Production Value
What were once considered perfectly acceptable industrial and corporate level production standards, are no longer acceptable today. Clients expect broadcast quality production from every video and film they see, so having a reasonably high production value is essential to your project’s success.

In the film industry, production value is often discussed in terms of how much money appears to have gone into the production, how much of your budget has actually made it to the screen. And all things being equal, when you want to increase your production value, it usually comes with a higher price tag.

For instance, if you want the softer look of film, as most advertising agencies do, it will cost. Film, processing and transferring film to video are expensive. If you want a specialized set built, it may also be quite expensive. Shooting in High Definition is going to be more costly than shooting on Beta SP or Digital Betacam. If you need crane shots, or 3-D animation, all of these elements will add expense to your project.

However, the converse is not necessarily true. Just because you have a healthy budget, and just because you bring to the table elements that normally equate to higher production value, doesn’t mean that’s what you’ll get.
The perceived value of your production can easily be sabotaged by poor writing, lighting, shooting or editing and your production value can be also be diminished by a poorly executed concept.

Quality has to start from the conception of your film or video and continue through execution. So money alone is not a guarantee of high production value since it doesn’t account for all the other, invisible factors that contribute to the feeling that one is watching a quality, high-end production.

Looking at it in this light, we see that production value is better described as the overall perceived quality of your finished product, which is a combination of all the behind-the-scenes efforts including scriptwriting, choice of production format, lighting, editing, costuming, locations, props, special effects and casting. True production value factors in both the expense and the expertise that contribute to the overall look and quality of your product.

So putting greater thought and effort into the behind-the-scenes aspects
can increase your film’s production value, without necessarily increasing it’s cost. Often, injecting additional creativity into your concept adds a flair or memorability to your project that comes at no additional cost, but does add to its perceived value. A clever, memorable concept can add a great deal of production value; while a tired, overused concept can just as easily steal it away.

Once a concept for your video is agreed upon, the quality of your script will impact its perceived value, as will every other aspect of production.
A polished, professional script adds production value, while a script that’s rough around the edges detracts from such. The same lighting instruments can contribute to a natural, believable look in the hands of an artisan, or be a constant reminder to the audience that they are watching an artificial, less than professional looking production. An experienced editor can take the same footage and make it flow with an unspoken elegance, which may look choppy and disjointed pieced together by a novice editor. We take pride in carefully considering, and tailoring your project to the best production plan.

On Location
We take a great deal of care in selecting each location for your production, considering how well suitable it is for videotaping, recording sound and lighting.

When selecting a location, there are a number of logistical
observations that have to be made. Where should equipment
be loaded in? Is the location quiet enough to videotape in during the daytime?

Is there the option of shooting in the evening or at night? What is the natural light like during the scheduled time of day to shoot? Are there any audio concerns associated with that particular time of day, for instance, truck deliveries or plane noises? The only way to circumvent most of the difficulties that can arise on a “shoot” is to visit the location prior to the shoot, but at the same time of day that the shoot will occur.

In most situations, on-location shooting is preferable over studio shooting. An actual location lends an authenticity and credibility to your project, which can be very costly to duplicate in studio.

By shooting on location, money is saved, setup and breakdown time is reduced, and a natural, convincing look is all but guaranteed. The locations look real because they are!

There are, however, some disadvantages. Background noise at an actual location can make recording sound very challenging or even impossible,
and real-life is serendipitous and ever changing. The sun ducks behind a cloud, a loud plane circles overhead, curious bystanders gather to gawk, or someone double parks in front of your absolutely perfect camera angle.

HD vs SD
Standard Definition is the most affordable choice for video production. Many locally produced long format programming, like infomercials and talk shows that are 30 minutes or more will continue to be recorded and played back in SD. Let’s not forget all of the footage archived in SD. As television transitions more and more toward HD, all SD commercials and programming will just be up-converted to HD broadcast quality for viewing at home. However, there will be “growing pains” for the industry as a whole in dealing with quality differences in the final broadcast picture.

High Definition is one of the most attractive options today! It captures beautiful, crisp images and resolution, yet is less expensive than film. The HDTV image actually covers a wider rectangular area than the conventional 4:3 television standard. It takes advantage of the widescreen 16:9 format, the same format used in feature filmmaking. From a technical standpoint, HDTV offers far greater clarity and detail than conventional video production.

By comparison, conventional television is broadcast at 525 lines of resolution. HDTV utilizes 1080. HDTV carries not only twice the horizontal
definition, but also twice the vertical definition as a conventional broadcast signal, which means that it receives not two, but four times as much visual information as a conventional broadcast signal, four times the resolution!

This means that at any moment, your HD picture is comprised of four times as much visual informational than a conventional television picture.

Pick Your Format
Red Rock has the capability to produce your project in almost any video format, so we consider the choice of format to be more of a strategic, stylistic and budgetary consideration. However, we normally recommend that clients produce in either DVCProHD – P2, Digital Beta, Beta SP, and the lesser quality SD formats like DV Cam, Mini-DV, or DVD depending upon how your final project will be viewed.

For example, if your final application is for the web, then you may choose a lower resolution format and yet if you plan to do both broadcast and web, then obviously you would stick with the highest quality you can afford. We can work closely with your web company to format your project to any flavor of web compression formulas i.e. quicktime, flash, windows media player, etc.