Ah workflow…what you do and when you do it and in what order you do it.

Now in the wonderful world of production, there is a pretty set plan.
One. Pre-production. This is conception of the idea, be it a TV commercial or program, to the research and scripting and choosing talent and much much more. Choosing crew, cameras and other gear. Venues, costume. The list is endless.
Two. Production. Shooting.
Three Post-production. Editing, FX, trailers.

And then. There is news.

A wild and furry beast that defies description.

Now all of the elements are there – but kind of jumbled up and thrown together to make a monster of a mishmash that somehow seems to work.

Generally you do get to either get an assignment or come up with an idea for a story…and then, depending…you may start shooting before you have time to do any research or even get a grasp of what you just got into. You might see smoke and be in the middle of a fire scene, trying to figure it out as it happens. Pre-production and production run into each other and duke it out with you caught up in the chaos.

Or you might be given a few minutes or an hour to track down interviews and set up b-roll. But during the day you will most likely still be doing research and gathering information while grabbing interviews and b-roll.

The only part that is guaranteed is that editing will come last. Unless of course you go live, then forget about that.