One thing no one thinks about until it's upon them is how you should prepare your staff for your day of shooting. There are a few different approaches. You know your staff best - choose what you think fits their personalities the best. We get many different reactions from staff when we show up with cameras in hand.
THE REACTION "I look awful! I didn't know we were doing this today!"
In this situation, you could have avoided it by either giving them plenty of notice or at the very least, telling them that morning before we arrived. By telling staff in advance that there will be a video shoot, they can get their hair and nails done so they have the confidence to appear on camera and represent your company well. However, this can backfire too. By knowing too far in advance, some shy personalities will stress over the impending shoot for days and won't be able to focus on their work. They will be nervous and by the time we get there, they will be a complete wreck. Give them some notice, but don't let them stress over it. Make sure they know the scope of the shoot - will they be featured? Will they just be doing their job and naturally caught on camera like a fly on the wall? Will they need to stage anything on camera? If you choose to tell them the morning of, make sure you give them enough time to at least freshen up if they choose to do so.
THE REACTION "Oh, this place is a mess! You can't shoot here!"
You can't tell me you just scheduled the shoot this morning and had no notice to at least straighten up your place. Most shoots are scheduled days or weeks in advance. Try to at least run a vacuum cleaner and wipe down counter tops. I understand if your office is always a mess due to the nature of your business, and you don't want to misrepresent yourself in your marketing material. However, your potential clients don't want to see day-old candy bar wrappers, your extra large soda that came with lunch or another client's confidential papers. Spend a few minutes cleaning up your area and alert any in charge of the other areas where the shoot will take place that they need to do a once-over on their area as well.
THE REACTION "I hate being on camera. Get someone else."
This is the most common reaction. Most of the time, employees will only be on camera doing what they do every day. Most likely, all they have to do is what they typically do - perhaps with a cleaner desk, sitting up a little straighter and with a light over their head. We are usually in and out in minutes, so we don't take away from their day. If you let them know ahead of time that all they will be doing is sitting there looking productive, most people will give in and allow it. Block their complaints by letting them know up front that they don't have to say any lines, they don't have to force a fake smile and they don't have to be someone they're not. You want to capture them as they are on a daily basis.
If the employee will be talking from a script, you should give them the script ahead of time so they can get used to it. They do not have to have it 100% memorized by the shoot date. We have ways of shooting it in clips so they only have to know a small part at a time, and I'm sure most other production companies can do the same. If they will be interviewed on camera, you can give them some idea of what they'll be talking about, points that you want them to make sure they hit, and what you DON'T want them to say, but don't give them fully written scripts. Also, encourage them NOT to write out paragraphs of what they want to say. We encourage an unscripted interview. You chose them because of the knowledge they have on the subject. We (or whatever production company you hire) will be asking questions about this knowledge. They know it, so there's no need to memorize it.
Remember, the better prepared your staff is, the smoother your shoot will go. Taking a little time to talk to them about the focus of the shoot, and what you are looking to get out of it will help tremendously on the day of shooting.
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