If you’re like me, most of your video shoots will actually be pretty informal, so assigning a director, sound engineer, and key grip probably seems a little silly. Besides, people who are formally assigned to such jobs will want special T-shirts and name tags and lattes and all kinds of other stuff that isn’t accounted for in your shoestring budget.Still, you’re probably going to need some help —with setting up equipment, holding lighting props and microphones, standing guard to prevent passersby from walking in front of the camera, and (of course) hauling gear. I’ve found that my kids are extremely helpful when it comes to videography because they know that moviemaking is cool. (Why are children always smarter than everybody else?) You’ll want to take a few minutes to indoctrinate whomever you enlist for your video crew on the finer points of moviemaking and provide some dos and don’ts to follow while they’re on the set. Helpers should be trained on any equipment they’re going to use, and they should know where they can (and cannot) stand to avoid showing up in the picture. Anyone holding a microphone must be told that little hand movements may cause loud thumps and other noise; anyone holding a light reflector should be reminded to sit still lest strange shadows pan wildly back and forth on the scene.
Perhaps most importantly, remind all helpers that silence is golden. A camera lens may be limited to a specific field of vision, but a microphone isn’t. When little Johnny comes over to you behind the camera and whispers, “Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom,” his revelation will be recorded loud and clear on the tape.
