia's player is called RealOne Player, QuickTime's player is QuickTime 7 and Windows Media's player is Windows Media Player.