What is Workflow?

Work•flow /ˈwərkflō/

“The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” – lexico.com

What is a quality workflow?  How do we develop it?  Below are elements of the production cycle that most creative people move through as they create something.  First, we must identify the stages of project production. What is each stage and what are the quality checks for each stage.  Read on and find out!

Stages of Creation Development

Inspiration

How do we find ideas to develop?

• The tools we need to find inspiration are creativity, open-mindedness, and observation.
• We can often times look at our surroundings or evaluate the various things in our lives to find new ideas. Sometimes, we have to seek out the help of others to develop ideas.
• The quality of an idea is measured by its success and its impact – How can this idea lead to more opportunities? How will others react to this idea?
• The people who measure the quality of an idea are often the people who will be affected by the outcomes of said idea. In a lot of situations, the most important person who measures the quality of an idea is one’s superior (boss, teacher, CEO, etc…)

Intention

How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project?

• The tools we should use to show intention while making a project are clarity, concision, and precision.
• In order to clarify our specific goals for a project, we have to explain our intent, whether that be literally explaining our goal or clearly showing our intent through our work.
• The quality of our intention in a project is measured by if our intent is understood by those who view or critique our work. If we’re looking to make a successful comedy, the quality of that intention might be measured by how much people laugh, or if they even considered our work to be funny.
• Though our superiors still measure the quality of our intent, I think the quality our intentions are more so measured by how our audience reacts. If we’re successful in communicating our intentions, the audience will have the reactions and feelings we hoped for.

Pre-production

How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase?

• The tools we should use in pre-production include creativity, communication, and collaboration. In order to brainstorm an original idea, we have to be creative and communicate with each other. We also need to use some of the skills that good screenwriters have in order to successfully communicate our ideas through story telling.
• When we brainstorm our ideas, it’s important to put ourselves in the best possible environment to find inspiration and originality. Some people work best in a very quiet, isolated space, but others find their creativity when they hear the various ideas of their group mates.
• The quality of our brainstorming is measured by how successful we are in building off of an idea. If we can take one idea and successfully build an entire concept around it as a group, we have done a good job creating our storyboard. Another measurement of the quality of our brainstorming is how an idea makes us feel. Does it make us excited to expand the story or are we dreading the rest of the process?
• Along with every other stage, the quality of our work is most often measured by our superiors, whether that be a teacher, a boss, or a film critic. With that, the people who we work with on our storyboards also measure the quality of our ideas. We have to do some amount of self evaluation in this step.

Production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project.

• The tools we should use to execute our plan during production include communication, patience, and flexibility. When we encounter an obstacle during production, we have to be patient with each other and be flexible in order to find a solution. Some form of directorial skills are also really important here. As far as actual tools, we of course need cameras, lights, and microphones during this stage of creation.
• In order to be successful during production, we need to have a clear idea of what want to do during each scene before the camera starts rolling. Sometimes we have to go through some trial and error to figure out what works best, and that requires everyone to be patient and willing to work together.
• The quality of our production is measured by the success of our work: how the audience reacts, how much traction it gains, etc… We also determine the quality our production by how content we are with what we’ve made.
• The people who measure the quality of our production are our superiors, the audience, and ourselves.

Post-production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our final stages of the project for this phase? This is where we publish the project.

• The tools we should use in post-production are communication, precision, and attentiveness to detail. We also need to have some basic editing skills and a software to execute that editing process.
• Of course, we need to go through the processes of proper editing to develop the final cut that we will eventually publish. This means dedicating time to sound editing, creating different cuts, and fixing lighting to the best of our abilities.
• The quality of post-production is measured by the way in which our film flows and the overall value of our editing. Determining whether the editing of each scene successfully relays our intentions is crucial in measuring the quality of our work in post-production.
• As usual, the quality of the final stage of making our project is judged by our superiors and our audience.

Presentation/Performance

How do we share our project with our learning community, advisory members, and the world?

• The tools we should use to share our project with others are clear communication and connections. In order to share our work with more than just the people we know personally, we have to use connections and communicate with our recipients on where we want the project going. We also need to use websites and different forms of communication to present our project, whether that be sending out emails or publishing our work on sites like “Sneak on the Lot”.
• Some processes we might need to use during this stage include emailing, publishing, and reaching out to new recipients. If we want our work to be seen by more than the learning community around us, we have to publish our project in a far more public manor.
• We measure the quality of the sharing of our performance by how the recipients react to our project and whether or not they successfully receive our project. Making sure that our audience and critiques can easily access our work is crucial to this stage.
• The quality of our presentation is determined by those who are receiving our work.

Feedback

How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?

• The tools we should use to conduct a feedback session at the end of our project are respect, clear dialogue, and optimism. We have to be respectful in the way we conduct a feedback sessions because we’re trying to help each other improve our projects, not just critique them. There are plenty of ways to conduct feedback sessions online by publishing your work and providing a space for people to leave their opinions.
• Being patient and open to suggestions is a crucial process in this stage, as we often get defensive when our work is critiqued or criticized. If we are able to, feedback sessions are best done in person with people whose opinions we respect. However, during this isolated time, we can use online resources to find feedback on our work from various people, and we can even find ways to give feedback to others.
• The quality of the feedback itself is determined by how clear the critiques are and how reputable those who are critiquing us are. If our feedback session is successful, we will have learned exactly what we’re doing wrong and what we’re doing right. We then have to take that information and apply it to our future projects.
• The people who measure the quality of our feedback sessions are ourselves, as we are receiving the responses of our audiences and our critiques. What we do with the feedback we receive is crucial in this learning process, as we can either ignore criticisms and continue to make the same mistakes, or we can listen to people’s responses and grow from them.