Filming in an industrial location may be challenging but it certainly doesn’t have to be boring! With planning and preparation filming in an industrial location can be done safely, while producing a final video that looks fantastic. Here are our top tips for making an industrial video.
Safety first
Inevitably many industrial locations have more safety risks than a typical filming location. Therefore it is important identify any precautions or training that are needed by the film crew before going. For example is an protective equipment needed like steel capped shoes or hard hats. Only once safety is sorted can the crew be effective in their work.
Recce
Often this can be done with the safety panning, you can check out the location both to assess safety concerns but also to do a recce. This means you will know which places you can and can’t film from so therefore impacting the type of kit you might need to bring such as a long lens because you cannot get close enough to a key feature of the location. Also like with a recce on any production it will be useful to know your space for storyboarding or shot list needs.
Show off the space
Often industrial space will be big, and sometimes not particularly attractive so a good way to make the video interesting and visually striking is to use creative wide shots to show the space. For this type of shot we often use our 10-18mm lens as this can get some great super wide-angle shots and you can play around with using the distortion from some wide angle lenses to get very interesting shots. Another way of using a vast industrial space is to use time lapse technique which will show the people, workspace and light change throughout the day. This makes the location become a character in itself.
Process
Industrial space often has something being made, created or changed. Therefore it’s important to show what is going on. As mentioned above a good tool is wide shots, but you will want to edit in other types of shot too. For example a simple sequence could be a wide of something moving through the space then a medium shot of the person pouring something then cut to closeup of what they are pouring. This has very quickly shown you a lot of information about the space, person and their role.
Know your audience
Who will be watching this video? This is important, as your filming will be informed by whether you are assuming knowledge of the industry or the space, or are you showing a complete newcomer. This will impact the content such as interview wording or voiceover, how much detail the shooting needs to go into for various aspects of the company and much more.