Choose a production company with experience in all areas called for by your project. Each crew member needs to be familiar with their role in your kind of project and willing to go out of their way to help you. Their only mission is to make your project as smooth and successful as possible. This may not always be the least expensive way to go.
The End Use
This last question is really the first question. Where is this footage to be used in its final edited form? Will it be for broadcast? Is it for DVD or web use only? The answers to these questions will help you to determine many of the choices that are to be made concerning production.
Timeline
What is it? Is this an emergency or does it allow reasonable time for us to help you set up a smooth and flawless shoot that will get you everything you need? If this is an emergency (one week or less) please click here and we will do our utmost to expedite a solution for you. If you cannot reach us by phone, please send an email with the words ‘production emergency’ in the subject line
Camera Format
The end use as well as any existing client infrastructure will help to make this choice. You may have a particular format for which you are already set up. We have shot in almost every format that exists today and can usually accommodate whatever you and your editor are set up for.
Green Screen
If you are shooting in green screen, the camera format must be of suitable resolution. Mini DV or most consumer cameras, even those labeled as “High Definition” are not appropriate. Though inexpensive, they do not provide the resolution to allow a clean compositing of the subject. So you will need a format with enough resolution and lens quality to allow good quality keying.
Script
Do you really, really have the final edit of the script or is there anything you can do before the shoot to ensure that no last-minute script changes are needed?
Popular sources of problems include:
a. Grammatical or typographical errors that are discovered on set resulting in wasted time, increasing pressure to finish on schedule, increased fatigue for the subject and potential cost overruns if it all takes longer because of lack of preparation in this area.
b. Acquiring authority to make final script changes prior to the shoot. This will eliminate delays making phone calls to get permission.
c. Legal permission for the subject to read the final version of your script. We have seen occasions where entire shoots were cut short with frustrating results because no one had discovered that the subject had a conflict of interest until most of the way through the shoot.
Prompter
Is your script long enough to require a teleprompter? If so, you probably know that a great operator can save many headaches and expedite the entire flow of the shoot. Not to mention, make your subject very happy with intuitive cuing of re-takes. In order to ensure a smooth start, it is also helpful to email the script ahead of time, in order to be placed into the prompter software so it is ready to go when you are. Check with the production company to ensure that the format you are sending is acceptable.
Audio
Not many great video shoots work well without good quality audio. Be specific about your needs and whether you will be using a voiceover or the talent’s voice will be recorded. How many people will be speaking at once? A good audio tech can make the most of any recording environment. Using only the microphone on the camera or going home with distorted audio can be disastrous. A professional with professional gear is definitely required here.
Workflow
A solid workflow for raw video files must be in place. If you are shooting to tape, this is not an immediate issue, but will be addressed in post-production. However, at the time of this writing, card-based systems or systems that record directly to hard drives are rapidly becoming mainstream. These systems eliminate the considerable time required to load a tape of raw footage into an editing system in real time. (On a retrospective note, “back in the day”, the real-time load-in process was often useful to editors unfamiliar with the footage who would watch it as it loaded into their editing system. They would take this time to make notes and become familiar with the content, eyeballing preliminary edit points, identifying lighting or audio issues etc. Things move a little faster these days, though the editor now just scrubs the data to identify such issues in a much more cursory fashion.) No pun intended.
With card-based systems, files must be off-loaded as you shoot and ingested into a compatible system (properly tested and configured to take the files in their digital wrappers) in such a way as not to interfere with the flow of the shoot. For example, without sufficient cards for a camera such as Panasonic HVX200 (P2 cards) or Sony PMW-EX3, you may find yourself stopping the subject in the middle of a nice productive flow in order to dump raw footage into an ingest device.
So it may be best to allow for ample cards to permit swapping them on the fly for the shoot. This process also requires a laptop with the correct software loaded and operating correctly, an external drive for portability. A crew member who is familiar with the process and perhaps able to double-check color and lighting issues is also required.
Secure Document Transfer
An intuitive system should be in place to allow secure file transfer of sensitive documents, such as last minute script changes or contract revisions directly into the email of the client while on location. The client must be able to retrieve these documents from their own email system to avoid sending them through third-party email accounts where the security of such information could be at risk. Thus, a fast wireless connection is a very good idea.
Expedited Delivery via FTP
For your finished files, you may require expedited file delivery globally via a backbone web service. This is the fastest file transfer available and serves to get time-sensitive material including very large amounts of data, such as raw footage, delivered to an ftp site immediately following your shoot. From there, the files can be downloaded for editing anywhere in the world. Your production company should be able to take care of this.
Rentals
Upon occasion, your project may require specific pieces of gear that are less than common. Find a company with a large inventory of their own gear for studio and location production, but with long-standing relationships with the best rental houses in the area.
Crew
Depending on the scope of your shoot, you may be able to cover several of these tasks with one person, if the workload makes sense.
Some of the crew you may need includes:
Producer
Director
Camera Operator
Lighting Director
Video Assist
Audio Tech
Production Assistant
Teleprompter Operator
Makeup Artist
Wardrobe Supervisor
Set Design
Script Supervisor
Jib Operator
A host of other crew may be called for. Your production company should be able to supply them for you.
