Webinar Recap: Post-Production & Repurposing
Hosted by Peter Norris, Creative Director and Guy Hurst, Post-Production Manager at Vox Pops International
In the third and final webinar in our series designed to equip you with the knowledge and best practices for video production, this session takes you through the post-production stage. From turning raw footage into structured edits, to repurposing content so it keeps adding value in the long-run.
1. Why Edit At All?
Raw interview footage is like data – it’s useful, but doesn’t really communicate anything on it’s own. An edited video is what happens when you put that data into a graph. Structuring clips to tell the clearest possible story, cutting what’s less relevant, and surfacing the strongest moments all make a real difference to how engaged your audience will be. In short: you’ll always get a better result from editing than from leaving footage uncut.
2. The Stages of Making an Edit
Editing at scale requires reliable processes, especially when you’re working with ten hours of interviews.
The first step is categorisation: reviewing all of your footage and grouping content by theme so you know what you have and where the strongest material sits. From there, the team moves into a first edit. The client can then review the strongest content, select the parts they want to take forward, and sign off the narrative backbone of the video before anything else is added.
3. Lock In the Narrative First
It’s crucial that the edit structure is confirmed first before you start adding b-roll, colour grading, audio mixing, second camera angles, animated graphics, etc. You don’t want to invest time adding these elements when the story could change. Once the narrative is locked, you know which shots will add to the story, where a second angle might help, and where you might need graphics on-screen to reinforce a message.
4. Formats Matter
Most cameras shoot in 16×9 (1920×1080). If you need footage in 9×16 for social media or vertical screens, then it’s important to consider what reformatting looks like before you start production. In this instance, you’ll be cropping in and scaling up, meaning you’ll lose about 60% of the frame.
Shooting in 4K changes this because a 4K image is 3840×2160, so reformatting it to a vertical frame actually requires scaling down to 89%, giving you far more flexibility for reframing without quality loss. If your content is destined for both horizontal and vertical formats, 4K is non-negotiable.
It’s also worth thinking about edit length in relation to where you’re using video. Longer hero edits work well in presentations where you have a more captive audience; whereas for social, shorter and punchier edits are better.
5. Repurpose Content for More Value
If you’ve captured ten hours of interviews and produced three minutes of final video, there’s a lot left over that could still be useful. We’re always offering clients the opportunity to repurpose content; it just takes some creativity to see what else can be made.
AI analysis of raw footage can help significantly here. We use a platform that has the ability to produce themed summaries and surface key quotes from interview footage – meaning clients can draw insights from a wider pool of footage, and uncover new ways of using content.
The best approach is to plan for repurposing from the beginning. Capturing interview content that covers long-term priorities means you can return to the footage, create new edits as your needs evolve and maximise the value of the original investment.
6. Get Your Video Seen
All content needs a distribution strategy.
If you’re in marketing, your distribution channels could be social media, website, email, blogs, paid advertising, events, webinars. For insight and internal comms teams, your channel might be an intranet or portal, as well as email and events. It’s important to consider where your content will be used from the get-go, as it can influence both the filming and editing approach.
Nonetheless, there’s still an opportunity to use what’s already been captured in new and different ways. For example, interviews captured for research and insight can be cut, edited, and reformatted into clips for marketing purposes. You’d just need to ensure that you’ve got the right permissions to use the footage in that way, which your production partner can guide you on.
7. What Next?
If you’re heading into a post-production, remember:
• Categorise footage before you edit.
• Lock the narrative before adding b-roll, graphics, or audio polish.
• Plan for multiple formats and uses from the start, or shoot in 4K if you can!
• Build a distribution plan that matches where your audience are.
