Above the Clouds: Video Production

(This is part two of my Behind the Scenes series, following along behind the scenes of a recent Aerochase video production. Click here for Part One.)

Every video production starts the day before. I make sure that my batteries and memory cards are ready for the shoot and that I have backups ready to go. I go through my equipment checklist to make sure I’ve packed have everything I need for the shoot. And then I double-check everything.

When I show up to the shoot, I start my setup. The first thing I do is set up any lighting that I might need. I use LED panels if the natural light is not bright enough and if natural light is good, I’ll note some locations where it’s the best. The next thing I do is set up my framing. I put my camera on the tripod and do some test shots to make sure everything looks good. The last thing I set up is the audio. I use two different microphones on a video shoot: a lav mic and a shotgun mic as a backup. This allows me to have options when I’m editing, and as I’ve learned the hard way, it’s always a good idea to have backup audio.

Once everything is set up, I can start the shoot. For this example, I was basically conducting an interview, so the stationary cameras were all I needed. My client and I went through the script together over several takes until we got all the footage we needed.

After the shoot, I take everything down, and then my number one priority is to get the footage transferred to my hard drives. I have two hard drives that where I store all of my footage. One is my main drive and one is a backup drive (you might sense a theme here!). Once everything is backed up, it’s time for post-production.