Over the past few weeks, things have been racing at the DOT HQ; from preparing for the launch in December, to streamlining headset development, to social media efforts for a successful crowdfunding campaign- its been somewhat chaotic. Regardless of all the frenzy, DOT has successfully managed to pull through and successfully complete another phase of our project: The Video Shoot- Part Two.

The last time we spoke about our video shoot, it was set in an entirely different setting, a different country to be precise, or even continent for that matter (you get the point). Alongside professional videographers we had an array of fancy high-tech equipment at our disposal. If you haven’t already, you can read more about it here, ‘Goodbye Karachi and Hello New York’.  

Learning from our past experience, this time we decided to give it a go in a slightly different manner. The DOT Team decided to shoot the project by themselves (obviously budget limitations being a huge factor). How hard could it be? A professional camera, tripod stand, varying LED studio lightings, stabilizer and different lenses seemed to be all that was needed to shoot the video successfully. Once the equipment was in place all that was left was to wait for the actors and do the shoot itself. Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it?

It wasn’t as simple as it sounds, all of this had been just the preliminary prep work. Once the actors arrived, We proceeded to explain everything in order for them to be camera ready. It is quite different to be working with university students who have no prior camera experience. The first actor stepped in front of the camera visibly a little nervous. The student rigidly did what he was instructed to and waited for the stop signal. We too- were struggling with the correct lingo- lights, camera, action or roll? The next thing heard was “So now you know what to do. Let’s do this one more time”. The take had not even begun, which triggered a few chuckles. We all were amateurs, learning on the go. The student seemed to calm down a bit and we all continued to prepare for the actual take.

Once everyone had eased into the entire process, we moved to another location with a much more scenic view and repeated the same process all over again. We had to take ‘warm up’ breaks in between, since the temperature fell below -5°C. After we had taken enough shots, we decided to call it a day. Though -a slight confession- we would have managed a few more takes if the Montreal weather hadn’t been turning everyone into popsicles. All in all the video shoot seemed to go without any issues and quite smoothly. The results also came out to be pretty good so we can officially say that we had a successful shoot.

A few things we learned from this shoot were:

• Not much is needed to have a successful video shoot; just have the basic things on hand, and that should get the job done.
• If the actor seems to be nervous give him/her a few takes to ease into the setup, it ends up exponentially better.
• Do a few ‘mock up’ rehearsals prior to shoot day.
• Have a basic script on-hand or somewhat of a set sequence on how you would execute to avoid blank spaces.
• Check weather before shoot day!

That’s about it.  So if you are looking to make a video of your own, give it a go and take your time to settle into the whole process as it can be very daunting.

Be sure to share your own experience by commenting below or give us advice/ tips you may have. We would love to hear about it!

We can’t wait to share our results coming out very soon! Be sure to follow us, you can ‘Sign up Here’.

Until then goodbye!