How should I choose a location for my video shoot?
Location is vital to the success or failure of your video production. The first rule of thumb is that it needs to be appropriate to your video. If you can’t find the right location, green screen could fit the bill, but not always.
Indoor or outdoor?
The first thing you should consider is whether you want to shoot indoors or outdoors. Though the outside can be often more attractive and furnishes a natural background for free, you open yourself up to many potential problems shooting outside.
Uncontrollable noise, planes, trains and automobiles can be a nuisance at best and a disaster at worst! If you plan to shoot outside, do a site survey first. Go there and watch and listen so you’ll know the potential pitfalls.
Clouds and the position of the sun in the sky are two other potential outdoor problems if you want consistency in your video. Also keep in mind that it’s difficult to control the public. If someone is inadvertently in your shot or decides to be in your shot, is making noises, or is otherwise ruining your day, unless you have a permit to shoot and a police officer to help enforce order, there’s little you can do aside from having your own private security detail to control the situation.
Another option is to film outdoors and dub over the sound with voice over and/or music. Here’s an example of where we let the visuals convey the message with a music soundtrack:
Video production indoors
Another consideration about shooting indoors is whether you want to use a studio or a ready-made setting. This is because you need to make sure that the background is appropriate. If you’re shooting an interview and you have access to an office or conference room, there’s no need to look for other space, unless there’s another problem. Here’s one of our studio shoot samples:
Even if you’re shooting in a controlled office setting you still have to be on the lookout for other potential problems. The main one is extraneous sound. Is the space a quiet one? Are there thin walls where you can hear the person in the next room talking? Or is there a loud heater or air conditioning unit in the room? Is there a construction crew outside or in the building making a racket?
Green screen video production
Green screen is where we film the subject with a green screen behind them. Then when we edit, we tell the editing program to replace anything with that color green with a photo, other video, graphic, etc. Here’s an example of green screen use in one of our Chicago video production projects:
The only way to completely control your environment is if you use a studio that can guarantee that there will be no distractions. The downside is that renting a studio adds to the budget and unless the place comes with a set, you’ll have to prepare it yourself.
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