This past Saturday Airdale Productions had a video shoot at a local doctor’s office. This one was a bit more involved as we had a field producer, a full lighting kit, actors, extras, and last but not least, COFFEE AND DONUTS! Sooo tasty!
So I have covered the advantages of holding pre-production meetings extensively in previous posts so I will not be covering that again. Suffice it to say, if you hold meetings and you’ve done your location scouting, you will be way ahead of the game when it comes time to hit that record button on your shoot day.
There are a myriad of ways to prepare for your shoot and more importantly, the very start of the shoot. I feel like if you start off well and you exude confidence, then that just starts the day off right and typically, the rest of the shoot goes great. If you are fumbling around with gear, worrying about camera settings, not knowing exactly what your actors and extras are supposed to be doing (especially for those first crucial scenes), then chances are, right from the get go, you’re going to be in for a rough day. This all comes down to planning.
So here are some tips for starting out on your video shoot. And by the way, this is coming from the angle of you acting as the director/director of photography on set, and also probably cutting it in post as well. After all, we in the video production world wear many hats these days and due to client’s budgets, we fulfill a multitude of jobs.
- When you show up on set, (hopefully early), have your camera already pre-prepped as much as you can. Framerate, shutter, etc. You want to grab your camera out of your bag, pop it on the sticks, get whatever else you need attached to your cam, and get it going fairly quickly.
- Know what your very first four or five shots will be at the minimum. Block them out. Know where your camera will be placed, where your actors and extras will be within those scenes, where lights and audio will be placed.
- Plan, Plan, Plan. And when you think you’ve finished the plan, review it, spend 5 or 10 minutes and talk it over with your field producer. See if it makes sense. Communicate your plan to those people who will be involved in those first critical scenes.
- Try to get to know the names of the people who you are working with including the actors and extras, not just the technical people. This goes a long, long way, trust me.
- Hold a brief meeting with everyone at the very beginning of the shoot. You should welcome everyone, inform people that safety comes first and that if anyone sees anything wrong, or out of the ordinary, to speak up and say something. Briefly cover the first couple of scenes. Ask for involvement from anyone else. Basically, try to be a leader, and remember, respect is always a two way street.
Hopefully these tips that I have listed will help you out on your next shoot day. I know that for myself, I constantly refer back to previous topics that I’ve covered to just make sure I’m not missing anything. I’m always looking to improve my process or how I approach the beginning of a shoot day. Let me know in the comments if you do something different or what you do to make the beginning of a shoot go smoother.
Chris
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