Adventures in Video Production, Equipment Safety

Video Production Oakville – The Captain’s Blog

Adventures in Video Production, Equipment Safety

Hello everyone, John at Groovy again.

Today I thought I would talk a little bit about equipment safety on the set of a video production, or even at the airport. Your camera is your highest priority. It’s the most expensive piece of equipment and the most important.

One incident occurred when we were filming at Pearson Airport. A porter offered to help us load one of our cameras on a dolly. We thanked him and said sure . . . what can go wrong? Well Murphy’s Law always applies and sure enough the porter proceeded to drop the one camera from about five feet off the ground. Apologies followed, but we now had valuable equipment needed for an immediate video production that was put out of commission.

A hard lesson learned. If assistance is offered on lifting garment bags and luggage then go ahead and accept the help but not when it comes to any and all filming equipment. All it takes is one person to get distracted and the results can be disastrous. Only team members should be permitted to handle the tools of our trade. We treat the tools of our trade just like any mechanic, carpenter or any other tradesman would – when it comes to lending or handling our tools it’s thanks but no thanks.

Another incident occurred while filming in Newfoundland years ago when we were first starting out. Our video production was set up in a factory with cement floors. We had just finished successfully interviewing and filming three people and were prepping the fourth candidate. He said that he had done many interviews in the past and being familiar with the microphone, he offered to “mic” himself. Because we always go out of our way to make our interviewees feel comfortable, we said sure go ahead. Yes you guessed it. He fumbled and dropped the mic along with the battery pack, both smashing upon hitting the cement floor. Once again, apologies followed but we were now left scrambling. Our Plan B did work successfully, saving the integrity of the project. However another lesson learned. “If you didn’t bring it, don’t touch it”.

These are but a couple of the many life lessons that we have learned as we travel the wonderful world of video production in Oakville and across Canada.

That’s it for now. I look forward to touching base with you again down the line. Happy filming!

#videoproduction #groovyconcepts