Tip #323: Practical Tips to Avoid Film-making Stress
… for Random Weirdness
Tip #323: Practical Tips to Avoid Film-making Stress
Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com
Common sense saves time and reduces stress.
Lewis McGregor first reported this for PremiumBeat. I’ve summarized his key points here.
Often, stress during a project starts as a small thing that can be easily managed. Sure, these ideas might be common sense tips, but it’s the type of advice you don’t really think about until you find yourself in a particularly stressful situation.
- Set up as much as possible before you arrive on location
- Minimize the amount of “winging it”
- Store and label equipment like a grip truck, even if you drive a small hatchback
- Quash what-ifs with backups
Perhaps the causes of your stress are a little different than listed above. Regardless, you can minimize the general stress of shooting solo by focusing on setting up gear ahead of time and the organizing your equipment.
This is a great reminder for newer folks that when you think about your “day rate” you need to factor in the time you spend prior to your shoot. If you aren’t charging for a prep day (which I know most people aren’t but should be) this is a solid reason to make sure your day rate is high enough to account for your time ahead of the shoot day. For example you might spend 3-4 hours just picking up gear like a lens package and that one light that you don’t own but need for the gig.
Also on this topic we all know the one thing we can’t get more of is time, so whatever you can do ahead of time to save even 5 min on set is well worth it so every single second on set can be spent making every creative detail the best it can be instead of tasks like filling out a slate or formatting and labeling media cards. Do that stuff the night before.
Christopher:
All good comments – planning and prep are all too often overlooked.
Larry
This is so true! I have a list that I go through before each shoot checking my equipment bags making sure they have even odd items like three prong to to 2 prong electrical adapters. Another help is putting equipment back in the same place so you’re not searching for it. You know you have it, but where!