5 Production Tips for Better Event Coverage

How to Secure Better Event Coverage

Corporate events are a great way to connect employees with one another, especially if you have employees in several states. Great sessions and training take place during these events and video is the best way to capture the information for future use.

At Frozen Fire, we know the importance of corporate events and how to capture them correctly. Here are five production tips for better event coverage.

1. Location scout – Send the production crew or at least one person that will be there during the shoot to get a good feel of the room. It is important for this scout to happen so that the proper planning can happen. This location scout should include: knowing where to set up, where to store extra or unused equipment, where the audio recording station will be, and where the power sources will be for recharging batteries. Figuring all this out on the day of the shoot can make it difficult to stay on schedule and cause unnecessary stress.
2. Two cameras – Corporate events tend to be rather large gatherings of 200 or more people. That can be a big feat for one camera operator to cover, especially if there is more than one session or speaking location. If you have a speaker on the stage and a group session going on at the same time, the videographer will have to make the choice of what is more important. If you have at least two cameras present, then better event coverage will be much easier to accomplish.
3. Zoom lens – A good videographer tries to avoid getting in the way. Having a long lens in addition to your regular lenses will reduce the chance of blocking someone’s view. A good lens to consider is a 70-200mm. This will allow you to get shots of people entering the room, hugging, and people on stage from across most rooms. Having the two-camera setup is perfect for events because you can have the long lens on one camera and your regular lens on the other without having to change back and forth.
4. On-camera light – Many times during an event the lighting will change or even be turned off. In those cases you will need some kind of supplemental light. It doesn’t have to be big and bulky because many cameras perform pretty well in low light situations. A small on-camera light that mounts onto your camera can work wonders. These types of lights are good for close to medium distances. Be careful when turning these lights on – they can be blinding to an audience member. For longer distances you would need stage lighting that can be turned off remotely for video presentations.
5. Production Assistant (PA) – Having a production assistant is extremely helpful during an all day or multiple day shoot. This crew member is in charge of making sure the videographers have everything they need. The PA may set up charging stations for batteries, unload camera cards, and monitor audio if plugged into an audio board. The PA may also operate the camera if a main camera man needs a break for a few minutes. Some clients like to see an edited video at the end of the event. The PA may be able to simplify this task by logging the footage and starting the edit during their down time.

Having documentation of an event is important. Contact a corporate video expert at Frozen Fire today to get started.

By: Mindi Long

Frozen Fire is a Dallas internet marketing and video production company that helps companies harness the most powerful aspect of modern marketing—the internet—to engage customers in memorable and meaningful ways. Ways that ignite sales and business growth. Contact us to learn how we can help your business.