Shot List to Final Cut: A DIY Video Production Guide

It’s on the calendar for next month: the gala, the groundbreaking, the open house, the annual conference. And right on cue, someone in the room says it: “We should really get video of this.”

Of course you should. But right now, you’re already juggling promotional emails, chasing down sponsor logos, coordinating the venue, and trying to pull together a functional run of show.

And then you start thinking through the logistics. Is a phone camera really going to cut it, or will it look amateur? What should you be filming during the event? What happens if the room is loud and the audio is completely unusable? And when the event is over and you have 40GB of raw files sitting on your laptop, what then?

Back in May, after our first workshop with the Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement (DANA), we shared a simple, low-stress system to help small teams get video off the ground without losing their minds: capture, create, distribute, repeat.

Earlier this month, we headed back to DANA for round two. This time, our video producer Brandon Campbell took everyone under the hood to tackle the craft—the step-by-step mechanics of planning, shooting, and editing footage you’ll actually use on your marketing channels.

In this post, we’ll walk through the whole process: what to prep before you shoot, how to capture interviews and on-location footage, and how to edit it all into something you’re excited to share.

Step 1: Planning Your Shoot

Every video comes together in three stages: pre-production (planning), production (filming), and post-production (editing). This step covers the first one. When you’re busy, it’s tempting to jump into production and shoot as much as possible hoping you’ll figure it out later. But if you know what you’re trying to show before you start filming, you’ll capture the right footage the first time. It comes down to a few things to sort out before shoot day:

• Pick one goal. Before you film anything, finish this sentence: “After watching this video, I want people to _.” Maybe it’s “apply for a job here,” “understand how far the project has come,” or “donate.” Different goals need different footage. A recruiting video needs staff talking about the culture and people who clearly like working together. A project walkthrough needs progress, plans, and hands-on work. A product demo needs close-ups of the product in use. A donor-impact story needs the faces of the people and community you serve.
• Turn that goal into a shot list. Ask yourself: what would someone need to see to believe the goal? Then write each of those things down as a shot. For a recruiting video, that might be two staff members talking about why they stayed, b-roll of a team meeting, someone laughing at their desk, and the outside of your building. Note who’s in each shot and what they’re doing. It doesn’t need to be fancy, just a checklist in Google Docs or even your Notes app will work. This plan is the cheapest piece of gear you’ll own, and it pays off twice: on shoot day you know what you’re looking for, and at your desk you aren’t digging through hours of footage you didn’t need.
• Figure out what gear you need. We covered a good video starter kit in our May post: a smartphone, clip-on mic, tripod, and window light. That’s enough to make a good video. Extras like fancy cameras, stabilizers, gimbals, and lighting kits can be worth it later, but they’re easier to justify once you’ve learned what your videos need. A little technique often does more than new gear. For example, if someone has a lot to say on camera, skip the teleprompter. Break it into short lines instead, and change the camera angle between takes. It’s easier to memorize and more interesting to watch.
• Check your storage. Nothing kills momentum like a “Storage Full” alert mid-take. A minute of 4K video takes up about 170 MB on a recent iPhone, so an hour of footage needs roughly 10 GB, and more if you shoot at 60 fps. Clear space on your phone before you leave. If you’re using a camera, pack a spare SD card marked V30 or higher. For long shoots, bring a portable SSD so you can offload footage between sessions.
• Get media releases signed before shoot day. A media release is a short form that gives your organization permission to use someone’s face and voice in your videos. Have everyone who’ll appear on camera sign one, and tell them where the video will be shared (your website, social channels, email) so they know what they’re agreeing to. For anyone under 18, a parent or guardian signs. If your organization already has a release form, use it. Then save the signed copies with your project files so you can find them later.

Step 2: Shooting an Interview 

Once you have your plan, it’s time for production: the filming itself. Interviews are usually the backbone of a marketing video, and small problems like a mic that’s too far away or a backlit face can ruin an otherwise great soundbite. Most of those issues are easy to avoid with a bit of setup:

• Frame the shot. Put your phone or camera on a tripod at the same height as the person’s eyes, so you’re not looking up or down at them. Then use the rule of thirds: imagine the screen divided into a three-by-three grid. Your camera can show it for you (on iPhone, Settings > Camera > Grid). Line the person’s eyes up with the top horizontal line, and place them on one of the vertical lines, looking toward the empty side of the frame. Next, check what’s behind them for anything that will be distracting or hard to remove later: exit signs, trash cans, whiteboards with sensitive info, a plant growing out of their head. If the video is going on Reels, TikTok, or Shorts, keep their face away from the bottom, top, and right edge, where captions and buttons will cover it.
• Add one light. Add one light. Turn off harsh overhead lights, and don’t seat anyone with their back to a bright window. In our May post, we suggested using window light: seat the person facing a window, and the daylight lights their face for free. The next step up is adding one small LED light. Place it a little to one side of the camera, on the opposite side from the window, so the window softens the shadows your light creates. Then look at the person’s face on screen. If one side is too dark, move the light or brighten it. If they look shiny or washed out, move it back or dim it. Different skin tones reflect light differently, so check each person when a new speaker sits down.
• Get the audio right before you roll. Clip the mic to the speaker’s collar or shirt, about a hand’s width below their mouth. If your mic receiver or camera app shows an audio meter (a bar that bounces when someone talks), keep it in the middle-to-upper range as they speak. We aim for -12 to -6 dB. If the bar hits the very top, the sound turns crackly, and that’s hard to fix later. Record a short test and play it back with headphones. It’s the only way to find out the mic isn’t working before the interview instead of after.
• Lock your settings. Your phone constantly adjusts brightness and sharpness, which can make the picture flicker or blur mid-sentence. To stop that, tap and hold the person’s face on screen until you see “AE/AF Lock” (on iPhone). If their forehead looks too bright, slide your finger down on the screen to darken the picture a little. Use the main 1x lens, not the 0.5x, since the wider lens stretches faces up close. Your phone’s built-in camera app is all you need to start but if you want more control over things like brightness and color later, try Blackmagic Camera, ProCamera, or Final Cut Camera.

Step 3: Shooting on Location

Interviews are only half of production. The other half is b-roll, which is all the footage of the place and the work itself. For a business, that might be a crew on a job site or a team in the office. For a nonprofit, volunteers at a food drive or a classroom in session. For an advocacy group, a rally, a town hall, or a lobby day at the statehouse.

When you play back a video, b-roll is usually what you’re watching while someone’s voice carries the story. So unlike an interview, you’re not worried about capturing what people are saying. You just need steady shots of what’s going on. (Keep your phone’s sound on, though. A little applause or laughter in the background can go a long way!)

• Get three angles of every important moment. Say someone’s cutting the ribbon at your grand opening. Get a wide shot of the whole crowd, a medium shot of the people holding the scissors, and a close-up of the ribbon as it falls. The wide shot shows viewers where they are, the medium shows what’s happening, and the close-up adds the detail and emotion. Having all three gives you options when you edit, so you’re not stuck with the one shot you got.
• Cover six kinds of b-roll. Most b-roll falls into six types. Use them to organize your shot list, and check them off as you go:
  • Establishing (where you are): the building or the sign out front
  • People: arrivals, conversations, crews at work
  • Action: a speaker presenting, equipment running
  • Details: programs, tools on a bench, your logo on a banner
  • Emotion: laughter, applause, a client’s reaction
  • Closing: goodbyes, the room emptying, lights off at the end of the day
• Keep your camera ready for the moments you can’t plan. Emotion and closing shots are the easiest to miss, because they happen fast and nobody announces them. It might be the crew’s high-five when a tough install finally comes together, or a volunteer tearing up when a family they helped stops by to say thanks. Keep your phone out between the shots on your list, so you’re ready when it happens.

Step 4: Turning Footage Into a Story 

The final step is post-production, the editing stage. If you’ve never edited a video before, it can look intimidating, but most of it is just sorting. You’re picking the best pieces, cutting what doesn’t belong, and putting the rest in an order that makes sense. It goes a lot faster if you get organized before you start cutting. Here’s the order we’d work in:

• Pick an editing app. In our May post, we suggested CapCut. It’s free and easy to learn for beginners. Adobe Premiere Pro is a paid subscription widely used by professional editors, and it’s the app we reference in a few of the steps below. Whichever you choose, the process is mostly the same.
• Set up your folders before you import anything. Make one folder for the project on your computer, with seven folders inside it: 01_Video, 02_Audio, 03_Music, 04_Photos, 05_Graphics, 06_Project Files, and 07_Exports. Put every file in the right place, then bring the whole folder into your editing app. It’ll show up just the way you organized it, so you’re not hunting for a missing clip halfway through.
• Decide if your video is tall, wide, or square. Where the video will be posted decides this. A video for Instagram or TikTok should be tall to fill a phone screen, while one for YouTube or your website should be wide. In your editing app, set up your timeline (sometimes called a sequence) to match, and use the same size when you export:
  • Vertical (9:16) for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn: 1080 x 1920, or 2160 x 3840 for 4K
  • Horizontal (16:9) for YouTube, LinkedIn, Vimeo, your website, and presentations: 1920 x 1080, or 3840 x 2160 for 4K
  • Square (1:1) for LinkedIn: 1080 x 1080
• Match the frame rate to your footage. A video is really a series of still pictures shown quickly, one after another. The frame rate is how many pictures play each second, and most phones record at 30. Your editing timeline should use the same number as your footage, or the motion can look jumpy. Many apps set this for you when you add your first clip, but it’s worth a quick check in your timeline settings.
• Line up your sound. If you used a separate clip-on mic like we suggested, you’ll have two recordings of the same moment: the clear sound from the mic and the rougher sound your phone picked up on its own. You need to line them up so people’s lips match their words. Most editing apps can do this for you. In Premiere Pro, for example, select both clips, right-click, and choose Synchronize. A single clap on camera at the start of each take makes it easier. It’s the same reason film crews snap a clapperboard before every scene. The clap shows up as a big, sharp jump in both recordings, so they’re easy to match.
• Build a rough cut first. A rough cut is a first draft of the video: just the clips you want to use, in the order you want them. Skip the music, titles, and logos for now. As you go, ask of each clip, “Would anyone miss this if it were gone?” If not, cut it. Trim long pauses, “ums,” and moments where someone stumbles and starts their sentence over. When someone talks about something, keep their voice playing but show b-roll of what they’re describing. Stick with simple cuts, and after someone says something important, wait a second before the next clip. Then watch it start to finish. Does it make sense, and is everything in the right order? Check the length, too. On social media, you’re interrupting someone’s scroll, so get to the point quickly. One recent study of nearly 10 million Instagram Reels found that 45 to 60 seconds performed best, and views dropped sharply after three minutes. On YouTube or your website, people came looking for your video, so it can run longer if the story needs it.
• Add music, branding, and captions. Once the story works, add music, keeping it quiet enough that people can still hear whoever’s talking. Then add your logo, and use your brand colors for any text or graphics. Next come lower thirds: the name and title that appear at the bottom of the screen when someone first speaks. Then add captions, the words on screen as people talk. Lots of people watch with the sound off, and captions help viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing. Most apps create them automatically, but check for misspelled names, and keep them clear of the buttons on social. Finish with an end card, a final screen that tells viewers what to do next. As we covered in our May post, that’s where your ask goes: donate, register, apply, or visit your site.
• Make sure you’re allowed to use everything in your video. Music, sound effects, images, video clips, and fonts belong to the people who made them, and you need their permission to use them. Social media platforms can mute or take down videos that use music without permission. The easiest fix is to only download from sites that clearly say you can use their files for your organization. Look for the words “commercial use” on the download page. Google Fonts are free for anyone. For music and stock footage (ready-made video clips), Pixabay is free, and Artlist, Motion Array, Storyblocks, and Envato Elements are paid sites.
• Get a second set of eyes. Watch the whole thing start to finish. Then have someone who didn’t help edit it watch too, since they’ll catch things you’ve stopped noticing. Check that:
  • Everyone’s name and title is spelled correctly. (Misspelling a board member’s name is the fastest way to get a video taken down!)
  • Captions and lower thirds aren’t hidden behind the buttons on social media.
  • The music is quiet enough that you can hear everyone talking.
  • Nothing looks off, like a sudden jump between clips, a flash of black screen, or text that disappears before you can read it.
• Export it with a name you’ll recognize later. When you export (save the finished video as a file), choose MP4. It’s the most common video file type, and it plays almost everywhere. If your app asks for a format setting, choose H.264, the standard option for MP4s. Use the same size you picked when you set up your timeline. Then give the file a name that tells you what it is, like Organization_Event_2026_Final_1080p.mp4 instead of final.mp4, and put it in your Exports folder. Six months from now, you’ll be glad you can find it.

Ready for Your Next Shoot

So the next time someone says, “We should really get video of this,” here’s what to remember:

• Before you shoot: Pick one goal, turn it into a shot list, and get your releases signed.
• While you shoot: For interviews, set up a steady camera, a clean background, and one good light, then do a quick audio test. For everything else, get a wide, medium, and close-up of every important moment, and work through the six kinds of b-roll.
• After you shoot: Get organized, build a rough cut, and trim anything that doesn’t help the story. Then add music, branding, and captions, and have someone else review it before you export.

If your team wants a hand turning your everyday work into video, reach out and let’s talk.