Are you wanting to arrange a simple day to gather footage for your business or products? Do you not want to go over budget and pay for third party services? Planning your own film day can be exciting! But there are things to consider beforehand.
1. Give Your Company Time
In late April we decided we needed new product videos advertising our range of products as well as our NPP manufacturing arm and Universal Pharmaceutical arm brands. Planning involved actor finding, scriptwriting, set design, costuming and technical requirements. All of these things may require input and changes while they are considered. Give your company a few weeks to plan ahead to ensure limited problems on the day.
2. How to Find an Actor
There are plenty of ways to find paid and volunteered actors online. Depending on the intended delivery of your videos, you may want someone more experienced or will be satisfied with someone wanting to gain experience. Facebook Actor groups are amazing places to start, as well as acting schools Facebook groups. You can also contact acting schools or universities with the role and most will be happy to send it out to students.
3. Scriptwriting
Who is your audience? What information are you trying to share? Formal or informal? How will it be presented? Consider all these things when putting together a script for the day. Remember to get your script done early so the actor has time to prepare for what is required on the day!
4. Set Design and Costuming
Consider the kind of set you want for your company video. Indoors or outdoors? In the office or in a public location? Or do you want a green screen so you have flexibility? If you are advertising a product do you want other products you provide in the shot? If you are wanting to add text to the video remember to consider if the set is too busy or colourful which will make some texts difficult to read.
Lighting - make sure you have enough of it or if you will need extra lighting gear
For costuming consider if you want to provide the clothes or agree with the actor to bring an outfit of their own.
6. The Tech You Will Need
Teleprompter
This is very important! Is your script long and for multiple videos? It is bad to expect that actors will be able to memorise it all so if the delivery of the script is simply the actor speaking to the camera make sure you have a teleprompter! This device will display the script on a screen for the actor to read and maintain the actors eyeline. You can purchase them for around $200 or rent them for less.
Film Camera and Tripod
Make sure you have a decent film camera and tripod if needed. Filming takes a long time, so also consider having backup batteries.
Recording Sound
Always make sure that your camera is recording sound before officially filming! Camera sound is decent and not the best, so consider attaching a shotgun microphone to the camera, a lapel mic or using a boom pole with a Zoom recorder.
Phone Camera
It's always good to take behind the scenes photos and videos for social media marketing materials.
These tips should help you start planning a great film day! Check out our YouTube for the results of ours!