Choosing Where to Film
Friday May 19, 2023 • Written by Liam
The overwhelming majority of our shoots take place inside the family home. This provides many advantages:
- Your home is free to use, unlike video-friendly studio locations which can cost $300/hour or more.
- It gives you maximum flexibility for wardrobe changes or light touch-ups to your hair and makeup.
- Any family heirlooms and photographs you may wish to include in your video are close at hand.
- Homes are generally very quiet and you have total control over temperature (more on this later!)
And, for most of our clients, the family home is a core part of family life and a natural backdrop for videos that will one day stir up feelings of nostalgia and love in those that watch it.
Having said that, we have worked with many clients who felt certain stories were best told in other locations.
Perhaps your grandfather is an avid woodworker. Well, some of his stories might be best shared inside the woodworking studio that he rents.
Maybe your grandmother was a competitive swimmer for most of her life. If so, a trip to the Arbutus Club or local community centre may be in order!
Many of our families are active participants within Vancouver's various religious communities. For these families, we have arranged shoot days at Synagogues, Churches, and Temples throughout the lower mainland.
When planned correctly, these spaces can provide a glorious backdrop for your videos — particularly those involving emigration stories or the period of time when your ancestors were still in "the old country".
But regardless of where we choose to film with you, a few core best practices should be followed.
Best Practices
1. Spacious and Interesting Backgrounds
Compare these two frames from recent feature-length documentaries. (We didn't film either of them)
Both are nicely lit. Both are actually very good — they were both filmed by professionals, after all!
But in our opinion, the left image clearly provides a greater feeling of immersion and atmosphere. It's significantly more visually engaging and has a higher production value. You can really feel the scale of the room.
Compare that to the gentleman on the right, who is pushed into a corner (likely because the production team had no better option) and set against quite a plain and bland wall.
What does this mean for your shoot day?
In general, the larger the room we film in, the better your videos will turn out. Good options include living rooms, foyers, atriums, solariums, and Muskoka rooms. Windows and natural light make any space feel bigger. This is especially true if those windows give us a glimpse of something like a garden, city skyline, or ocean view.
By the same token, we tend to avoid more cramped spaces such as small home offices, secondary bedrooms, or reading nooks. We also avoid rooms with plain or undecorated white/beige walls, and rooms without windows.
2. Visual Layers
Let's expand on this concept a bit.
Something we feel looks great is "layers" of visual interest. This means placing you in the foreground, with visually interesting pieces of furniture and belonging in what we call the mid-ground behind you, and windows, scenery, and your home's architectural elements in the background.
Again, all of this is easiest to achieve in rooms where there's ample space behind you.
But what if your home is on the "cozy" side?
Well, here's a clever hack that's often possible.
Are there two or more rooms in your home that are interconnected? For example, a kitchen that adjoins directly with an area for entertaining? Or maybe a living room that adjoins the dining area?
We might be able to buy ourselves an extra 10-20 feet of "depth" by filming at an angle where those two rooms appear as one. This is certainly something for us to discuss during our Meet & Greet!
3. Peace and Quiet
Everyone loves their home to be a peaceful retreat. But on your filming day, this is especially true!
First and foremost, this is because we want to make sure you're comfortable and able to focus on your storytelling without interruption.
Secondly, it's because we use some of the industry's most sensitive microphones. That car honk that our human ears barely heard will be front and centre in the recording!
So if you live on a street with lots of traffic whizzing past, it might be best to film in a space at the rear of your home. Or perhaps we schedule our shoot away from rush hour.
By the same token, if you live near a school, it might be smart to film on a weekend or during the middle of the day, outside of pickup and drop-off hours!
And here's a funny one. Older-model refrigerators often emit a notoriously loud hum around 60hz and 120hz, so we may opt to temporarily unplug those during your shoot. Air conditioners and heat pumps may also need adjusting, though we find older furnaces are usually quite silent!
4. Variety
If you're like most of our clients, you will find yourself recording new stories month after month after month. In the context of this large library of videos, it make sense to spice things up a bit each time we chat.
So while there may be one or two "perfect locations" in your home, your video collection as a whole will benefit from variety.
This means that over time we will likely explore every corner of your home and use all the creative cinematography tricks we know to make each part look its very best.
And this is an opportunity for you to get your thinking cap on, too! The head office for your family business may be a wonderful location for you to talk about the business' early years. Maybe one of your siblings has a home with a great view, or your family shares a vacation property on Bowen Island.
If you can dream it, we can film it. Let's talk about your next story today.