How to Scale Your Digital Video Production Using AI

Did you know that it costs companies an average of $10,983 to create an explainer video? 

This is a huge investment for most businesses, but often a necessary one given that video is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience in an engaging manner. 

That said, this cost is not feasible for many organizations, especially when some projects – like a training series or marketing campaign – will require several videos for success. 

Additionally, many companies struggle with the bottlenecks that come with scaling digital video production. Whether it’s time constraints, overrun budgets, or maintaining high content standards, it’s difficult to create a large volume of video content. 

Fortunately, this is where AI video solutions come in. While normal digital video production could take months, AI videos can be created in a matter of minutes while still maintaining the same content quality.  

Whether you’re creating training videos or internal video messages, AI video can save you significant time and budget. This guide explores how forward-thinking organizations are leveraging AI to reimagine their digital video production for better results. 

What is digital video production?

Digital video production is the process of creating video content in a digital format, which involves capturing, editing, and producing visual media through electronic means. 

You might be wondering, isn’t nearly all video production today considered “digital?” The answer is yes! 

With today’s modern tools, digital video production is significantly easier than the traditional methods of using film and physically cutting film scenes together to make a complete video. Now, we have software tools and digital video cameras that can yield better results in less time. 

Digital video production has made it significantly easier to arrange clips, add transitions, incorporate visual effects, and more, which has revolutionized media creation by making video content more accessible. So much so that video creation is no longer limited to professionals, as video sharing sites like YouTube have significantly reduced the barriers to entry for individual creators. 

And believe it or not, the next era of digital video production is even more accessible, as it doesn’t even require cameras. Later on in this article, we’ll walk you through the process of creating an AI video without any equipment – just using AI avatars and text-to-speech voiceovers to bring your content to life. 

3 stages of the digital video production process

Traditional digital video production typically follows these three main stages: 

Pre-production

The production process always starts with pre-production. Think of this as the blueprint stage, where the entire video project is getting mapped out before the filming begins. 

Your video needs substance, and this requires teams to:

• Brainstorm ideas
• Write scripts
• Build out storyboards
• Cast actors
• Design sets

Every video has a narrative and style, which is defined in pre-production. Before shooting can begin, you’ll need to scout out shooting locations, cast actors or in-house professionals for the video, and then confirm a date to start filming.

Production

The production stage is where all of your planning comes together and you actually get to record your video. 

This is when camera operators capture the planned scenes, actors perform, and raw footage is recorded using digital cameras.

Creative direction can take a lot of time, but it’s necessary in all video production services.

Everything has to be just right:

• Audio
• Camera settings
• Lighting

Post-production

Once filming is over, the post production process begins, which involves editing and refining the raw footage.  

Editors use digital software to cut and arrange clips, add visual effects, adjust color grading, incorporate sound design, create transitions, and add graphics or text. This stage is crucial in shaping the final output that’s high quality and polished enough to be distributed widely.

That said, video editing requires more than just importing a video into post-production software and making small edits. Professionals will spend time:

• Fixing camera movement
• Adding sound effects and graphics
• Trimming sections and working on transitions
• Working on color correction and aspect ratios
• Matching the narrative of the video to the goals defined in pre-production

Students go to school, take courses, and work on real-world projects to gain hands-on experience in each of the stages of video production. 

As we’ll cover later on, AI redefines these stages, speeding up the process, and allowing companies to skip many of these steps while maintaining the same caliber of results. 

Challenges with scaling digital video production

As you can imagine, undergoing the three stages of digital video production for every video project can be quite cumbersome. 

Here’s a deeper dive into a few of the main challenges that come with scaling up your video production process. 

Maintaining quality at scale 

As video production expands, consistently delivering high-quality content becomes increasingly challenging. 

Whether you’re moving from producing a few videos to dozens or hundreds, each additional video requires the same meticulous attention to detail in scripting, shooting, and editing, but with more team members and more complex coordination. 

This can lead to inconsistent visual styles, varying production values, and potential dilution of your creative standards. Overall, quality control becomes more complex to manage. 

And although content quality may not matter for internal videos, poor-quality training videos can have significant consequences that may negatively impact your organization’s understanding of health and safety protocols, for example. 

Managing costs and resources 

Scaling video production exponentially increases financial and resource challenges. As production volume grows, the costs of equipment, personnel, software licenses, and post-production resources multiply rapidly. 

Each additional video requires investments in cameras, lighting, sound equipment, editing software, and skilled professionals. 

And while freelancers can sometimes help cut down on overhead costs, any time you scale your digital video production, you can expect a higher price tag. 

Overcoming workflow bottlenecks 

Larger-scale production involves more stakeholders, such as additional scriptwriters, designers, editors, and actors. 

Without streamlined workflows and efficient collaboration tools, projects can get delayed due to miscommunication, version control issues, or bottlenecks in the review process.

And when you’re using the same team to scale your video production, adding too much work to one person’s plate can prevent your video projects from moving forward on time. 

The solution: Using AI to scale digital video production

Bottom line – traditional digital video production is expensive and difficult to scale. 

That’s where AI video comes in as a flexible and efficient way to create a high volume of videos – without having to sacrifice the quality or professionalism of your content. 

While corporate videos can take 4-8 weeks to create, Colossyan can produce a studio-quality video in minutes, and at a fraction of the cost. 

That’s because AI video platforms like Colossyan eliminate the need for filming equipment, actors, and on-set locations, in addition to post-production costs like manual video translation and animations. 

Instead, you’ll replace actors with realistic AI avatars and text-to-speech voiceovers. Colossyan is extremely intuitive and user friendly, allowing you to create all of your own videos from scratch directly in your browser – no need to hire a video editor with extensive experience. 

The upside of AI video – especially when scaling your digital video production – is high. 

Many organizations have already turned to Colossyan to replace traditional videos, like the State of New Mexico, which reduced content creation expenses by 70%, and slashed video production time by 50%. 

Curious about the process? Keep reading for more on how to create a digital video with AI. 

How to create an AI video: 4 easy steps

Gone are the days where digital video production requires an entire crew to create a short video. With AI, you can be the writer, director, and producer – all in one. 

Here’s how:

Step 1: Pick an AI avatar

If you want to use AI presenters in your videos, selecting the right AI avatar is key to ensuring your message resonates with your audience.

Colossyan provides a diverse library of over 200 AI avatars, representing various ages, backgrounds, and professions, so you can find the perfect fit for your content. And with scenario avatars, Colossyan also offers AI presenters in realistic industry-specific settings, suitable for workplace training content.

For a more personalized touch, you can even create an AI avatar of yourself. Paired with voice cloning, this option allows you to deliver messages in your own voice, making your videos feel more authentic and engaging.

Or, if you prefer to keep your video simple, you have the option of adding a text-to-speech voiceover without any AI avatars. 

Step 2: Write your script 

Any high-quality video needs a strong script. 

Once you’ve compiled the message you want to convey, simply enter it into Colossyan’s script box and choose whether you want it to be read as avatar dialogue or as voiceover-only narration. And if you need help, Colossyan’s AI script assistant is ready to perfect your message for you.

All video scripts in Colossyan are text to speech, meaning whatever text you input will serve as your video’s audio.  

Step 3: Add your video elements

Whereas in regular digital video production, animations, on-screen text, and background music would all happen in the post-production stage, all of this happens within Colossyan’s video editor, before you’ve generated your final video. 

And with Colossyan, every element of your video is customizable. This includes music, shapes, images, stock videos, on-screen text, animations, and more. 

You can even add your brand kit to Colossyan to ensure your videos maintain a consistent look and feel that aligns with your company’s branding.

Step 4: Generate it and share

Once you're satisfied with your video, it's time to generate the final version!

Your completed video will feature precise avatar lip-syncing to your script, along with all the animations and edits you’ve applied.

You can then download your video in multiple formats – including SCORM for easy LMS integration – or share it instantly via a link.

Here’s an example of a finished Colossyan video: 

Best practices for digital video production

Videos can make workplace learning and training more effective and immersive. But to truly resonate with your viewers and keep them engaged, it’s important to follow a few best practices.

Whether you’re creating digital videos the traditional way, or opting for an AI video creator instead, here are a few tips to keep in mind when creating videos.

Keep it short

Finding the right length for workplace learning videos can be challenging. You need to convey your message and cover the subject in its entirety. However, lengthy videos may not be as effective as shorter, bite-sized modules.

A study from TechSmith found that 50% of people preferred video lengths of 3-6 minutes for instructional or informative purposes. The next preferred length was in the 10-19-minute range. 

Finding a balance within these time ranges can help keep your viewers engaged without bombarding them with too much information they may struggle to retain.

Make it interactive

Interactive videos are more engaging and encourage active participation – two key elements that will make your video a success.

Along with making your videos more interesting, interactive elements also provide opportunities for self-assessment and encourage viewers to give feedback. They encourage two-way conversations and give you the ability to assess the progress and outcomes of your training videos.

Also read: How to Choose the Right Interactive Video Software

At Colossyan, we make it easy to create interactive videos with AI avatars, as features like multiple-choice quizzes and branching allow you to create scenario-based videos that immerse viewers in each scene. 

Focus on accessibility

An effective training video is one that anyone can learn from, no matter their abilities. It is a best practice to add accessibility features to your video content, including subtitles, on-screen text, as well as multilingual viewing options. 

Manual video translation is typically very costly when creating videos the traditional way, as they require you to hire actors who speak each language you wish to translate to. 

However, with Colossyan, you can automatically translate your videos into 70+ languages instantly with just the click of a button. That way, everyone is receiving the same content, just in the language they’re most comfortable with. 

Use analytics to improve your videos

We’ve all been there – sometimes you create a video that fails to resonate with your audience. Using video analytics can help you understand the performance of your content and pinpoint areas of improvement. 

Choosing a digital video production program with built-in analytics will provide you with the data you need to make insightful and impactful changes to your videos.

Colossyan’s video analytics dashboard, for example, empowers enterprise users to improve their workplace learning content through real-time analytics data, including:

• Total views
• Average time spent watching a video
• When videos are watched
• Average video score (if you have interactive multiple-choice quizzes) 

This way, you have the data needed to improve your videos based on audience interactions and maximize their chance of success. 

Takeaway

Video technology has come a long way over the last decade, especially as we have access to better quality video cameras and video editing software tools. 

However, the next big thing in digital video production is undoubtedly AI video. With platforms like Colossyan, you can create studio-quality video content in minutes, and at a fraction of the cost. 

Creating stunning videos no longer requires fancy video cameras or experience with complex video editing software. Now, you can create videos yourself – directly from your browser. 

‍Generate your first AI video for free today or book a demo to learn more.