Pre-production: How cinematographers should prepare for a shoot

Shooting a video production, whether it’s for a Hollywood blockbuster, a YouTube video or anywhere in between isn’t as easy as you might think. Especially if it’s not something you’ve done before. Or maybe you have, but things didn’t go as you expected and you’re not sure how to fix it.

Well, have a watch of this video from the folks at In Depth Cine. The channel is dedicated to going in-depth into filmmaking and cinematography and the various processes that are part of that world and workflow. In this video, they talk about how a cinematographer prepares for a shoot.

The video covers a number of topics, going over everything from figuring out your basic ideas, putting together a mood board (and why you need one), all the way up to figuring out your shot list with a storyboard and gear prep, including figuring out what gear you even need and sorting out your lighting plan.

While you might not quite be at Tarantino levels of production, there are a lot of tips in the video that you can apply to your own video work. Even for something as seemingly simple as a YouTube video, putting more thought into how you prepare for each video will help you to speed up your workflow and deliver a better overall result.

[via No Film School]