Pre-filming- things to remember- John

There were several thing we needed to make sure of before we filmed.

White balance- the last thing you need is to look back on your footage and something's not right- the white walls look... Orange? Setting the white balance is as easy as it is important for filming- just get a white surface and select 'set white balance' in your camera's options menu. Make sure it is manual- you will get better results that way. This then makes the surroundings and people look normal. Make sure that you set a new white balance in a new location.

Framing- where is the subject in the frame? It's no use if you can only see a side of their face, especially in an emotional or important scene. Make sure that the subject is well lit, and that they are in a good position for the sequence.

Sandwiches or handles- you obviously cannot film straight away- you might cut off someone speaking. Adding handles in order to allow the actor to prepare themselves for the role or to have extra footage to use in the editing suite is very useful. All it requires is a few seconds at the start and end of the recording to have something to play with. This can be used to get timings perfect, or add suspense.

Another thing to remember is to redo shots over and over, in order to get the right emotion or to cover a previous mistake in the scene. Doing it three to four times generally will cover it.