The Pains of Production

Over the past several weeks I have been filming and editing a series of comedy videos with some friends of mine. We went into it certain that the ideas we had on paper would flawlessly transition into a finished product. They did not. First off, we learned that getting five college students to commit to and complete a multi day shoot is not so easy. There was even trouble in contacting all of the necessary parties to get the video done, as it turns out some people are very lazy and unreliable. Locating and getting the necessary permission to film at certain locations was also a hurdle we didn't think we'd have to leap over. Once we got everyone together and found where we were going to shoot, it was smooth sailing. Wrong. Once we got to the location we were plagued by questions like, "Did anyone pack the XLR cable?" "Are you sure this is a good place to shoot?" and "Do you guys still think this is funny?" We were also forced to improvise some shots when we discovered that some of the shots we planned out just didn't work for the flow of the sketch. We had to do things like work with practical lights and utilize a rolling table as a dolly, which was my favorite part. Despite the difficulties that we faced, I truly feel that we all learned a great deal about what has to go into a project to make it successful. To make anything of quality you must plan out each aspect of the process so you leave nothing up to chance. There is no room for "we'll figure it out when we get there", if you are serious about completing a project, you have to be in control. Moore's Law applies quite heavy handedly in any type of video production. Memory cards break, batteries die, mics stop working and people are unreliable. Now that we have experienced several "worst case scenarios" we know what to expect, and we know that when you exert as much control over the process as possible, things have a better chance of turning out in your favor.