How to Get the Best from Lawyers on a Video Shoot

The brief isn’t “film a lawyer.” It’s “don’t waste a lawyer’s time.”

Most video briefs focus on the message. Fewer focus on the cost of getting that message on camera in the first place.

When you’re filming a partner, a barrister or a subject matter expert who bills in six-minute increments, the format isn’t just a creative decision. It’s a financial one. Every minute they spend waiting for lights, waiting for the crew to sort out a problem, or waiting for someone to explain what’s happening next, is a minute they could have spent on paying client work.

So we don’t waste it.

But they’re not robots

Being ready to record the moment someone sits down doesn’t mean skipping the human part. Lawyers still need a moment to get used to the room, the crew and the setup they’re walking into. That’s not wasted time. It’s what makes the footage usable.

So we meet and greet properly. The interviewer shakes their hand. We introduce the crew by name, not just a nod around the room. If there’s a makeup artist on the shoot, we introduce them too, and ask whether they’d like some light makeup applied or would rather use their own. Small courtesy, but it signals the same thing the pre-lit room does: we’ve thought about this from their side, not just ours.

Preparation is respect, not hand-holding

Lawyers like to be well prepared. That’s not a personality quirk, it’s the job. So we send a briefing document ahead of the shoot covering what to expect, what to wear, and what we’ll be asking of them.

On wardrobe specifically: we advise plain colours over tight patterns, which can cause problems for camera sensors, and steer people away from stark white or black, since both can behave badly on camera. It’s a small note in a briefing document, but it removes one more thing for someone to worry about on the day.

We also offer a call with our Director beforehand if they have questions. Not because the shoot is complicated. Because knowing exactly what’s coming is what lets a busy person walk in and relax.

The details that tell them you’ve thought about their day

Water on set, still and sparkling. Tea and coffee nearby. These sound like small things because they are. But for someone who has come straight from a client meeting into a room full of cameras, small things are what make the difference between feeling handled and feeling looked after.

We don’t hand people a rigid list of questions to memorise either. We brief them on the topic, then let the conversation happen naturally. The strongest answers, from lawyers or anyone else, come when it feels like a conversation rather than a recitation.

For anyone working from a teleprompter, we take the same care. The script is formatted with proper line breaks and natural pauses, and the reading speed is adjusted to suit the person, so they’re not visibly reading and don’t feel like they need to be. And because we’re usually filming on more than one camera, we can cut between angles in the edit, tidy up hesitations, and let someone stop, go back, and try a line again without it costing them a full retake. Nobody needs to get it perfect in one pass.

The wording matters as much as the warmth

Lawyers care about precision. A word out of place isn’t a stylistic nitpick to them, it can be a real problem. So whether someone is working word-for-word from a teleprompter or speaking from their own expertise, we make space for both. Precision where it’s needed, and room to sound like themselves everywhere else.

That balance, exact wording without sounding like it’s been read off a page, is usually down to the skill of the interviewer, not the equipment. It’s why we’ve had so many clients tell us afterwards that their subject matter experts came across as relaxed and credible on camera, often for the first time.

Three things worth doing before you brief a video agency to film your lawyers

Ask how they plan to protect billable time. A good agency should be able to tell you exactly how they’ll minimise time in the chair, not just how they’ll make the video look good.

Ask what preparation the interviewee will receive. A briefing document, a pre-call, clear wardrobe guidance. If none of that exists, expect a more nervous performance on the day.

Ask how mistakes get handled. Multi-camera setups and a relaxed approach to retakes matter more for lawyers than almost anyone else, because precision under pressure is exactly what they’re trained to deliver in every other part of their job.