The production pipeline

Stage 1. Research (Stage: ~4-5 days)

1. First look — We get into the game and collect the incoming package.
2. Finding hooks — We look for the moments that hook.
3. Hook categories — We sort the hooks by type.
4. Genre experience — We filter by the genre experience.
5. Tech overview — A technical report on what can be captured in the build.
6. Game overview — A general analytical overview of the project and its strengths.
7. Producer check — We check ourselves on the way out of Research.

Stage 2. Narrative (Stage: ~4-5 days)

8. Story logic — The core loop as the foundation.
9. Structure — The frame of the video, block by block.
10. Game experience — In one or two sentences - what it's like to play this game. Only the player's feelings and actions, no feature lists. This is what the trailer has to carry.
11. Concept — In one paragraph we set the lens we tell it through: the spirit, the tone, the voice, the feeling we want the viewer to have. The concept grows out of the game experience, not out of form for form's sake.
12. Outline — The bare bones of the story, before the script.
13. Script — We bring it together into one document.
14. Creative director check — An internal review with the creative director: the concept serves the game, the story reads, the tone and the taste hold. We catch problems on paper, while fixing them is still cheap - not in the edit.
15. Producer check — The review before production.

Stage 3. Production (Stage: ~6-8 days)

16. Breakdown — The edit plan built from the script.
17. Music and VO selection — Choosing the main music track and finding a voice - a real one or AI.
18. Project setup — We set up the working edit project: timeline and structure.
19. Concept art — Developing the concept for the visual elements: title cards, graphics, packshots
20. Textomatic — The first draft, in text.
21. Creative director check — We review the Textomatic with the creative director.
22. VO draft — Scratch voice-over: VO generated to fit the Textomatic.
23. Capturing footage — Capturing footage and staging in UE
24. Building the graphic elements — We prepare the title cards, packshots and motion graphics.
25. Draft 2 — We swap the text for pictures.
26. Creative director check — We review Draft 2 with the creative director.
27. Sound revisions — We fix the sound against the review notes.
28. Pickup footage — Capturing the missing shots from the fix list.
29. Graphics revisions — We fix the graphics against the review notes.
30. Draft 3 — Sharpening the form.
31. Creative director check — We review Draft 3 with the creative director.
32. Producer check — The final review of the cut with the producer.
33. Sound design — SFX, music, character lines.
34. Polishing the video — The final clean-up of the edit, plus subtitles.
35. Polishing the graphics — The final pass on the graphic elements.
36. Final edit — Language versions, aspect-ratio versions, delivery.
37. Building the language versions — Exporting the multi-language versions of the trailer, project by project.
38. Aspect-ratio versions — Versions for the platform formats: 16:9, 1:1, 9:16.
39. Trailer cover image — Making a clickable preview image for YouTube.
40. Export — The final render of the video files at maximum quality.
41. Upload and handover — Uploading to Google Drive and the official handover to the producers.