Public and private edits of the same event

Make a separate edit for each audience, and decide what each audience may see before filming starts. The private version can be complete. The public version should be short, cleared and approved by one named person on your side.

Why one edit for everyone causes problems

A video made for staff often contains things that should not be public. Slides with figures, internal nicknames, name tags, a child in the audience, a joke at someone’s expense. Once a video is online, it is hard to pull back.

The reverse is also true. A polished public film is a poor record for the people who were there. They want the full speeches and the faces they know.

Which versions might you need?

Think in audiences, not file types. The private and public video version planner helps you list them. A common split looks like this:

Paid advertising is a separate decision from ordinary posting. Ask in writing whether each person, logo and piece of music is cleared for that use.

What to keep out of the public version

Go through your programme and mark each item before the day. Common items:

• Confidential slides, charts or financial figures shown on screen.
• Closed sessions, committee discussions and anything under an agreement to keep it private.
• Children, unless a parent or guardian has agreed to how the video is used.
• Name tags, passes, attendee lists and laptop screens that can be read in a wide shot.
• Speeches that have not been reviewed by the speaker or your team.
• Private or religious moments, and any moment someone asked not to be filmed.
• Remarks recorded in the background audio that were not meant for release.

Malaysia’s Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (Act 709) covers how personal data is handled in commercial settings, and the Act was amended in 2024. Whether it applies to your event is for your own legal or compliance contact to say. Our permissions guides and the filming and publication responsibilities checklist set out the questions to ask them.

Decide before filming, not after

Leaving it to the edit is the weaker plan. Three steps help:

1. List closed moments and people. Give the crew the run sheet with the closed items marked.
2. Agree what the crew does at each one. Film for the private record only, film wide without screens, or stay out.
3. Tell the room. A short notice at the door or a line from the host lets guests know they may be filmed and whom to ask if they would rather not be.

If a moment is only dangerous in public, filming it for the private version is fine. If it should never exist as a recording, say so and the crew leaves it unfilmed.

An illustrative example

For example, a company holds a 300-guest annual dinner. The managing director shares draft results on a slide, the awards segment names long-serving staff, and some staff bring their children.

The organiser asks for three things: a private record of the full dinner for management, a staff highlight with names, and a public film of a length they choose, with no slides and no children in close shot.

The public version goes to one communications officer for approval. The draft-results segment is filmed for the private record only. This is an illustration, not a past client.

Who is responsible for what

• You decide which versions exist, what is excluded and who approves the public one.
• We record to that plan, edit each version as instructed and deliver by the method you choose.
• Your team controls who receives the private files, and what is posted once delivered.

Which attendees agreed to be published, and which information is confidential, comes from you. Give us the list and we work from it.

What we confirm for your event

• A private and a public version, edited from the same recording.
• How closed sessions and screens in wide shots are handled on the day.
• Who receives the files, and how access is limited.
• The review rounds for the public version before it is final.
• What is kept so a person can be removed later if needed.

For related choices, see the guides on speaker clips, clean masters and interview compilations. When you are ready, we plan the versions as part of your event videography quote.