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Filming on Location: Why and How
Corporate video is big business today. Businesses of all sizes and across industries are stepping up their efforts to create dynamic, engaging visual content. This raises the question: In such a competitive environment, how can you elevate your offerings and make them stand out?
Finding the perfect filming location for your video shoot is one way to differentiate your business. You can seek out high-quality footage the same way a production team for a major movie or TV series would: by engaging in location scouting and then setting up in the versatile, picturesque outdoor landscapes you discover.
What’s the Advantage of Filming on Location?
Running your corporate video production like a Hollywood film shoot and filming distinctive backdrops and B-roll locations in a city of your choice could represent the secret ingredient that elevates your content’s style and gives it a distinctive sense of place.
Your choice of filming location will determine the tone and focus of your video. If you want to spotlight your own company, as in a message from the CEO, an “about us” video or a training module, you can choose your headquarters as the location, or at least your city. You can also gather together a wide array of talent for such a video at a convention or other industry gathering.
For a more narrative video or a commercial with Hollywood-style production values, you can work on choosing visually impressive locations. When you have your choice of cities, you can focus on locations that are affordable, easy to travel within and have few restrictions around issuing filming permits.
You can even use one city to double for another. This is a common filmmaker trick — Toronto often plays New York on film, for example. With the right professional film crew on your side, you can capture visually impressive shots with natural outdoor lighting, giving each scene in your corporate video a kind of high-gloss visual appeal that makes it clear that this is more than an average piece of marketing content.
There are advantages to shooting on a sound stage — more control and no need to dodge weather delays, for instance. However, you don’t have to choose to wholly commit to one method or another. Many film-friendly cities have both photogenic places to host a location shoot and sound stage infrastructure, all within a short distance.
Learn how to choose between on-location and studio filming for your next video.
How Do You Accomplish a Great On-Location Video Shoot?
A successful on-location video shoot starts early, with shooting location scouting and other planning that occurs during pre-production. Working out the logistics of the shoot in advance — factoring in travel times and setting aside extra days to compensate for possible weather delays — can set you up for success.
Filing film permit applications is another early step that can determine how well the whole shoot goes. Depending on the type of filming and the city in question, this process can take days or weeks. It’s essential to know what will be required in advance in terms of information and fees, to avoid surprises later in the shoot.
Perhaps the biggest determining factor in the success of an outdoor video shoot comes down to film crew selection. If you work with professionals who understand the ins and outs of filmmaking, and who know their way around the chosen region, your project can move along quickly and smoothly.
These expert contributors can help with all the logistical matters that go into filming on location. In addition to scheduling the shoot and applying for permits, that may include gear rentals, navigating traffic patterns, interpreting when shooting overseas and even picking the right restaurant for crew meals.
Learn much more in our guide to on-location filming.
Ready To Start Filming on Location?
When you’re considering on-location shooting as part of your corporate video strategy, you get to engage in one of the most fun and exciting parts of the whole process — choosing a great city to host your production.
Your ideal destination could end up being an area close to your company’s home base, or one on the other side of the world. For instance, if you want to shoot outdoors but it’s the middle of winter where your business is located, have you considered switching hemispheres?
Teaming up with expert video production crews based in your chosen area can help you make the most of that shooting location, from planning to post-production. This is Crews Control’s approach in a nutshell: All our crews are knowledgeable about their respective cities and ready to help you thrive.
Download our eBook to learn about some of the most promising cities for on-location video production.
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