London Event Videography
Specialising in bespoke event videography, I film a wide range of conferences, meetings, special events and social functions. After filming, I then edit my footage to the client’s requirements. This enables me to create any type of film or video to share the event’s highlights or for use as a marketing tool for subsequent events. In this blog article, I will explain some of the processes and perspectives around such a recent commission.
Pre-production planning
Once commissioned on any project I enjoy the technical and creative process of guiding my clients (if required) on what could work best. This ensures that I can I deliver the filming and editing to the highest quality of video production. It is more beneficial to my clients to take advantage of my expertise in the early stages of any production.
Case study ‘Booking Bug Customer Summit’
Initially, I was contacted about a videography commission by a client in the USA three weeks before the filming day. After an initial exchange of emails, I supplied an estimated quote for my services. This quote included my filming of the day’s event and then the editing of my footage in the following days. After the commission was confirmed by an advance part payment, I liaised with my client to explore the project in more detail by offering my creative and technical insight.
Liaising with the event venue
The event was booked to take place at The Hospital Club in Covent Garden. Having previously filmed at this venue, I was aware that they were equipped with a range of AV kit options. To help best manage this event videography, I asked my client to put me in touch with the ‘Head of Events’ at The Hospital Club. This enabled me to liaise directly to check some technical details. I took the opportunity to share with them an award-winning film I had filmed at the Hospital Club. I also provided advance notification to my client and to the venue that I would be giving some work experience to a media student from Goldsmiths College.
Advising my client
After viewing the room plan, I made recommendations for the layout to best suit the filming and the day’s itinerary. I also offered advice on what colours/patterns the speakers could wear (and what best to avoid) while being filmed. For this booking, I was able to ensure that the lighting to be used to illuminate the stage area would be of the correct type. I wanted to ensure the lights had a high CRI (colour rendering index) as this is very important when filming skin tones. I also ensured that an AV assistant was on hand for the day to manage the various on-stage presentations.
Event Filming
Planning to arrive early for all my filming events, ensures plenty of time for travel to the venue in case of any unexpected delays. On arrival, I first liaise with the site team and then set out my kit (which may take some time, depending on requirements). On arrival at the Hospital Club venue, I could see immediately that the audience’s seating was too dark for filming. Fortunately, I had extra lights in my kit (just in case), so I set those up to help to illuminate the audience properly for the film. I set one camera up on a locked-off wide to continuously record the stage area. A second camera was fitted onto my Manfrotto monopod so that I could move around quietly and film a wide range of different shots while the presentations were being given.
Recording the sound
While I was setting up my kit, the helpful AV team supplied me with the previously requested XLR cable connected to their sound desk. This enabled me to record their audio desk output feed on my Tascam DR-701D 6-track digital audio recorder. This ensured the best quality sound recording which could be synced up with the guide sound being recorded on each of my cameras.
How I edited the deliverables
My brief was to edit a short highlights video. It needed to encapsulate the best of the day’s 6 hours of presentations and to promote Booking Bug’s services. To ensure the edit would be the best possible, I viewed and listened to all the day’s footage. I synced up both cameras into one long timeline and then edited that down into progressively shorter edits. As the edit duration started to come down to time, I searched for a suitable production music track and edited that in. I then edited in the branding graphics, name titles and made the edits work with cutaways showing audience shots and reactions. I had set both cameras to film in 4K to ensure the highest quality images. This also enabled me to resize the framing as required without losing any visual quality for HD delivery.
Sign-off process
Once I was completely satisfied with the edit, I uploaded the highlights video to my Vimeo channel and sent my client a private link for them to view. I then received some very positive feedback, and only a couple of detailed changes to the first delivered edit was required. After the final sign-off, and payment of my final invoice had been made, I delivered a digital file to my client’s specifications.
Event Videography
My dedicated approach to event videography involves assisting all my clients in the delivery of the best quality video and content for the promotion of their events or booking. Some examples of previous event videography that I have delivered include the International Performance Awards 2017 and the Global 12 Music Festival 2017. If you would like experienced assistance with your event videography, please get in touch – I’m only too happy to help.
