Preparing for a Video Shoot

These are our prep notes for a video shoot. It is not comprehensive, and not everything is relevant for every person. But it should help you think about some of the issues that may arise, so that we can help you look your best on camera.

Clothing + Jewelry

• It is best to stick to solid colors (with few or no patterns). Clothes that have stripes or busy patterns can be busy, distracting, and can moiré/strobe on camera when they move.
• Try to avoid the colors red, grey, or brown. Red can be awful on camera because the edges bleed over into the screen. Use as little grey and brown as possible. Also, avoid high-contrast bright white or all-black.
• DO NOT WEAR ANY LOGOS (unless of course they are for your company/organization and that is the point). If someone is wearing a shirt that says Nike (or worse, contains an explicit joke or weird graphic), then we cannot use that shot, or we have to blur it out, which does not look nice.
• If the wearing of company shirts is specifically planned for the video shoot, we will want to test out wearing the clothing in front of the camera to ensure the words or image display as you want. Be sure to bring a non-logo-emblazoned alternate just in case.
• Stay away from bright and loud (unless that is the look you are going for) or anything else that takes attention away from your face. But feel free to bring something fun if you want to create a few images of you that have a more colorful, less traditional look.
• Stay away from frills and unusual tops. What seems like a tiny bit of flair in real life can often be overpowering in a close-up shot. We don't want anything to distract from your face.
• Keep jewelry and accessories simple and non-distracting. Adjusting a scarf or noisy bangle bracelets will be distracting.
• Wear clothing that fits well, whether you’re standing or seated.
• Wear clothing that fits with your company style or brand, both in terms of colors/style and level of formality/casualness.
• In short: wear clothing that is comfortable and natural-looking. If you are not sure how something might look, take out your phone and film yourself in good, balanced natural light (not tungsten or fluorescent). Sometimes just checking yourself over in the mirror is not enough, if only because it reverses how you will look on camera.
• If you are not sure which of two outfits will work best in your shoot, bring both.

Hair and Makeup

• If you have long or fussy hair, you want to get it sorted to the way you like it before we start and not be fussing with it during the interview. In fact, plan on not touching your hair at all during the interview, as if your hair arrangement changes significantly, it can make editing difficult or impossible. 
• If you shave, come freshly shaven and trimmed, including nose and ear hairs, and any eyebrow hairs gone wild. If you want to look clean-shaven, shave a few hours before. If you want the stubbly look, that's fine. But note that we cannot remove a 5 o'clock shadow in post.
• If you have a beard or mustache, trim it up neatly and clean up the edges, especially along the neck for a clean look. Straggling hairs jump out and yell for attention.
• If you are going to get a haircut or some coloring done, be sure to do it two or three days before our shoot.
• You should arrive with your makeup and hair good to go – how you normally look. Fresh, natural, and classic are always best. Cameras tend to accentuate things, so less is more, and understated and subtle are the watchwords.
• Go with the minimal amount of makeup you are comfortable with. Try to avoid makeup with an SPF, which causes more shine.
• If you don't normally wear makeup, you may want to use a bit of moisturizer ahead of time, as a high-res camera can pick up on dry skin. The same goes with lips – dry lips are not a good look; bring some lip balm if you think you are going to need it.
• In a closeup video, eyeliner can be very distracting. I generally recommend not applying eyeliner (or a very light application) at all.
• If you want to put on lipstick and/or lip gloss, this is fine, but be mindful that this could be the only accent color in your shot, and it might attract more attention than you expect. Subtle is usually better. But lip gloss can be good (if not glossy), especially when we are dealing with the dry air of winter.

The Space

• Is the space quiet enough? If we are doing interviews or shoots with audio in a specific space, we will want to assess the sound qualities of that space. Are there ringing phones, a loud air conditioning unit, creaky floors? You can do a walk around to check this out as well. And it can help to sit quietly, eyes closed, in the room at the time of day we will be doing the shoot. See how it sounds. 
• Will there be unwanted interruptions or distractions? Is the space isolated from the flow of traffic or activity? Is the staff break room right across the hall (not good)? Is there a meeting room on the other side of a not-very-thick wall (ditto)?
• Is the space tidy enough? Be sure to tidy up the office or room where we will be conducting the interviews. As a guideline, make it look like a living room in a home you are staging for an open house. But note that the main enemy is clutter, not so much dirt. Except when it comes to windows. If they are going to be in the shot, we will want them to be nice and clean.
• Please also remove any third-party logos around the office/building where we will film.
• Make sure that the walls, wall hangings, and background do not contain any distracting elements, or anything the company wouldn’t want competitors to see.
• Does the space, as a backdrop, or in terms of branding and ambiance, express what you want to say about your brand or business?
• A good space is interesting but not distracting. It has personality and depth.
• Is the space big enough? What may seem like a large office or space for meetings may actually be too small for very awkward for a video shoot, which requires lots of space for camera, lights, sound equipment, and people moving around all of that without bumping any of it. A room that is long and narrow may seem huge, but rarely provides enough space on the side for lighting or access. We also want a space that has some depth to it, so we can create contrast between the subject and the background.