Studio Recording Support Scenario Response

How I would prepare

I have a production checklist before leaving the house. I prepare gear in advance, generally the night before, and pack the car. I also have a checklist for the morning to double check. Make sure all batteries are charged, media is formatted, and backup drives have storage available. I confirm recording specs and set accordingly.

Arriving at the location, chat with the client a bit. Find the space to shoot. Build the setup, lock camera positions, and confirm framing, exposure, white balance, and audio levels. I run a short test recording and play it back to confirm audio, framing, and recording are working correctly before starting the session. I always like to run a Foley take in camera to capture room noise so we can cut it in if needed. It’s good practice, and helpful if anything changes in the space later.

What I monitor during recording

Once everything’s all set, monitor the audio as we are rolling. Like I mentioned, for talking heads I will not use autofocus, dial it in and set it. The key is to watch, monitor, and work with your subject. You obviously need to watch card capacity, battery levels, and all that stuff. Pretty straightforward. Mentioned in the video, understanding your camera is very important, and setting your shutter angle or shutter speed to your frame rate correctly.

What commonly goes wrong

I mean not much if you know what you’re doing. I do agree that audio is the most important thing here because it’s this part that is not really savable. I do really like that these new systems have 32-bit float and redundancy recording because that gives you some latitude just in case something goes wrong. But if you’re monitoring correctly and get it right in camera, you’re not going to have those issues.

How I ensure a smooth session

Definitely preparation, and the production checklist is a no-brainer for someone like me. It works, and you’re able to consistently get it right without problems. Anticipating small stuff like camera issues is why you should have backups of everything. You should have two of every critical item so you have redundancy in case something goes wrong. Working with the subject, relating with people, and directing them is very important to get a great result. That’s probably the most fun part, directing and getting a great performance for me.

How I hand off files cleanly

I said a lot of this in the video in detail. Marking the cards once they are shot is super important. I use painter’s tape and write on them with a sharpie. I mark them accordingly from A cam to B cam, etc. From there, marking them one at a time, A_01, and accordingly for the other camera. Also, if the camera supports it, having redundancies like proxy files is helpful just in case anything goes wrong with media. It can happen. If I am doing the loading work and putting footage onto the computer, I follow a process I use on set as a DIT or loader, where I structure the files in a specific way so everything is organized properly.