Some productions call for external shots, and that can present a number of challenges for crews and cast alike
Last week we were filming outside for an informational video and it presented some challenges, all which we overcame, but because we are a helpful bunch, we thought we’d share it with you on this blog so you can be prepared for your own shoot to make sure it is a huge success.
Time of year
Filming over autumn and winter obvious have some obvious challenges as far as weather goes, with a higher likelihood of rain and darker days, but also in terms of how the video will ‘look’ – greenery on the trees often looks nicer than bare branches – unless of course your footage will contribute to a short film based on a dystopian theme!
Alternative shoot dates
Weather forecasts can give us an idea of what to expect weather-wise, but the further out the forecast is, the less accurate they are likely to be. With professional shoots you have to plan very carefully, getting filming permissions in place, casting actors or presenters, securing locations, capturing content on exact days where something specific is happening for example, but if it will be a wash-out, then you may need to move your plans. Having a secondary (and sometimes tertiary) filming date in place can be helpful if you get close to the original date and it looks tricky, as all the planning can probably remain, just shifted to another date. A little more time and work up front can save so much of the same if you do need to switch dates.
Wind
We filmed on the Monday after storm Isha catching the tail-end of it, so it was very windy indeed. This presents some challenges with the audio, forcing us to use a lav mic with a ‘dead cat‘, which is a furry windscreen to prevent the noise of the wind interfering with the audio. This is why much of the outdoor filming that you see has a furry mic on the lapel of the presenter. Holding a boom mic above the heads of the presenters during a windy day is also a considerable challenge for the poor person that is holding it!
Here’s a sample audio recording from a previous shoot using our wireless lapel mic with the basic foam cover, outdoors in high winds:
And here’s a sample audio recording from the same shoot, minutes later, using our wireless lapel mic with the fluffy windshield (dead cat), outdoors in high winds:
Daylight
Winter and autumn have shorter days, so the planning for filming has to take this into account if lighting externally will be a problem for you. You have to create your production schedule to gather the external elements when you have the most light to play with – which may not sync perfectly with with the weather, if you are fighting against rain or sunshine! Mother nature doesn’t always like to play ball!
Sunshine
The sun can often cause as many problems as the rain. If the sun is blazing it can make the person in front of the camera squint, it can reflect off the autocue mirrored glass making it hard to read, it can cause sun burn if you’re filming all day for cast and crew, not to mention sun stroke, and potentially cause problems with filming equipment overheating. But the main issue is often over exposing the shot. On the shoot last week we had a couple of hours of sun and cloud in the afternoon, so the when the sun was behind the clouds the shot looked great, but as soon as it came out the shot was over exposed. To combat this one of the crew held up a 1.5 x 1.5m diffuser to control the lighting, which ordinarily would be fine, however this day had some fairly brutal winds as mentioned above. On the plus side it meant a great bicep, tricep and quads workout while trying not to take off!
Hair
On this shoot we were filming two very elegant ladies, who both had long hair. This meant we had to factor in some extra time to film as some takes were thrown overboard because of hair covering the face. Sometimes it is good to think about the best way to ‘wear the hair‘ on windy days or if there is budget, have someone to help with hair and makeup on set.
People
Point a camera at someone or something outside and you’ll get a whole bunch of people coming over to say hello and have a little nosey at what you are doing. The amateur videographer will want to know all about the kit, the older suspicious citizen will want to know who you are and why you’re here and the wannabe Insta influencer will try everything to get themselves in a shot somehow! All of these things will create a delay and will require patience and sensitivity to deal with in order to get back on track. Factor this additional time into your shot list and production schedule if you are filming in public spaces where you will create interest in your activity.
Traffic, sirens and happy birds!
If you’re filming next to a busy road that can be seen or is obvious to the viewer that it is there, you and the viewer will likely price in the noise from cars. But when you get the 10 tonne skip lorry or the 420 double decker passing by, it usually means the audio levels have been pushed beyond limits and you’re going to need a re-take. Therefore you’ll need to factor this into your timings. You’ll also get sirens, helicopters, potential aircraft (we were filming close to Redhill Aerodrome so lots of single seater aircraft buzzing about, not to mention the Gatwick flight path) and all of the wonderful sounds of nature – namely those happy birds singing along to your production!
Security
When you are moving kit from your vehicle to the site of the shoot you need to be conscious of security, so if you can get more people to help on the shoot, like a runner, it won’t just help with moving things around but will also help with security too. And remember to lock the car and bring an umbrella if theres a quick, unexpected shower!
Power
Last but not least… power. It may not have escaped your notice, but there aren’t many naturally occurring plug sockets in the wild!
Our final thing to prepare when we know a shoot is outdoors is batteries. Lots of them. Batteries for the cameras, batteries for the sound equipment, batteries for any lights, full charge for the gimbal. We also ask our clients if there’s a plug socket nearby that we can be charging empties from when they run out of juice!
On much bigger productions there will be lines of cabling and weather-proof electrics powering the set, but at our scale these add a lot of additional budget for our clients that we can mitigate by planning ahead.
The X Factor
You tend to find that with a really comprehensive production schedule, shot list and loads of planning you have most things covered and while some unexpected things will crop up, because of the investment in pre-production planning you can be nimble and shift to find solutions. But there is always one thing that you just never ever could have predicted that catches you out, and boy did this happen last week!
We were filming presenters delivering a series of scripts to camera, and to make it more comfortable and prevent excessive movement during the shot, we agreed to take a stool out with us for them to sit on. One of the filming locations was a large area of grass land. Because of storm Isha, there had been a lot of rain over the preceding days the stool started to sink into the ground when someone sat on it. The presenters were gradually disappearing from the bottom of the shot as they got swallowed up by the sodden earth! Never had it happen before, never considered it would be an issue, but you bet we’ll be planning on bringing a large sheet of MDF on the next shoot to pop the stool on!
So there are some things to consider when you’re filming outside to make sure any adjustments and delays are minimal and you get the very best content that you can on the day. Of course we handle all of that as part of our process, so there’s no need to worry of course. Unless its’s wet and we’re using a stool – we certainly didn’t plan for that!
