Shooting my first Commercial out of Town. Need advice

[Mark Suszko]

“I don’t have the treatment for the commercial yet.”

When they find the black box from this production, this will be the place they point to as where it all started to go wrong.

Second, the client has the money to fly you in from Atlanta, but not to pay for shipping your lights? Complete project for two grand including flying to the location? Let me guess; this guy found you on Craig’s?

Ok, enough with the heavy hand, my suggestions are:

Back up and get the treatment figured out first, then you work out your budget and schedule from that. This is where you can save you and the client money, and where you can figure out how to do the best job, rather than in post, after flying back with tape that turns out to be unusable.

As far as your lights, I think you really do need to take them along. If the airline charges too much to ship them with you, consider using FedEx or even Greyhound to send them on ahead of you for local pickup. Or maybe scratch the airline ticket, and drive yourself and your gear down there. You’d have to run the numbers to see what’s cheaper. Sure, you could rent a car or hire a cab to drive you around town to buy some home depot stuff in Miami when you get there… or… and I’m just spitballing here… you could rent real broadcast type gear locally, and pass the cost on to the client. Miami and surrounds must have plenty of pro video rental places. You can find them by looking up Florida’s state film office production guide.

Finally, quoting two grand all-in for such a project seems like a mistake to me. Granted, I don’t know the whole story, but this Miami guy could have hired locally for that kind of money. You are under-charging, whatever this thing is.

[Trey Eckles]

Thanks. This is my first time so I see that I have under charged. The good thing is that I am not loosing any money. Lesson learned!

I found out last night that it will be shot in a furniture store and I will be shooting the front of the store, inside the store close up of items, probably alot of slider style shots.

I will have to go to a few local furniture stores and see how well lit they are. I think I can get away with using the available light and use a high iso since I have very fast lens.

Where would I send the packages for my lights if I have them sent via fedex? Would I send them to the hotel or the airport?

Thanks again for the info.

[Noah Kadner]

What about sound gear?

Noah

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[Trey Eckles]

I have a zoom H4N and a rode mic. I am covered for audio. Most of the commercial will be voice over besides a video interview.

[Chris Tompkins]

Airlines Charge heavily for extra bags and for heavy bags. Consider renting lights for $100 or so.

Consider driving ATL – MIA.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Steve Eisen]

[Trey Eckles] “Where would I send the packages for my lights if I have them sent via fedex? Would I send them to the hotel or the airport?”

I’m not even going to comment.

Good luck with your shoot. It will be a learning experience.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Trey Eckles]

So why did you comment Steve. Why take the time to even write that statement.

I would only like feedback from people that actually want to give helpful advise, not smart a** useless comments.

Thanks for everyone else that gave me some sound feedback.

[Mike Cohen]

Not sure your shoot has happened yet but here is my input. All of my shoots are a plane ride away.

Rent lights if you are by yourself. Airline baggage handlers and light kits don’t mix. You can get a set of kinos or an Arri softvank kit for under $200/day in most big cities.

Plan for the unexpected.

Don’t go to Home Depot for anything involving lights. You’re not shooting an indie zombie movie in your mom’s backyard.

Have a plan and share with your client.

Assume nothing.

Shooting during business hours can be problematic. We once shot 11pm to 3am in a hospital as that was the only quiet time.

I hope your 2 grand is your shoot and travel budget not the whole thing. Ir is this a “free” local cable ad?

Safety first. If running lights and audio in an active business don’t forget sandbags and gaffer tape.

Don’t cross the streams.

Goid luck.

Mike Cohen