The Project

I agreed to film and edit an instructional video for a "protective coatings" company. Until now, my videos have been solely rock climbing shorts meant for youtube.com. $1500 for what was slated to be a 10-15 minute video introducing and teaching how to apply a new product. End viewers were to be within the company and most likely viewed on a PC.


In my excitement, I borrowed equipment including a video camera with tripod, a pro-quality lighting setup, and a blue or green screen setup. The two cameras were to film with for "one take" shots, lighting to control the lighting, and the green screen to be able to format a easy intro into the video.


A few days before filming, my PC was acting up and I was concerned about its reliability and bought a much faster and versatile computer to speed and simplify the editting process. In the end was probably a bad idea to switch soo last minute! New PC = $1300 with a rebate to be mailed back. Most of my wages spent.


I received a VERY loose script implying an idea of the process. I tried to communicate my desire for a concise SCRIPT with the actual words to be spoken. This proved to be a problem later in filming which I will speak of. I had never previewed to film set for lighting, power, or acoustics. This meant that the one day shoot I was alotted would be tied up significantly trying to tweak my shots or adjust for lighting.



I was very nervous going in, because I felt unprepared and the video would suffer for it.