The Idea:
Before anything else, we start with the initial idea for the title.  These ideas come from a variety of sources, ranging from our own team, to the retailers who stock our range.  Our customers also send in a great number of ideas for titles, and we're also keen to here more suggestions.

Once the idea has been chosen for a particular project, there is some research involved that is required to learn about a particular subject of interest.  For example, if we're making a video about the current rail scene in West Yorkshire, we need to see maps, find good locations to film at, gain the necessary permissions, learn about the traffic patterns and discover the history of the area.  All this information is needed both to plan the shoots for the video, and to write the script later on.

Filming:
Next, after the idea has been researched, you actually have to go to the locations to do the filming.  Rather than just go haphazardly, a "plan of attack", or a shooting schedule, is devised.  This takes into account how long we need to be at each different location, whether we can visit many different locations in one day, the distance and cost of getting to the locations and whether we need to fit around permissions or people we are interviewing.  We also take into account what other production we are filming at the time - we may visit Leeds City Station for West Yorkshire Rail, and on the same day film buses in the centre of Leeds for Buses In Action.
Filming the footage is also a rewarding part of the production process, and often we are privileged to witness sights other people rarely see.  Meeting many

different people with different interests is also an enjoyable part of filming.  The challenge whilst filming is to try to find interesting and unusual ways of showing what you're filming.  This is where you can get creative with interesting camera angels, or locations that feature some backdrops.

Scripting the Commentary:
A basic script is assembled before we go out and film, to give us an idea of what we need to film.  However, the majority of commentary is written after filming has finished.  This enables us to listen to all the information provided by any people we have interviewed, and details from press officers and other factors.  In most cases, the commentary is still fairly flexible by the time we go into the edit.

Editing:
Once we've finished filming, we generally have around 3-6 hours of footage for our 60 minute video.  This "raw footage" contains the shots we want, as well as dead-time, such as waiting for trains to arrive and mistakes.  We now log all the footage, by sitting down and watching it all - making notes on the various shots we want in the video.
Once we have this log, we enter the edit suite, and start by capturing all the footage into the computer we use for editing.  After this process is finished, we start to assemble the shots we selected in the log on the computer according to the rough commentary script we have.  The commentary may be altered depending on how long different shots are, or which order we decide to put shots in the programme.

Any graphics and 3-D animation required is produced at this point, and inserted into the programme, as are the various types of edits, called transitions.   Then the commentary is recorded, and transferred into the computer, where it is lined-up with the pictures and sound, and the programme is completed.  The additional extras for the DVDs Special Features section are also created at this point.
So, in one hour of viewing you get to see what took us around 4 weeks of planning and research, 2 weeks of filming and a week in the editing suite to produce.

Promotion:
Last but not least is promotion.  Now that we have a title to sell, we need to design and produce the packaging for the DVD , and promote it through our website and mailing lists, so you know it is available.
We hope this not-so-short version of How We Do That gives you a greater insight about the production process the next time you watch one of our DVDs.