Whatever you are- a freelance photographer, an aspiring filmmaker, or a video producer, you have choices to make.

And bearing in mind that focusing on the technical aspects of the craft can be way too easy while you ignore the administrative aspects, the only way to transition from a hobbyist to a pro is to learn one of the important skills in filmmaking- project management. 

If you have ever made a video, you will agree that many mini-tasks must be completed for a successful production.

With good project management, you can track and monitor the tasks.

Hence a professional guide to the best project management software you can use for video production. 

One wonders how and why a creative individual needs knowledge of project management.

Project management for video production means you are particularly interested in determining what needs to be done, in what order, and when they should be completed.

After that, you have the responsibility of assigning each task to a task owner who is accountable for getting it done. 

Why use Project Management Software for Video Productions?

Project Management Software provides a unified platform for planning, coordinating, and managing video production projects.

As a result, there are fewer delays and communication errors since the team is better able to manage projects, deadlines, and resources.

To ensure that everything goes smoothly and on schedule, project management software for video productions assists in the management of projects from beginning to end.

It fosters team cooperation while managing projects, deadlines, finances, and resources. Scripting, storyboarding, casting, filming, editing, and distribution are just a few of the processes involved in making a video.

The use of the program enables effective teamwork, helps manage task complexity and guarantees that deadlines are reached.

Tip: Monday.com has workflow automation features that allow teams to automate repetitive tasks and workflows.

What makes good Project Management Software for Video Productions?

A good video production project management software should include many vital features that assist handle the complexity of video production projects from conception to completion.

Producing a video requires a lot of responsibilities, including writing the screenplay, storyboarding, shooting the video, editing it, and distributing it.

Task creation, assignment, and tracking should all be possible using the program.
Working with large files, such as video files, photos, and documents, is characteristic of projects for video creation.

Timelines and deadlines should be able to be created and managed by the program, allowing the team to deliver projects on schedule.

Tip: Smartsheet has a dynamic view feature which makes it easier for teams to manage complex projects, track progress, and collaborate more effectively

How to choose the right Project Management Software for Video Productions?

Here are some recommendations for selecting the best project management tools for video productions:

  • The intricacy of your video production projects, the size of your team, and your budget should all be considered when determining your team’s particular demands.
  • The project management software alternatives that are offered on the market should be researched and evaluated.
  • To assess how the program functions and how it fits into your team’s workflow, test it out over a trial period.
  • Make sure the application has a user-friendly, intuitive interface and is simple to use.
  • Consider the software’s price, value, functionality, and your team’s demands when comparing it to other options.

Tip: Asana allows teams to create visual timelines of their projects, showing dependencies, deadlines, and milestones.

Video project: A complicated matrix of varying requirements

A video project is a complex project of requirements that intertwine with one another including scripting, location scouting, permitting, equipment rental, makeup, shooting, cutting, test screening, casting, and IT infrastructure.

It is a wholesome interconnected web that glaringly shows that no one can keep the jobs, resources, and personnel requirements off hand.

This is where project management becomes handy.

Before video production, there are numerous moving parts that you have to put into consideration, and more often than not, the process is more or less the same for every video creation.

This explains why it is necessary, and in fact, sensible to keep these things in a single place where you can track them easily. 

Project Management Tools/Software at its simplest

The checklist is the most basic form of project management for video production.

You can keep a checklist on a whiteboard or a notebook, and this can include anything whatsoever.

The bigger your shoots get, the more complicated the checklist becomes, and at that point, you will need a more suitable planner to keep your list organized.

Meanwhile, a planner is only good for one or two people.

For multiple persons, you will need many planners for many roles, and such a thing snowballs fast.

The catch is the bigger your project gets, the more the need to seek online solutions to manage your project.

Some things can be sufficient at first, but as the project scales up, those little things will not be adequate anymore. 

Top 7 Best Project Management Software for Video Production (Summary)

BrandStarting priceBest for
1. Monday.com$8/monthCreative video production
2. Smartsheet$7/monthConsistency
3. Asana$10.99 – $13.49/monthVersatility
4. Trello$5.00 – $17.50/monthVirtual cards
5. Studiobinder$19/monthAll-in-one feature
6. ProofHub$50/MonthAnimation projects
7. Celtx$7.50 – $10/monthScreenwriting

1. Monday.com

Best Project Management Software For Video Production

Monday.com can serve as a video production project management platform where your production team can collaborate on things including the creative approach of who is the audience, and what is your objective of the creation.

Also, in the pre-production process, writing the script is crucial, which is where you develop the essence of the message and the concept of the video.

Moreover, Monday.com helps you create a storyboard where you get to sketch out how the movie will happen in frames and shoot every necessary detail.

You can also indicate if your video needs a narrator- that is, a voiceover section, and specify the location where the video will be filmed.

The list is endless, as you can make the visual status labels of your board exactly the way you want.

The idea of incorporating proper video production project management is to ensure that everything is in place and runs smoothly when you are ready to get the cameras rolling for recording. 

Even after you have finished filming your video, the software is equally of great use in the post-production stage to manage the editing process, communicate with the editors, and ensure that there is a great alignment with your client’s expectations.

Also, you can track the videos altogether to make sure you leave nothing falling through the cracks.

Some of the important features of the software at this stage include brand assets, music, audio mixing, and color grading/correction. 


2. Smartsheet

Best Project Management Software For Video Production

Regardless of what your purpose for creating a video is, whether, for sales, marketing, or some other reasons, you can get a perfect and better product when you follow a video production plan.

This is achievable with smartsheet- as it helps to get through the pre-production stage and others.

Smartsheet is a cloud-based tool used to manage campaigns more effectively, as well as to maintain consistency, and increase visibility, among other things.

There are certain video project schedule templates available to track the progress from start to finish and project managers (in this case, video producers) can see the status of the tasks and the visual timeline of each phase in the smartsheet.

Also, smartsheet helps you track the budget of your production easily- and to determine if your spending matches your estimates.

This software makes video planning efficient as you get to input the shooting details, call sheets, makeup information, interface with casting databases, and costume, prop, and equipment tracking, to mention a few.

It also helps track essential staff, location, and filming details as well as general project management features including calendars, document import, and personalized communication.


3. Asana

Best Project Management Software For Video Production

Asana is another great and infamous project management software that has the structure of a planner list, but with more versatility in terms of built-in features and functionality that integrates organizational and accountability tools.

It is more appropriate for top-down team structures such that you can take a larger and less granular view of the project as against what you have in Trello.

With Asana, you can see clearly which of your items are on schedule, and this is what makes it well-suited for video production, especially the Hollywood style. 


4. Trello

Best Project Management Software For Video Production

Trello is a free project management software, specifically intended for project management.

With Trello, you can create virtual cards that represent a task. Users can then assign the cards to the team members.

After the task, the card can be marked complete.

These cards are a perfect visual way to track the progress of your video production project.

Trello works best when used with a smaller group of collaborative teams, or in some cases, larger teams that have a flat reporting structure. 


5. Studiobinder

Best Project Management Software For Video Production

Studiobinder is a modern video production project management software with an all-in-one feature to help filmmakers create effective shooting schedules, and call sheets, manage film crews, and backup files in the cloud.

It features a call sheet for recording weather details for corporate video production.

It also offers a platform to add shooting schedules to call sheets, and for producers to personalize call times on call sheets for TV production companies.

An intuitive video production software that allows users to create robust sheets in a few minutes.

There are automatic weather, hospital, and map links that suit the set location of the producer and for easy navigation.

Also, producers can manage key crew contact details accurately with StudioBinder as they are offered a plethora of freedom to group their favorite crew and do a bulk import.

StudioBinder is also effective for collaborating on intuitive shooting schedules where the producer can collaborate with the team for more effective production scheduling.

Another interesting feature of this tool is that it helps with the creation of unlimited call sheets and that way, you can save some time by doing less follow-up.

Secure asset management is also a plus, where you upload and share your media files or documents with great ease.

Producers (also standing as project managers) can keep the dialogue unbroken, collaborate with clarity, and organize their stuff all together in a place with the help of StudioBinder. 


6. ProofHub

Best Project Management Software For Video Production

Now and then, more and more businesses are engaging video creatives to market their products and services.

One of the popular ways they do this is to hire animated video experts to help promote the company’s product or service entertainingly and sensitively such that viewers get a better grasp of the concept and are more responsive towards the product or service.

This is a pointer to how important proper and timely execution of animation projects has become, and transcending the traditional methods of project management would demand a higher level of using suitable project management software.

In this case, ProofHub becomes useful.

It is an online collaboration and project management tool that helps organize activities or tasks and ensure the systematic execution of projects. 

Although animators and other creatives are bound to work more remotely these days, nonetheless, ProofHub is applicable where team members are, and it helps ensure transparent and rapid collaboration where the team discusses technical and creative issues with the project. It has a 

 The “discussions” feature is used for determining exactly what kind of creative content the animated video will or should contain.

Then, tasks are assigned to team members who execute them in the proper order.

It also has a proofing tool that helps get a fast and accurate review of each stage of the project.


7. Celtx

Best Project Management Software For Video Production

Celtx used to be a mere desktop screenwriting tool, but has since gone online to serve as a great tool for scheduling, script breakdown, shot lists, and budgeting.

It is capable of generating project documents, with the inclusion of features like client approvals and shareable links to production documents.

Although with limited sharing functionality and collaboration, it is perfect for building documents.

Over the years, the need has become increasingly obvious to discuss the similarities between the responsibilities of a video producer and a project manager.

A project, defined as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result, is the basis of video production, too.

For instance, the Project Management Institute (PMI) compares film production projects and their phases to the project management processes:

  • Development: Project Initiation
  • Pre-Production: Planning
  • Production: Executing, monitoring, controlling, closing
  • Post-Production: Executing, controlling, closing
  • Distribution & Exhibition: Initiating, planning, executing, controlling

With this, although there are no recognizable standardized rules on how to make successful films, the attention is on creating larger film projects or commercial video productions considering it as a product that needs a solid team effort and a wide range of skills, and expertise to achieve the best.


Conclusion

No one tool is all-serving.

This explains why the smartest video producers or filmmakers have learned over the years to master some project management skills, too.

That is, using a tool that can meet their specific needs.

There is no successful video production without project management.

Every producer needs a solid project plan because producing a video can be chaotic.

This is why you need to get your ducks in a row whether you are a creative delivering for clients or some employed in-house guy working on video production.

With any of the tools mentioned above (in this text), you can get things done more effectively.

Therefore, video production project management does not necessarily have to be arduous or laborious, if you have the right project management software in place for your creative efforts.

Of course, there are numerous enterprising tools that animators and video creatives can use to improve their productivity.

This is the primary essence of project management software or tools for video production.

Essentially, they help producers manage and execute their projects in an organized manner and very professionally such that the projects can be completed as scheduled and at the required quality.

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