In the world of video production, in recent years especially, the term "pre-production" seems to be a term we are hearing less and less of, and that is unfortunate.
Not too long ago, just before the social media rage and instant....everything, clients would call, we would meet (sometimes multiple times) about a project and then we would schedule a...wait for it...site survey. A site survey would allow us to get to a location well before a shoot and allow us to scout out the location to plan out things like camera placement, lighting, cable runs, etc.
Those days seem long gone. It is very rare, especially among agency clients, that we are able to schedule a site survey. Without this critical planning, precious time is lost on location on the shoot day trying to figure out the best angle for the shot, lights, etc. Even simple things like "where is the nearest power outlet" can eat up time. Taking time on shoot day to figure these things out eats up time and money. And the net result is that we don't always have time to set up track and dolly for moving camera shots, or a jib arm for dramatic sweeps if we are losing time deciding where to put the camera. It seems in this new age we live in, there is scarce time to plan between that initial call and the actual shoot day. It's not uncommon to get a call on Tuesday afternoon for a shoot Wednesday morning.
While it's true that not every production can allow for a site survey, some things really just happen fast and you have to shoot ASAP, if it is at all possible talk with your video production company about the possibility of scouting out a location before the shoot. A little bit of planning will result in a better video and a happy client.
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