Video production calendar

How to create a video production calendar in Asana

There are a few ways to create your video production calendar:

1. Import an existing spreadsheet where you currently track video production work.
2. Create a new project in Asana. Choose Board View to visualize video progress through production stages. Board columns will represent the various stages of video production (e.g., scripting, production, editing, and promotion), with tasks representing each video.

Should I create a task or a project to represent each video? This article will help you create a video production editorial calendar, where each task represents a video or asset being produced. This approach is ideal if you have a consistent video format and a limited number of production steps. In fact, this is how we produce our

Tips for managing your video production calendar

1. Create template tasks to jumpstart work

The videos your team produces will likely follow the same process. By creating a template task with subtasks to capture the entire video production workflow, you can ensure every creator is following the same steps. Once you’ve set up your template task, encourage creators to duplicate the task when they’re creating a new video task in Asana.

Use dependencies between subtasks to make sure handoffs are clear and happen at the right time. With dependencies, subtask owners will be notified when their work is ready to be kicked off, so you can ensure a smooth production process.

2. Use custom fields to capture video details

Custom fields make it easy to track details on each task—like priority, video topic, progress, and more. With custom fields, you can track the same information across all of your videos. That way, anyone checking out the project can see pertinent video information.

For the video production process, it’s especially helpful to add the following custom fields to your project:

• Progress: Create a progress custom field to track where your video currently is in the production process. In this case, your progress custom field would be a drop down, with options like Scripting, Filming, Editing, and Post-production.
• Video topic: If you frequently create videos, use a video topic custom field to track what type of video you’re creating (e.g., Educational, Informational, Promotional, Advertisement).
• Final file URLs: Once you’re ready to distribute your video, you need a way to share the final file URLs with cross-functional stakeholders. Create a URL custom field so everyone tackling promotion can easily find the relevant files, without searching through task comments and subtasks.

3. Simplify reviews with Approval tasks

Throughout production, you’ll need to get approval from stakeholders on your work. Approval tasks make it simple for stakeholders to provide feedback. Stakeholders can approve, request changes, or reject work with the click of a button.

Tips for reporting on the video production process

1. Visualize your production calendar in different ways

Boards View is a great way to track video production work through stages, giving you insight into where each video is. But you or your teammates might want to explore other views.

• List View is the best way to filter and sort by assignee and custom fields to help you assign out work or see videos by topic.
• Timeline View is ideal if you're trying to determine your video production schedule. You can easily drag and drop videos onto the timeline and adjust deadlines as needed.
• Calendar View is great if you need to see when videos will be ready for distribution and gauge your video editorial calendar. This view is great for cross-functional collaborators, like your social media team or content lead.

Once you find the project view that’s best for you, you can save that view as default.

2. Report on work and measure progress with Dashboards

Do you currently have a way to track real-time project insights in your current video production process? Visualizing and reporting on data is a breeze with Dashboards. In Dashboards view, you can see any relevant project information—from incomplete tasks to a breakdown of task progress by assignee. With five customizable charts, you can slice and dice data to get easy data insights, instantly.

3. Track work across projects with Portfolios

If you’re currently tracking work across multiple projects, get a bird’s-eye view of where everything stands with Portfolios. In the Portfolios overview tab, you can get a quick sense of each project’s progress, and see the most recent status update.