Seeing images in your head

After being behind a camera for over 15 years and directing and producing for another 15, one of the things I have learned to do is to visualise how I’ll shoot or direct a video, often before I’ve even seen the location. Whilst a good pre-production routine is to always visit the location before shooting, in the world of corporate video, that’s not always possible.

So here’s my thought processes.

Seeing images in your head

Being able to visualise how a scene or even the finished video will look before you’ve even shot a frame, makes it a lot easier when you arrive on location. In my mind I know I always have Plan B to fall back on. Hopefully when I start shooting, Plan A will present itself and be heaps better.

When I accept a job, I always have a basic understanding of what the client wants.

Example One: ‘We want to shoot our managing director sitting in our board room with the city skyline in the background.’

Example Two: ‘We want to interview three clients from our suburban gym about the benefits they get from being members.’

As soon as I read each of these examples, here’s what comes into my head:

Example One: Shoot with DSLR, probably on 60mm or above. I’ll need at least two daylight balanced Lightpanel lights to light the MD at similar level to the skyline. As an MD, he’ll probably want to break the video down into shorter pieces, so I need to make sure I frame each shot differently to enable editing. Because I know the video will end up on their web site on the right hand side, I’ll frame the subject so he’s looking right to left. I’ll need to use a lavalier mic as shooting against board room windows will mean a boom will be hard to hide.

Example Two: Gyms have lots of great exercise machines and my first idea would be to shoot the interviews with each client at a different machine. An alternative would be to have them stand surrounded by machines and use either a slider or dolly to track as they’re being interviewed. I’d try and track past some machines in the foreground to give the shot depth. I’d also shoot each client using the machines as overlay or B roll. I’d probably use a DSLR again and stay quite wide, 30mm or even wider.

Where do these images come from?

Watching other videos and having spent a lifetime watching television, its not hard to use the ‘library’ of images in my head to source shots that will work with almost any subject. The challenge however is NOT to re-shoot all the cliche shots you’ve seen over and over again and come up with something visually different.

Before your next shoot, think about the sort of shots you might use. At least you’ll have a Plan B.