The east coast of the US has been hit by a mammoth storm. With around 20 deaths, Jonas has been labelled the storm of a generation. New York and Washington are among the cities that have seen roads turned to ski-slopes. Travel has been disrupted by the weather. Schools are closed. It’s caused widespead choas and misery.
Extreme Weather Videos
Videos of extreme weather always get massive audiences. Whether on the news or on the Internet, shots of people being swamped by giant waves or falling into snowdrifts are often shared and talked about. One of the current videos doing the rounds is an advert featuring a man painstakingly scraping the snow off his car, only to then use the button on his key fob to unlock it – and find he’s cleared the wrong vehicle.
Us Brits endlessly talk about the weather. It’s too cold or too hot. The weather is blamed on train delays, traffic jams and even England losing the cricket. The UK is known for having all four seasons in one day. On a shoot for a corporate video, the weather is the one element beyond the production company’s control. All the planning in the world can be disrupted by the weather. Tallboy recently did a video involving a great deal of outside filming. The day before and the day after, the weather was clear, crisp and with vivid blue skies. The day of the filming – the weather gods conspired and send gray, misty weather. It didn’t stop the shoot, but the crew had to work around it and our editor has to do some serious fixing in post to make it look as good as it could possibly be. See the video here.
When planning for a shoot, it’s vital to consider how the weather could disrupt it. When possible, a contingency day should be scheduled in. This can be difficult, as sometimes finding the one suitable day to shoot the video with all the necessary participants is a massive task in itself. But if the finished corporate video contains – and indeed depends upon – outside shots, it’s worth adding in the price of a contingency day in the budget.
If a contingency day can’t be scheduled in, then try and think of alternative solutions if the rain is coming down and doesn’t look like stopping. Sometimes that just means being flexible with the scheduling – we once shot the vital outside scenes in 20 minutes taking advantage of the rain stopping and before hailstones the size of golf balls started!
As well as thinking about the outside conditions, when shooting your corporate video it’s important to think about the internal conditions as well. Trying to film an interview in a really hot room is not good for concentration – but the sweaty look is also not great for the interviewee.
As Crowded House may have intended to sing, when shooting a corporate video, always take the weather with you. Or if you are in New York, go Snowboarding!