Category / Field stories

by Jake

Three people, two mics: Time to improvise!

Aside from the 4 a.m. call time (ouch), today was a typical day of shooting on location. The setting for part of the shoot was an unassuming classroom auditorium, far from the glitz and glamour of a television set. The star of the show is a charismatic host — a master of balancing fun with professionalism, a man known for his ability to make any conversation engaging and insightful.

Alongside him were two guests, women from the local university, ready to share their perspectives and engage in a lively discussion about cheese (yes really. It’s pretty cool). As the videographer running the shoot, it was my job to make sure that the video and the audio got captured, and captured well.

The Missing Mic Dilemma

As I unlatched my audio gear case, a wave of confusion washed over me. Instead of the expected three lavalier mics, there were two. The third was conspicuously missing, and a quick scan of the auditorium confirmed that it was nowhere to be found. A quicker scan of adjoining rooms and the other gear bags and cases confirmed the disappearance.

A less experienced videographer might have panicked at this point. Continue reading →

by Jake

Plan your shoots

Our deadline was approaching quickly, and we hadn’t shot a single frame for a holiday spot that was rapidly becoming as stressful as the actual holidays.

We’d scrubbed two shooting dates and had to cancel a shoot ten minutes in because we couldn’t find the right costume for the talent. Disaster was looming over us, so I dealt with it the best way I could… planning for the shoot.

And you know what? Things turned out okay.

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by Jake

Going viral

Creating a viral video — that’s the dream, isn’t it?

I had that happen just this week, and I’m still waiting to see the implications. The idea came to me suddenly and completely. I knew what I wanted to say, I knew how to put the video together, and I had a strong feeling that it’d resonate. It was a bolt of lightning, one of those creative sparks that I had to act on right the hell now.

But I stepped back for a minute, thought about it, and turned it into a powerful marketing tool. Here’s why it worked, and how it’s going to help my business get its name out.

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by Jake

Keep the rights, or make them pay what your footage is worth

Three times in two weeks, I had clients call with requests for the raw footage from earlier shoots I’d performed for them. In all three cases, they wanted me to send it to other production companies.

At the time, I felt compelled to say yes. Now, there’s a clause in our standard production contract that lets me tell them no. In the long run, it’s better to try and keep the rights to your footage.

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by Jake

Everybody wants to be appreciated

My son lulled me into a false sense of security. We got about four good months of his being the perfect two-year-old before the terrible twos started in earnest.  And man, did they start. Every little routine daily activity was no longer routine — it was a battle of wills between us. He got mad. I got mad. His mother got mad.

Worst of all, it was affecting how we felt about our parenting. It’s hard to feel good about raising the youth of tomorrow when you feel overwhelmed, frustrated and utterly emotionally beaten.

Thanks to a little nugget of wisdom, though, things are better. Not perfect, mind you, but better. A lot better.

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by Jake

I didn’t plan to be a videography rock star

Local commercials are a lot of things, but mostly they’re bad. Go to any small-to-medium TV market in America, and you’ll find wooden acting, awful scripts, grade Z production values and a complete lack of self-awareness in local TV spots.

But deep down, they’ve got heart. There’s an earnestness there that can’t be matched by the slickest of Madison Avenue agencies. Local commercials aren’t just people talking to you — they are you. They’re made by your friends, your neighbors, and other folks you run into every single day.

That’s one of the reasons that I fell in love with producing TV spots in a small Southeastern town, and why I continue to do it today. I’m helping connect businesses directly with their customers, with a level of personal contact that was strangely missing from the national spots I worked on.

Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about how to make an effective, cost-conscious commercial. Your local commercial doesn’t have to suck.
Continue reading →