Contents:

Introduction

The Pre-Production tab is where you create and manage every aspect of a project’s pre-production phase. You need to create a deliverable for each pre-production task that the Project requires.

There are many types of pre-production tasks available. Most of these will generate their own templated, flexible Google document that you can modify in any way that you need, depending on your project.

• Script/Copywriting — Includes a column for voiceover/dialogue and a column for visuals. Feel free to use this document however you like for live action and animated videos

• Storyboard — Simple storyboard template for live action and animated videos.

• Vision Board — Use this for mood boards or other visual documents.

• Shot List — For planning out shots on shoots.

• Call Sheet — Use this document to plan out schedules and movement orders for shoots. The template is set up for shoots both big and small. Feel free to remove any sections you don’t need.

• Cast Sheet — Add photos and reels of shortlisted talent to send to client.

• Location Sheet — Add photos and details of shortlisted locations to send to client.

• Voiceover Script — Simple script template.

• Creative Concepts — Presentation document used for presenting one or more high-level video concepts to a client.

• Creative Treatment — Presentation document used for breaking down a video concept for clients and crew. Highly flexible. Use this document however you need.

• Style Frames — For adding animated style frames for motion graphics videos.

• Project Management — Use this option for general project management time. There is no document template for this one.

There is no limit to the amount of pre-production deliverables a Project can host.

The goal of the pre-production tasks is to collaborate with your client via the shared documents and project chat until you reach client approval and can progress through to the Production phases.

Creating new pre-production deliverables

To create a new pre-production task, hover your cursor over the blue “+” icon, then select one of the options from the dropdown menu.

For each deliverable, you will be required to provide multiple data points. The accuracy of this data is important for two main reasons: 

• so that your team (and your client) can have the best information at their disposal on their current projects.

• so our management team can continuously monitor and assess what it takes to deliver a good project. Good data here will help our system to have a reasonable understanding of our current and future workloads.

Pre-production types

Each pre-production deliverable requires the following information.

Create or Upload

Choosing “create” will ask the VSMX to automatically generate one of our Visual Domain-branded templated Google documents to suit your task. 

If you choose “upload”, you are committing to uploading and sharing a document from outside the VMSX system. Use the upload option to ensure all staff and clients are working from the correct documents at all times. The goal is for the VMSX project to act as the source of truth — for our production staff, as well as our clients via Client Hub.

An appropriate name

Try to be as clear and unique as possible. Don’t be against using longer names. After you have created your pre-production task, this name will be the task’s primary identifier — for both your team and your client.

State 

Choose the state team that will be responsible for delivering this. It may appear obvious at first, however it is possible for larger Projects to share pre-production across multiple states.

Production Date 

Indicate when you expect to start working on this deliverable. Keep in mind that this will be used by the system as a measure of your current workload. However, the only date that the client will see is the Due Date. 

Duration 

Estimate the amount of pre-production time it will take to prepare this task. (This estimation is not visible to the client.)

Due Date

Indicates a deadline for delivery of this one specific pre-production item. 

The client may not have set a specific deadline for the whole project, but you will need to manage multiple project deliverables and this will help communicate your expectations to your team, the client, and the VMSX.

General Comments

These comments are internal team notes only. They are not visible to the client. However, this will change in a future update.

All information on the VMSX should be composed as if the client will be reading it. 

Managing your pre-production items

After saving your new pre-production task, you will receive a notification that it is “being processed”. The system will also let you know when it is ready. This will usually not take much longer than 5–10 seconds.

During this time, your pre-production template document is being prepared and your deliverable task is being attached to the project in the VMSX database.

Your new pre-production task will appear in the left-hand column. The number of deliverable tasks for each item type is represented within some square brackets.

Project Management

The Project Management pre-production item type doesn’t behave like the others. This task represents generic production management time and does not link to a document. Use the Name and General Comments fields to communicate the purpose of this project management.

Your pre-production options

Each of the pre-production item types are presented and used in the same way. Choose an item type from the left column to start working on them. 

From your pre-production management view, you can:

• View — If your task is using a VisDom pre-production template, you can click on the task’s image to edit this document in a new browser tab. After you have delivered this item, your client will be able to do the same — creating a shared document space where you can work together.

• Status/Action — Use the main action button underneath to progress your task to its next delivery phase. These also represent the status of the task and you can read more in the section below on Statuses.

• General Comments — Observe any general comments by hovering your cursor over the notes icon (top right).

• Approve All — a short-cut feature that will bulk approve all visible items.  

• More Options — the icon on the bottom-right of your pre-production item reveals a dropdown menu with additional relevant options: 

  • Update Details: allows you to edit any of the item’s saved details

  • View: opens a new tab with your pre-production document

  • Unapprove: only available after the item has been approved. To be used on the rare occasions when an item needs to be brought back into action after having been approved.

  • Send: opens with the VMS pre-production delivery email template.

  • Upload: upload a new version of your pre-production document from your local drive

Statuses

Your pre-production tasks will progress through a number of statuses throughout their delivery cycle. Sometimes, the status will also clearly indicate your next steps.

• Booked — When first created, a pre-production item starts here.

• Send — When your item has reached (or passed) its production date, if you have not already done so, the status will shift to the orange “send”.

• Approve — Shifting here as soon as you have shared your item with the client, the status will remain on “approve” until either your client or someone on our team has approved the item. Prior to it being archived, you have the ability to “unapprove”.

• Archive — After approval, the final stage is to archive the pre-production item. You can manually archive it at any time, but it automatically archives itself after two weeks.

Delivering

The goal of your pre-production task is to prepare and share it with your client. It is expected that there will be some workshopping with your client on your pre-production content — most of this should take place within your shared document or your Project Chat.

As soon as you are ready to share your pre-production document, you should send it to your client.

If your pre-production task has arrived at (or passed) its Production Date, then it will have progressed to “Send” status. The big orange action button underneath your task will be ready to click.

If you are ready earlier than your projected due date, you can always find the send command under your task’s More Options icon.

Confirm your project first

Note that you will not be able to send any of your pre-production items without first confirming and activating the Project. 

To send a Project confirmation email to the client and activate your Project, you will need to visit the Invoices tab. This is covered in the Creating new projects section.

The delivery email

When you send your pre-production item, click send and you will have a “Pre-Production Ready to Review” email template, ready to send.

Give the recipient and sender details a quick once-over to see if there is anyone else you need to include, then feel free to add a customised personal message in the text box.

Click the green “send” button, when you are ready.

This email will direct the client to review your pre-production on their Client Hub account within this project.

What does the client see?

When the client accesses your pre-production items on Client Hub, they will see a view that closely resembles yours. They will be able to choose from pre-production item types and then preview and comment on any of the items that you have shared with them.

Booked

If a pre-production item has been created but not yet delivered, the client will see the item’s name and its delivery due date. They will not have access to view the document itself.

Delivered

Once delivered, the client will be able to review, edit, and comment on your shared document. They can also approve it.

When the client approves your pre-production document, you will receive a Project Chat notification and an email.

Approved

An approved document remains visible and accessible to the client, though it now clearly communicates to them that they have already approved this document.

A client cannot unapprove a pre-production item.