By the time we get here, the thinking is done — the outline is approved, the shot list is printed, the questions are written. All that's left is the day itself.
Here's exactly what happens, what we need from you, and how to make sure nobody's caught off guard.
A few days out, everything lives in one place — your production doc. You'll get:
Hour by hour: what we're filming, where, and who we need. We build it around your real day — arrival, davening, classes, recess, dismissal — not around what's convenient for us.
Every shot we're hunting for, so nothing gets missed in the moment. Feel free to read it and add comments — you know your building better than we do.
You'll see them before anyone else does. Approve them, tweak them, and then use them to prep your interviewees.
Read the doc and comment freely. Every single time a client has caught something — "that class has a trip that morning," "he won't be here until 2" — it's saved us a shot we couldn't get back.
Short, but it's the difference between a smooth day and a stressful one.
Someone who can walk around with the videographer, open doors, pull people, and keep things moving. Not glued to us the whole time, but reachable by phone and able to pop in.
This is the single biggest predictor of how much we get done. When there's nobody to grab the next person, we lose fifteen minutes a room.
Anyone being interviewed should know [a few days] in advance — not the moment we point a camera at them. Send them the questions and the "how to sound natural" notes below.
Same for staff whose rooms we're coming into. A quick heads-up means we walk into something happening instead of everyone freezing.
Clean backgrounds do half the work of a good shot. Before we arrive:
Send this section straight to your interviewees. It's the whole difference between usable footage and a lot of very nice, unusable footage.
This is not a speech, a shiur, or a dinner address. It's a calm, warm, one-on-one conversation about something you care about. No big hand movements, no projecting, no slowing down for the back row.
Make eye contact with the interviewer — you're talking to them. Don't look at the camera.
Speak in full sentences. The viewer never hears the question. "How long have you been here?" → "I've been teaching here for eleven years," not "Eleven years."
Start your answer with the question inside it. "A moment that really moved me was…" That one habit makes a clip stand on its own.
Come with an outline, not a script. Think about what you want to say and why it matters to you. Memorized paragraphs always sound memorized.
Specifics beat summaries. One real story with names, details, and a moment in it is worth ten sentences about mission and values.
Say the name. Work [Organization Name] into your answers, even when it feels repetitive. We only use snippets, so we need the name inside them.
Keep it short. Plan for about 10 minutes. We're looking for one or two strong clips of 30–60 seconds each.
Stopping is completely fine. Lose your thought, restart the sentence, say it again better — we edit. Nobody sees the false starts.
Smile, and let it be warm. Hands relaxed, a little movement, real expression. Nerves are normal and they genuinely don't show.
We show up loaded. The videographer arrives [30 minutes] early to set up, with the shot list and specific direction in hand. He may need your input at the start of each room — where to stand, which group to pull, who to avoid.
Every minute we're waiting on someone is a minute we're not capturing something great. If we lose a slot, we lose the shot.
We'd rather film a real activity than a room of people sitting quietly at desks. If something energetic is happening — a contest, a song, a hands-on project — call us in.
Different people, different rooms, different activities. Ten rooms doing the same thing edits into one shot.
Hallways, hands, faces mid-laugh, someone walking in the door — the unplanned shots are usually what make the film feel alive.
Genuine expressions are what viewers remember. We're not looking for polish, we're looking for true.
Anything you don't want on camera — a space, a person, a policy, a privacy concern — say it up front and we'll work around it.
We usually split it: one day for footage around the building, one for interviews back to back. That gives your interviewees more time to prepare and keeps us from rushing either half.
Most of our shoots run [4–8 hours], depending on your package and how much ground we're covering. The exact window is in your schedule of the day. If we're filming interviews too, plan about 10–20 minutes per person with a few minutes of buffer between.
One point person, reachable and able to stop in. They don't have to shadow us all day — but someone needs to be able to pull the next person, open a locked room, and answer a quick question. Without that, the day slows down fast.
Completely fine, and very normal. Tell us in advance and we'll work with back shots, group shots, hands, or simply route around them. Nobody should feel cornered.
It sometimes does — a trip, a delay, a fire drill. Tell us early and we re-prioritize on the spot. That's why the shot list is ordered by importance: if we lose an hour, we lose the least valuable hour.
Yes, keep the ideas coming — some of our favorite shots came from a client's last-minute idea. If it adds real time beyond what we've scheduled, we'll tell you what that costs before anything moves.
[I'll be there for ______ / The videographer runs the day with our shot list and prep.] Either way, he arrives fully briefed with the plan, and I'm reachable by phone the whole time.
Confirm your point person — the one name who'll be available all day.
Fill in your interviewee details on the production doc: who's speaking, and what you want to hear from them.
Send the on-camera notes above to everyone being interviewed, along with their questions.
Do those three and shoot day takes care of itself.
Can't wait — this is going to be so good.
Confirm my point person