Like it or not, using videos to reach your audience is a key aspect of modern marketing, even for libraries. By using a simple production process to organize your ideas and orchestrate your efforts, you can increase the output, creativity, and fun of producing videos while reducing stress for you and your staff. Good intentions and heaps of technology are only as good as the process you have in place to use them.

Let’s go over the Production Process

Pre-Production
This is everything you do before you hit the record button. The better you plan, the higher the quality of your work. The goal of a good video is clarity. You want your messaging to be accurate and you want to deliver it to the correct audience on the most useful platform. This may mean you need to find locations, make props, gather costumes, write scripts, find royalty-free music, make storyboards, schedule staff, get permissions, etc. All of this work is completed during pre-production so you won’t be distracted when you start recording. 

Production
You turn on the lights, the microphones, the camera, and start to film. If you’ve done your homework in pre-production, the problems you’ll run into during production will be minimal, allowing you to focus on getting good performances. You want to make your staff look and sound knowledgeable, friendly, and professional. It’s also really helpful to film b-roll, which is to say film anything that seems like it might be useful in illustrating your messaging. Film it all, don’t worry if you’ll use it. Something you film today might prove very useful in six months or a year.

Post-Production
Editing takes time, more than you imagine. Keep in mind, you’re just getting a message to the people who need it. No point rushing when you are close to the end. Post-production may require reshoots or additional audio recording. That’s all part of the process. Bringing an idea to life and making it compelling may seem difficult while you’re doing it, but that effort pays off when your patrons are moved by the video you create. 

Distribution
The purpose of direct marketing through video production is to deliver a message or call to action to a specific audience in relation to a specific library initiative, event, or resource. After putting your effort into thoughtful pre-production, thorough production, and painstaking post-production, it should be easy to deliver your video. 

Evaluation
Then, watch the data come in. Gather your platform analytics and work hard to find data-driven correlations to your video through other sources of information (circulation numbers, program attendance, etc.) to show how you helped move the needle in a positive direction. Once you have your data, take the time to study it. How does it relate to stated goals? What worked? What didn’t work? Was it worth the effort? Were there any unexpected benefits? What lessons did you learn? Use your data to explain the value of your work to stakeholders like library staff, library leadership, community partners, library board members, library patrons, funders and potential funders, local officials, etc.

Final thoughts…
Libraries are all about lifelong learning. Improving your video skills will not only transform your impact in the community, but it will also create opportunities for professional growth.

Reeca Soriano is the Digital and Visual Media Coordinator for the Jersey City Free Public Library’s Communications & Marketing department. She is the primary videographer and editor of JCFPL’s production pieces, which include “Fun Fridays,” an educational video series distributed to public school students across Jersey City. In addition to filming and editing, Reeca designs digital and print materials for the library and photographs library programs and events. She received an MA in Interactive Media Arts from NYU Tisch.

Timothy Decker is a member of the Jersey City Free Public Library’s Communications and Marketing Department. He designed the Jersey City Free Public Library’s mascot, JC Bigfoot, and helps produce videos based on characters he created for the library’s webcomic. He is part of the production team delivering Fun Fridays! STEAM-based video content and puppet nonsense to 2,000 public school students each month. Tim received a BFA in drawing from Kutztown University and is the author/illustrator of several books. He is also a punk rock guitarist and friend to all cats…and most dogs.

You can see their video work on YouTube at youtube.com/@jclibrarynj.