Jammy Custard Studios » Resource http://www.jammycustard.co.uk Cardiff Creative Agency - video, animation, web design, brand design, graphic design, marketing Wed, 16 May 2012 10:41:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Animation timing http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/animation-timing http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/animation-timing#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:14:02 +0000 Matt http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/?p=5855 This post was spurred on from showing and explaining various animation techniques to a student on a work placement with us. To explain timing I gave an exercise to animate a bouncing ball. The bouncing ball animation is a common exercise as it demonstrates various techniques in a simple and easy to understand scenario – we have all bounced a ball at some point in our lives. The exercise outcome can change if you change a few parameters, such as changing the ball to be a Tennis Ball which will cause it to be bouncier, or perhaps changing it to a Bowling Ball which will cause it to crash into the floor and roll.

I had this poster on my wall whilst studying Animation in University

Angryanimator.com has a more in-depth look at the exercise along with a few other fundamental animation techniques to get you started.

How many frames?

Understanding timing is an essential part of knowing how to animate. Being an animator you will act out the action of the character first to understand the movement, this is also key in understanding how long an action will last. Some animators use a stop watch. I have in the past filmed myself doing the action and studied the amount of frames it took to do the movement. Anthony Scott animated Jack Skeleton in Nightmare Before Christmas, he works out his timings by saying ‘one-thousand-one‘ as he acts out his movement. To calculate the frames he then uses this method:

  • One = 6 frames
  • One-thou = 12 frames
  • One-thousand = 18 frames
  • One-thousand-one = 24 frames

Ones or Twos

In the UK (PAL), we use 24 frames per second for film and 25 fps for TV. Hand drawn and stop motion animation is captured in either single or double frames (ones or twos), so you’re animating only 12 of the frames if using doubles and all 24 if using singles. The choice of capture is dependant on the movement. Double frames is the most common usage, with single frames used primarily for smoother fast actions.

I hope you find this insight into one of most important fundamentals of animation useful. There is much more to learn to perfect and sell your animation that I hope you will seek out, such as understanding gravity, weight and anticipation. There are many books, guides and courses to teach you. One book I bought during University was Stop Motion: Craft Skills for Model Animation, this is primarily about stop motion as the name says, but it covers key things to know to sell your character animation. But at the end of the day, the more you animate and the more you observe and study from real life, the better your animation will be.

References

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/animation-timing/feed 0 Storyboarding – Keep it Simple http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/storyboarding-visual-keep-it-simple http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/storyboarding-visual-keep-it-simple#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:00:50 +0000 Matt http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/?p=5753 Storyboarding is an important part of the video making process. You don’t need to be an artist, but your drawings do need to be clear enough for others to understand the story you’re trying to convey. In the Storyboarding chapter of the DV Rebels Guide (I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in making films) there is a section called Learn to Draw Badly which says “Storyboards don’t need to be artistic masterpieces; they only need to communicate a few basic ideas about a shot.” So if you can manage that and get your idea across quickly that you and your client can understand, you’re off to a good start.

I want to share with you some of the storyboards I have created which vary from sketches in a notebook to using a template layout. The difference between the two are storyboards that only I can understand to keep me in check and ones which I present to clients in a clear and professional manner.

Signable

I wouldn't advise presenting this style of storyboarding to the client


Looking at theses drawings again still make sense to me but I wouldn’t advise this approach as a way to present to a client. This was done in my notebook and was mostly right first time. Scenes 2 and 3 altered and evolved as discussions went on with the client, but it was mostly graphical e.g. the laptop in Scene 2 changed to a larger monitor. More pages were added that focused on individual scenes, otherwise this was the storyboard I followed.

For this project I didn’t present the storyboard to the client, it was more for myself to keep in check, I instead showed an animatic to the client. An animatic is an animated storyboard, I felt this was easier and saved time to explain my intentions and to give an idea of the style I was looking to achieve.

For more information on the project and to see the final video. Visit the project page here.

Incahoot

This is a more professional and clearer approach to storyboarding

This is our most recent project where we used a template layout to present the storyboard. Each block had a drawing of the shot with camera directions and a portion of the script that the shot related to just below. This was then printed out and stuck to a wall, crossing out each scene that had been completed.

The drawings were done digitally using a Wacom Bamboo and as you can see, each drawing is as simple as can be, using stick men and basic graphics and arrows to explain the shot.

For more information on the project and to see the final video. Visit the project page here.

Keep it simple and professional

As shown above and as mentioned in the DV Rebels Guide. Keep it simple, explain your shot and make it self explanatory. You don’t need to be a great artist, you just need to convey the story in a simple format and then present it in a clear manner. If you do a Google search for ‘Storyboard Templates’, there are plenty to choose from to use for yourself. It would be good practice to use them to present to clients, even if for your own collaborative projects so others can understand clearly what you’re showing.

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/storyboarding-visual-keep-it-simple/feed 0 Crowd Funding http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/crowdfunding http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/crowdfunding#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:00:03 +0000 Matt http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/?p=4068 Got an idea for a creative project or business venture but struggling to get the funding to support it?  Applying for funding can be a struggle with all the paper work and red tape you have to go through just to get a portion of the money you need, and even then your application could fail. That’s where crowd funding comes in.

Crowd funding is a means to get funding from people pooling together to support your project. Typically you would be familiar with this collaboration when donating to a disaster relief for example. But in the past few years, online crowd funding platforms have risen and are starting to gain popularity specifically for the creative industry.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is an online crowd funding platform, where people from all around the world can pledge to donate and fund your project, usually with some kind of incentive for them to contribute.

Each project is essentially a pitch which will generally include videos, images and as much information as possible to sell the project. Then there is the goal amount with a deadline, followed by a list of incentives for each person who contributes x amount.

Kickstarter examples

Below are two projects that have succeeded in gaining funding.

Molly Crabapple’s Week in Hell

Molly Crabapple is an artist who wants to undergo a project to celebrate her 28th birthday. She wants to lock herself away for 5 days in a rented room, covering the walls with paper and then spending the time to fill every inch of that paper with art.

There will be a live feed of this ‘performance’, and those who pledge to support her project can in return own a piece of the finish artwork.

Pogo: Remixing the world

Nick Bertke aka Pogo, is a musician of sorts who dissects sounds from films and TV shows and remixes them into a musical composition. Nick has used Kickstarter to help him embark on a quest to remix the world. He has already tested the water by doing remixes of sounds in his mothers garden, and self funding trips to New York and Johannesburg. But for him to carry on this journey he has approached Kickstarter for help.

Kickstarter paves the way for anyone with an interesting idea to be able to get the support they need directly from the target market to achieve.

Unfortunately Kickstarter is only open to US residents at the moment, but they say they are working hard to open it to more countries. So for us in the UK, we may still need to find other alternatives to fund our creative projects.

There are other alternatives to Kickstarter, they all follow the same system and tender towards the creative industry, but It does seem though that although some of these sites are open for international use, they are primarily populated by people from the US.

Kickstarter seems to be more successful and popular out of the lot. It took me quite some time to find a similar site that was more open to people from the UK. The only one I found is Sponsume, but due to it not being as recognisable and as popular as Kickstarter, it would likely take longer to get the funding you need due to its comparably smaller user base, you can see this just by browsing the site and seeing projects failing and not achieving its target funding. It’s unfortunate that Kickstarter is limited to US residents, but should do very well once it opens up to International use.

Crowd funding is a new concept that the UK hasn’t seem to have grasped just yet, but if you’re having trouble finding support for your new creative project it might be worth giving crowd funding a go.

References

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/crowdfunding/feed 0 Advertising Attacks http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/advertising-attacks http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/advertising-attacks#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:00:59 +0000 Sarah http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/?p=4350 Being a ‘creative type’ (or artsy-fartsy as my friends say), I like to think that I know advertising. It’s something that I’ve always been interested in, and I go out of my way to appreciate advertising when I see it, conciously acknowledging the effect it has on me, and whether or not it’s succeeded, based on what I suppose the purpose to be. Sad, maybe, but having worked in design and marketing for many years I know the amount of blood, sweat and tears that goes in to these things, so I try to give them a bit of respect. Even if the product is hideous and I have no intention of buying/wearing/eating… it, fair play for trying.

But now it seems that I may have been flattering myself a little. While reading Keri Smith’s blog Anti-Advertising Crusade Marches On I realised that, actually, I’m pretty ignorant to most of it. Not because I’m not interested, but for the simple reason that my poor little brain just can’t deal with it all!

According to research by Yankelovich, the average urban dweller in a rich nation is exposed to around 5,000 ads on a daily basis.

KAPITAAL, a Dutch animation commissioned by the Graphic Design Museum and created by Studio Smack shows how…

Award-winning Typo-Animation that gives you a clear impression of the enormous amount of visual stimuli that plague us every day. Due to the immense scale of the visual bombardment, the commercial effectiveness has become utterly dubious.

From my time as a psychology student, I know a little about memory and attention. Without going into too much detail, I’ll share a paragraph from my final paper (which was 49 pages, by the way – just be glad you don’t have to read it all).

There are certain limits on human information processing, as our sensors are constantly being bombarded with incoming stimuli, like images, sounds and smells, but we have a very limited capacity to process these stimuli. We cannot simultaneously pay attention to all of the sensory information that we are receiving, and have to select some to concentrate on, while ignoring others. Selective attention refers to the capacity to maintain a behavioral or cognitive set when presented with distracting or competing stimuli – incorporating the notion of ‘freedom from distractibility’. For example, we are able to stand in a crowded, noisy room with many people talking at once, but can easily concentrate on a conversation with just one person. Some psychologists believe that there is a sort of filter, which only allows the attended message to pass through, and filters out the non-attended message. Divided attention, on the other hand, refers to the ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks or multiple task demands. It is suggested that we are more capable of dividing our attention between two tasks when the tasks themselves are different (the less similar, the more we are able to do them simultaneously), with practice, so that a skill may become ‘automatic’, and that the tasks are not difficult. Most psychologists agree that there is a limit to the number of things we can do simultaneously.

So it’s little wonder that we can’t possibly take in every advert we see when we walk into HMV, or venture down into the depths of the tube.

The question is, if there’s so much advertising around us that we can’t take it all in, what’s the point? As the video description says; ‘due to the immense scale of the visual bombardment, the commercial effectiveness has become utterly dubious.’ Yep. But what are they going to do? Take it in turns? I have an image of Richard Branson, Peter Andre and Ronald McDonald sitting around a table fighting over timetables. Don’t ask me why it’s them. Maybe I saw an ad today.

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/advertising-attacks/feed 0 Using Video to Build Trust in your Brand http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/using-video-to-build-trust http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/using-video-to-build-trust#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:00:17 +0000 Matt http://jammycustard.co.uk/?p=2510

Ceri Dz uses video to teach and share his royal icing techniques.

One of the benefits of using online video is being able to build trust and rapport with your customers. This is done by communicating with customers on a new, interactive level.

This is just as powerful as being recommended by word of mouth – someone who has had first hand experience of your product or service trusts you enough to recommend you to others, knowing that you will provide a good service for them. So by using video online effectively, you can demonstrate and talk about your product or service, generating that first hand experience to a wider audience.

Interaction

Online videos are generally hosted on a video distribution site like Youtube, Vimeo, metacafe, dailymotion etc. Each of these have social engagement facilities that allow viewers to leave feedback, by leaving a comment, rating the video or by using buttons to automatically share the video on their chosen social network.

This gives the chance to interact with the audience. You can reply back to any feedback within the comments, and your next video could even be a response to that feedback, thus shaping and moulding yourself into something that people want to see and involving them in your online marketing.

Case Study: Ceri. Dz

“As a web based business video is one way I can have a shop window for the world to view, also video plays an essential part of my customer service, without it I would not be able to offer continual support to my past students.” - Ceri. D

We worked with Ceri.Dz to help him produce a series of online video tutorials. Not only are these videos sharing his expertise for free, but they are also serving as an advertisement for his business. Viewers are able to get a taster of his classes from the quality of the video tutorial, as well as getting a feel for his personality and teaching style.

By doing these videos, Ceri.Dz immediately appears as an expert in his field, from the confidence in his delivery and the quality of his demonstrations. People are able to look upon these videos with trust in his knowledge and expertise.

Related links

Listen to your audience

So why not pick up a camera (or talk to us!), start talking to your audience about your product or service, and let them see who’s behind the brand. Look at feedback and comments from your followers and include it in your next video.  By listening to your target market, they will shape you and help you evolve into a business that they can trust and be a part of.

References

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/using-video-to-build-trust/feed 0 Reach out to a worldwide audience | What makes a viral video? http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/reach-out-to-a-worldwide-audience-what-makes-a-viral-video http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/reach-out-to-a-worldwide-audience-what-makes-a-viral-video#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:30:17 +0000 Matt http://jammycustard.co.uk/?p=2494

Rebecca Black became an online sensation for her music video about 'Friday'.

What is a viral video?

The term ‘viral video’ is the name given to a video that has become popular on the Internet, after being shared across many websites and social networks. You will have come across it many times, probably without realising, as someone posts a new youtube video onto your Facebook wall.  One of the first videos I remember pre-Youtube that became viral was the Numa Numa guy, followed by the Star Wars Kid. Now in the Youtube generation, videos are easier to find and share. Lately the most popular videos that have gone viral have been Rebecca Black – Friday, a variety of wedding dance videos and anything related to Justin Beiber.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The Old Spice guy

 

But how and why have they gone viral?

Most of the people featured in these videos have become Youtube celebrities, some even managing to make a career out of making videos on this social platform. So how can business’ tap into this potential for worldwide exposure?

There have been studies to determine whether there is a formula to achieve a viral video. Upon researching this, some studies claim there are similarities between the top performers, and believe that by including certain elements a video will achieve success, such as:

  • Originality. Does what it says on the tin. Create original videos that could end up spawning copycats. See OldSpice who created a one take moving shot, with fantastic dialogue and execution.
  • Natural: People being themselves. One of the most popular trends involve babies laughing or young children being themselves: See Charlie Bit my Finger – again!
  • Fun: A fun video, that looked like it was also fun to make, really pays off in the finished product: See FreddieW: Flower Warfare
  • Shocking: Surprising the viewer by having something unexpectedly amazing happen. See Robot Dancer
  • Bad: A video so bad that you want to show others how bad it is. See Rebecca Black who became a Youtube sensation by having a music video made with the most terrible lyrics.
  • Cats: Cats are popular on the Internet. See Funny Cats

As much as we may agree with some of this, it still doesn’t guarantee viral success. Some videos are picked up from the start, but thousands of new videos go unnoticed daily.

What are your favourite viral videos? Leave a comment below.


Plan for viral, but don’t expect it.

No one can predict or set out to succeed in making a viral video. There have been studies to work out a formula, but truth be told, there isn’t one. Just a series of coincidences in similarity. What we do believe in, is thoroughly preparing your video to aid in its exposure and online visibility, by making sure we do the following:

  • Ensuring content is engaging and entertaining
  • Making it accessible for a wide range of platforms; smartphones, tv, website embedding
  • Encouraging user interaction with comments, ratings and sharing
  • Optimising metadata; titles, descriptions, tags
  • Relating with currents trends/memes – If relevant

It’s a race to the top, with so many videos competing to be seen. By following a procedure to ensure that the final video is of a high quality, with engaging and entertaining content that effectively represents a clients brand, and then optimising it to increase its online visibility, can a video get a chance of going viral?

We can’t guarantee a viral campaign, but we can produce a high quality video that reflects your brand and helps with your SEO.

Related posts

Video: A Marketing Tool.

Improve SEO and your online presence using web video.

Contact us

If you want to find out more and discuss how we can produce a video for you and your business, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We will happily discuss ideas with you and work towards a solution together. If budget is an issue, we can work out a simple 0% interest monthly payment plan, so everybody wins!

Contact us now

References

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/reach-out-to-a-worldwide-audience-what-makes-a-viral-video/feed 1 Improve SEO and your online presence using web video http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/improve-seo-and-your-online-presence-using-web-video http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/improve-seo-and-your-online-presence-using-web-video#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:00:51 +0000 Matt http://jammycustard.co.uk/?p=2347 This post focuses on how using Web Video can improve your online presence and search engine rankings. For information relating to the benefits of using video, please read our other post: Video: a Marketing Tool.

Use Youtube Insights to monitor your video's SEO

You probably already know what SEO is, if not, here is a quick definition from Wikipedia:

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. [Wikipedia definition]

Now we’ve cleared that up, adding video to your web page is an extension to using traditional SEO. Like images, video appears in search engine results, but unlike images, video can be optimised to improve its ranking.

How video optimisation works

Just like you would on a web page, it’s about getting as many keywords in without spamming. Search engines are clever and can pick up when content is being spammed. So when it comes to optimising video, it’s down to writing good copy that utilises the keywords you want the search engines to use.

Search engines are unable to extract any keywords from the video itself, but they do crawl the data from the video title, description, tags, geo-location, user rating and comments. It’s also worth noting that a highly rated video also improves its search engine rankings ahead of any of other videos that might also fit the search query.

Video Optimisation tips

  • Be as descriptive as possible in the video title. Say what the video is about, making sure to incorporate appropriate keywords. This will not only aid search engines but will also encourage more people to view your video over a video that has a vague title.
  • Enable user comments and ratings. This gives the opportunity for communication between users and yourself. This may need to be monitored to filter out any spam or inappropriate comments, but generally those who leave any feedback are more likely to take further action; be it sharing the video or purchasing your product or service, at the very least they are improving your search rankings.
  • Add a transcript of the video. As search engines can’t read the content of the video itself, by adding a transcript into the description field you give search engines a better understanding of your video’s content.
  • Thumbnails. Some video sites let you upload a thumbnail of the video whereas others like Youtube will select 3 from your video to choose. Try to choose the most interesting image that will give a feel for what your video is about, while encouraging people to view it.
  • Use appropriate keywords. When adding tags and keywords to the title and description of the video, make sure they are relevant to the content and your brand. Also make sure to include ‘video’ as a keyword, as people will search for “something something video” as a query.
  • Implement a linking strategy. Link to your video from other sites: embed it on your website or blog, share it on social networks, embed it on other relevant sites for your business. The more links back to your video, the better its search engine ranking. Search engines depend on the number and quality of the links to determine the credibility of the video.
  • Use multiple video sites. Don’t rely on just Youtube to host your video; there are many more that you can use on to increase your online visibility. By using TubeMogul, you can upload just one video and it distribute it to mulitple video sites all at once.
  • Produce content worth watching. After all your SEO and hard work, it will all go to waste if the content is not worth watching. Encourage people to action on your video by making an engaging video that will strengthen and do your brand justice.

Benefits of Web Video SEO

Just to reiterate; a successfully optimised video will:

  • Increase conversion rates
  • Increase traffic from search engines with an engaging thumbnail image
  • Positive user ratings can improve search engine results
  • Geo-location increases the chance of being shown in a local search query
  • Improve online visibility with high ranking results in search engines and video sites
  • Highly rated videos are more likely to be shared across social networks, improving visibility
  • Engaging and entertaining content will encourage users to take an action.

Contact us

We hope you find these tips useful for improving your online presence with video, but if you want to find out more and discuss a video for you and your business, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We will happily discuss ideas with you and work towards a solution together. If budget is an issue, we can work out a simple 0% interest monthly payment plan, so everybody wins!

Contact us now

References

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/improve-seo-and-your-online-presence-using-web-video/feed 3 Video: A marketing tool http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/video-a-marketing-tool http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/video-a-marketing-tool#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:00:50 +0000 Matt http://jammycustard.co.uk/?p=2319 2011 started with a big surge on our video services, and we have been overwhelmed with the amount of enquires and kind words about our work. We have had the pleasure of working with a variety of clients who each required a different use for video, ranging from filming a live music show, animated idents, and an on-going tutorial series, to animated music videos and promos for a service/offering. You can see a fun mash up of all our work in our showreel.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

So, to continue riding the wave, this post explains the benefits of video and how you might go about using it, in the hope that more businesses will take on this ever growing and effective marketing tool.

Benefits of video

Since Youtube started in 2005, it has made accessing and sharing content easier than ever. Youtube revolutionised the way we watch video on the Internet, creating a social experience where users can comment on, rate and best of all share content across other networks.

“Our goal is to allow every person on the planet to participate by making the upload process as simple as placing a phone call. This new video content will be available on any screen – in your your living room, or on your device in your pocket. YouTube and other sites will bring together all the diverse media which matters to you, from videos of family and friends to news, music, sports, cooking and much, much more.” – Chad Hurley Co-founder of Youtube [1]

So what can video do for you? Have you ever considered how easy it is to convey a message using video? They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so when you consider that a video runs at 25 frames a second, well … you do the math! Using video can be a powerful way to promote your brand, product or service. Here are some of the benefits:

  • It can build up trust and integrity, making it easier to get recognised as an expert in your field
  • Educate your viewers by demonstrating a product or service offering
  • Viewers are more likely to perform a desired action after watching a video (i.e. purchase a product, sign up, attend an event, etc.)
  • Increase search engine results using video (Google loves video!)
  • It also helps you to become more memorable

Your video is available 24/7, and given the choice, visitors are more likely to choose watching a video over reading a page of text. You can engage and capture a viewers attention easier than presenting a block of text. Video is more entertaining and when comprised of audio, graphics and text all at once, more information can be digested. Think of it like doing a Powerpoint presentation; you use the presentation to drive home and put emphasis on key points, while the visual cues help the viewer remember what is being said. Video also adds to SEO (search engine optimisation). By hosting video on Youtube or Vimeo (or any other video site), you’re increasing your online presence by having more keywords and more ways for people to interact, view and share your video.

Further reading

How video can be used

There are so many possibilities for what video can be used for. Below is a list of examples along with some video work we have done.

  • Promote a product or service with a video demonstration
  • Generate hype with promoting an event
  • A live performance or music video
  • Staff training videos
  • Share expertise with video tutorials
  • Share videos in an email marketing campaign

Video Portfolio

Talk to us

Video is a relatively new and popular medium that is growing quickly. We can help you break in and utilise it for your business, or even for personal use. So if you think video can benefit you and you want to get started, or you’re just not sure how you can get it to suit your business, please contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss  some ideas and solutions with you.

References and further reading

]]> http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/video-a-marketing-tool/feed 3 Preparing for Live Event Filming http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/preparing-for-live-event-filming http://www.jammycustard.co.uk/preparing-for-live-event-filming#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:29:23 +0000 Matt http://jammycustard.co.uk/?p=1732

Plan ahead or you may end up wasting time

There is no storyboard, there are no second takes, there may be a schedule but its not necessarily set in stone. Live filming is about knowing how to work with the unpredictable, which can be stressful if not prepared.

Our best live filming experiences have been in filming weddings and music concerts working with at least two manned cameras. We have made mistakes and missed opportunities, but from our mistakes we have triumphed. In this article I want to share some tips that we have learnt along the way that helps us in preparing for a live shoot.

These points may seem obvious, but they are vital if you wish to have a hassle free shoot so you can concentrate on your creativity and perfection of each shot.

Key points to remember.

Scout ahead.

Find the venue and explore. Only when you see the venue can you plan ahead and decide the best places for; setting up tripods and/or lights and get an idea for where you can move around too.

Meet with the owners of the venue.

Ask for permission to film at the venue. Just because you have been hired by someone to film, doesn’t mean they have run it by the venue management. Ask if there any restrictions that may hinder the filming. Possible restrictions could be placement of tripods obstructing fire exits, or in a church you may not be allowed to film certain parts of the service. By liaising with the venue you can be prepared ahead of time and be in good stead with the management allowing for a shoot with less hassle.

Lighting + white balance.

Check what lighting the venue has, if it’s not sufficient then you need to ask permission on if you can bring your own lighting system. Check how it looks through the camera lens; don’t use your eyes to judge as a camera is unable to adapt as well as our eyes can. As well as lighting you need to make sure the camera is picking up the correct colour. To save extra work in post production, use a sheet of white card/paper and hold it in front of your camera lens to control the white balance, do this for each camera (if using multiple) to make sure each camera is picking up the same colour temperature.

Find the schedule.

Speak with whoever is in charge of the event to find out as much as possible for the proceedings of the day. Even if they only have a rough idea, some things are set in stone. For example at a wedding, the bride & groom are expected to be at the church and the reception/after party for certain times. By knowing these times, you can plan how long certain parts of the day will take and how best to utilise your DV Tapes.

By speaking to the client, you can discuss what you expect from each other.  The client may want you to capture certain aspects of the event and you will need to tell the client what you require and how you plan to operate.  From this discussion you can both formulate and alter a schedule to fit in with both parties requirements.

Plan when to change tapes.

This joins onto the previous section. By knowing the schedule you can plan the best moment when you can change your tape without risk of missing a vital moment. For example, when we filmed at the Rumney Folk Festival, we had the schedule for the day with the time allotment for each artist. No artist went over an hour meaning we can use a full tape dedicated to each artist without worry of having to change over during the set. So we had the luxury of changing tapes in between acts whilst the stage was being prepared.

But in the past we have filmed artists that have played for longer than the tape duration. The best way for this is if you’re using multiple cameras by turning one camera off at a time whilst others are still recording. This will ensure you still have coverage of the event whilst a camera is being prepared. (This also applies if needing to change batteries)

Make a checklist and prepare equipment.

Last thing you want is to turn up at a venue and realised you have forgotten a vital piece of equipment. Like the Quick Release Plate from a tripod (this has happened to us). So make sure that you have everything prepared: Cameras/lights/tripods in working order, enough blank tapes + spares, charged batteries + spares.

Be observant and use your judgement.

Look around, watch people and try to anticipate what they may do next. Being on the ball and watching your surroundings will aid you in the success of your shoot and may nail you that magnificent shot that no one else saw.

I hope these points will prove useful and help relieve some of the stress of the day and give more room to focus on creativity.

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