Guide20 August 2026
What happens to the recording after the event?
Most events produce a recording that gets uploaded once and never watched again. The material is usually worth considerably more than that, and the difference is a small amount of planning.
Daniel Wilkinson
Founder and Operations Director, dwmedia
What you should get as standard
A programme record. The cut show as it went out, complete, from top to tail. This should be included in any production quote. If it is not, ask why.
Isolated camera records where relevant. Each camera recorded separately as well as the cut. This is what makes a proper edit possible afterwards, because a cut show is locked and cannot be recut.
If there is any chance of an edit later, ask for isolated records at the time. They cost almost nothing to capture during the event and cannot be recovered afterwards.
What is worth commissioning
- Chaptered sessions. A conference recording split by session, each one topped and tailed, named and thumbnailed. Turns three unusable hours into eight usable pieces. The single highest value bit of post work on most events.
- A highlights film. Two to three minutes, cut for pace, usable for next year promotion and for social. This is what gets shared.
- Speaker clips. Each speaker segment as a standalone file. Speakers share these, which puts your event in front of their audience. Very cheap to produce from an existing chaptered edit and consistently the best return.
- Short vertical cuts. Thirty to sixty seconds, framed for phones. Different framing to the broadcast, so worth flagging before the event if you want them, because it can affect how cameras are framed.
Plan it beforehand, not afterwards
Deciding you want a highlights film after the event means editing footage that was not shot with that in mind. Deciding before means the camera team gets cutaways, audience reactions and establishing shots while they are there.
It costs nothing to say in advance and it changes what you end up with.
Rights
Check what you have permission to use and where. Speaker agreements, music and audience members are all separate questions. Internal use and public marketing use are not the same permission.
More on recording and highlights.
Written by
Daniel Wilkinson
Founder and Operations Director, dwmedia
Dan has run live production since 2014, from single-camera council committee streams to sixty-date arena tours. He has worked in 18 UK arenas including The O2, the AO Arena and the OVO Hydro, and covers 16 or more festivals and 30 or more arena dates a year. He writes these from the job rather than from a desk.