10. Filming

The filming process can be challenging and full of surprises. 

Below you can find several points to which you should make sure to pay close attention to:

• Consult with everyone at the beginning of the filming to check if the time schedule can be followed as prepared.
• Ask the practitioners where the first action will take place and start setting up the equipment accordingly.
• Be sure to put your bags and extra equipment way out of the field of view of the camera and the movement space of the practitioners.
• Adjust the white balance settings of the camera correctly, according to the lighting situation. Do this for every camera when working with a multi-camera setup.

• Give as much attention to your sound as to your image. Be attentive for interesting sounds relating to the craft while you are filming and try to capture these with the use of an external microphone.
• Always wear headphones and use the audio level indicators on your camera display/monitor during filming for sound quality evaluation.
• Be aware not to impact the recording by making contact noises, loud breathing, coughing, noises from wearing squeaky shoes or from certain qualities of the fabric of the clothes you wear, or confirmation sounds to the persons being filmed. These sounds will be hard to eliminate or to edit out later. Let the person that is speaking finish without interrupting for the same reason.
• Be sure to have the radio turned off at the location. Otherwise, the audio of the footage will not be usable.

• Always keep in mind the chosen function for the video and stick to the predetermined filming style. 
• Use the shot list and rough time schedule to keep track of the progress, to see how the filming is evolving and to check you haven’t missed any shots.
• Between actions, request confirmation of which action is to be performed next and where exactly it is to take place so that you can anticipate the audio, light and camera. This will also help to remind the practitioners to adapt to the filming process.
• Repetitive actions are very useful. Use them to the fullest to make different camera setups. Make wide shots, move to medium and close-up shots between the repetitive actions. In editing, these shots will give the viewer a clear view of the scene and what is happening.
• Think about the use of depth of field. A shallow depth of field can make the footage look more cinematic and isolate an object or action, but it can be difficult to stay in focus and you can lose a clear view of the context or the environment. A deep depth of field makes the context/environment clear, but it can be hard to read visually and be distracting when the environment is full of objects. The action will get lost in the frame.
• When interviewing different people, be sure to compose the frame differently for each interviewee (one left in the image, the other one right) as this will avoid distracting jump cuts in editing. Re-framing the image a little between each question can also be helpful for this reason.
• Unexpected things will happen often. Train yourself by anticipating this. A multi-camera setup can help to cope with unforeseen circumstances.
• An opportunity can be presented to capture something unforeseen during filming. Evaluate this carefully with the rough time schedule. If this means that your time for essential filming will be impacted, then don’t do this. If it’s a unique opportunity, then think about how to reschedule what was planned for the day. These unexpected opportunities can be helpful for the video in the editing process or as images for a trailer, for example.
• Be sure to have enough insert images (also called b-roll) to use when editing the interview. This can be used to illustrate visually what’s being said, to cover up the cuts when leaving the interviewer's questions outside of the edit, or to mask any mistakes or movements from the camera.