Producing video material for television, home video, or the internet is the process of creating video content. It is the counterpart of filmmaking, except that instead of film stock, video is captured either as analogue signals on videotape or as digital signals on VHS, or as computer data saved on optical discs, hard drives, SSDs, magnetic tape, or memory cards, rather than film material. In the creation of video, there are three stages: pre-production, production (also known as primary photography), and post-production (which is the final step). Pre-production refers to all of the parts of the video production process that must be planned before filming can begin. This comprises scriptwriting, scheduling, logistics, and a variety of other administrative responsibilities, among other things. Production is the stage of video production during which the video content (electronic moving pictures) is captured and filmed, as well as the subject(s) of the video being filmed. It is the process of selecting video clips and putting them together to create a final product that tells a narrative or delivers a message, either during a live event (live production) or after the event has happened (after-event production) (post-production).
In today's world, the vast majority of video material is taken using electronic media such as an SD card for consumer-grade cameras or solid-state and flash storage for professional-grade cameras. Content that is delivered digitally over the internet in standard formats such as the MPEG container format (.mpeg,.mpg,.mp4), QuickTime (.mov), Audio Video Interleave (.avi), Windows Media Video (.wmv), and DivX are often seen (.avi, .divx).