How Collaboration Tools Can Help Production Managers

Cloud services and social media are already a part of everyday life for many people. Youll undoubtedly have heard of them. Youre probably already using them. But how useful are they for video productions? How can they help collaboration? And how can they help you stay in control, on schedule and under budget?

Media production is a team effort driven by collaboration, but when crews are split between multiple locations and offices, it can be hard to stay connected. That lack of connection can mean people are in the dark, which in turn can lead to delays, expense and missed deadlines.

The hardest part of the Production Managers job can be trying to keep track of whats going on. You have questions, your crew have questions, and the answers havent always been easy to find.

Until now!

Let the power of the cloud and its Social Media Superstars help you be the best Production Manager

Wheres the latest schedule? Making sure everyones on the same page can be difficult. On large projects, reaching decisions can take a lot of discussion, a lot of emails and many different drafts of a document. Which is the current one? One crew member using an outdated document can cause delays, costing time and money.

Cloud tools like Google Drive mean you can put documents where any of your crew can access them and you no longer have to spend time triple-checking that everyone is using the right version. They can get to them wherever they are and you can easily keep things organised. Your cloud-based production tool should make collaboration even easier by keeping your documents in the same place as your footage.

Hows it looking? As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Get your crew to use tools like Instagram and Facebook to instantly share photos or short bits of video of whats going on. Everyone involved can see whats happening, they can feel like they are still connected with the project and most importantly, they are kept up to speed.

Where is everyone? Instant messaging tools such as BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp? are a great way of keeping in touch with your crews. Like text, you can send quick, short messages that are more immediate than email. But the advantage they have over text is that they let you have group discussions. You can send a message to several people and they can all see each others responses. You can also send links, photos and short video through them. Again, your cloud video software should enable you to talk to teammates about specific clips and even apply those comments to the timecode.

What do you think? Getting everyones feedback on that days shooting can be an incredibly slow and inefficient process. Using a cloud-based collaboration tool (like Aframe) means your film can be quickly sent to a central place. Everyone who needs to can then access it and leave their comments. Those comments can then be seen by everyone else, which can fire creativity rather than commenting in isolation, suddenly theres collaboration. Its quicker than couriers and more reliable than FTP and it cuts down the usual delays experienced while you wait to collect, collate and distribute everyones feedback.

At a time when budgets are tight, its more and more essential for production managers to keep a tight rein on their projects. Keep everything central and your creative team can make decisions quicker and with more accurate information.

Time is saved. Budgets are saved.

Keep it all in the cloud.

Free eBook: Everything you need to know about video editing.

From considerations of what to take on location during the production period, to outlining the basic steps of the editing and post production process, the aim is to educate, innovate and inspire.

This 34 page exclusive eBook from Aframe explores:

Pre Edit Considerations

Getting to the Edit

Choosing an Edit System (Comparison)

Stepping into the Cutting Room

Organising Footage

Final Processes

LINK:	http://aframe.com/blog/2013/03/26/how-collaboration-tools-can-help-pro...
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