End-to-end video production

From the script to the master.

I write the structure, I write the script, I draw the storyboard, I produce the image, I animate the graphics and I design the sound. One person answers for the whole piece, and every decision can be explained: why that cut, why that shot, why that silence.

How it was made, step by step

Firedrop · fire extinguisher ball 60 s · 1920x1080 · 25 fps 28 shots · 12 voice-over lines Original logo, music and sound

How it is made

Six phases. None gets skipped.

What follows is not a theory diagram: these are the actual documents the video above was produced with, in the order they were made. No image gets generated until the structure and the script are approved.

Phase 01

Structure

Before writing a single line you settle the clock. You take a reference that already works, take it apart shot by shot, measure its tempo and its cuts with audio analysis, and out of that comes a table of blocks with exact timings.

The Firedrop piece runs one minute and splits into seven blocks. The hook does not move out of the first eight seconds, however long the video gets. New blocks go into the body, never at the start.

7 blocks28 cutsCuts on the kickBrand at the end, not at the start

The real 60 s of the piece: blocks on top, the 28 shot cuts below. Taken from the edit file, not from a sketch.

Phase 02

Script

Little text and plenty of air. The voice explains, the image hits. Every line carries its entry second and its duration measured in the audio, not estimated, so that none steps on the next one or covers a sound hit.

The script gets approved in writing before anything is generated. It is the only phase where a change costs no money, so it is where everything gets argued out.

12 lines482 characters39 s of voice in 60 s of videoOne track per line

Approved voice-over script. The entry times are the ones that ended up in the edit. The piece is narrated in Spanish; the lines are translated here.

Phase 03

Storyboard

One frame per shot, at delivery resolution, before anything moves. This is where you see whether the film works: whether the order reads, whether the light is the same across every shot, whether the product is always recognisable.

House rule: the product is never invented. Every frame starts from the client's real photos and from the previous frame as reference, and the text only describes environment, light, camera and composition. What does not fit gets thrown out and made again, not salvaged.

22 frames1920x1080Approved before animating

The full storyboard exactly as it was sent for approval. Tap to enlarge it.

Phase 04

Image production

Every shot is produced from its storyboard frame, with the first and last frame locked. That way the camera makes exactly the planned move and the next shot can start where the previous one ended.

Shots that have to be still are asked for still. Dissolves get cut on the exact frame where the image matches the next one, measured, not by eye. Anything that drifts gets done again.

22 shotsFirst and last frameMeasured continuity

Continuity check: last frame of one shot against the first of the next. If they do not match, the cut shows.

Phase 05

Motion graphics

The client's logo arrived as a photo. It was vectorised stroke by stroke and animated frame by frame: the flame lights, the letters lock in, and what is left is an alpha-channel version ready to composite over any background.

The data titles follow rules of their own: never two shots with text in a row, the text sits in the empty half of the frame alternating sides, and the title comes in before the value.

Vectorised logo4 s at 25 fpsAlpha version4 data titles

Brand animation, 4 s. Also delivered in ProRes with alpha so it can be reused in other pieces.

Phase 06

Sound design

The music is original and composed for this piece, not picked off a catalogue. Its drum drop is lined up with the explanatory block and its entry hit lands on the same frame the product lights up.

On top go the effects: the match, three sweeps, the teaser riser, the drop hit and the impact. At the moment the fire goes out the music drops to eight per cent for a second and a half, so all you hear is the hiss. The mix is delivered levelled to the minus fourteen LUFS the platforms ask for.

Original music10 effects placedDucking to 8 %-14 LUFS

Waveform of the delivered master. The marks on top are the shot cuts, the ones below are the sound effects.

Work

Other formats, the same method.

Vertical for social, horizontal for product. From reportage to comedy, from fear to testimonial, in Spanish and in English. Tap any of them to watch it with sound.

Who is behind this

Heber Cotiz

I come from direct response marketing. For years I have looked after the website, the ads and the content of businesses that live on getting customers, so I work video the way you work a campaign: first what has to happen to whoever is watching, then how it looks.

Which means no piece starts from the pretty image. It starts from the structure and the script, which is where it is won or lost. The image comes afterwards, and it comes already decided.

I use artificial intelligence in several stages of the production, and I do not hide it: it is what makes it possible to deliver a full product video, with its animated logo and its original music, in a matter of days and with no shooting crew. The judgment, the direction and what goes out the door are mine. Every shot gets reviewed, and what does not fit gets thrown out and made again.

I work direct, with no agency in between. I write it, I direct it and I answer for it.

Message me on WhatsApp I answer the same day.

Next step

Got a piece in your head?

Tell me what product or service needs showing and where it is going. I send back the structure and a draft script before we talk budget, so you see how I work with your case and not with an example.

Message me on WhatsApp A straight answer, no forms.