Video Production Shooting in the City of Melbourne

If you want to shoot a video production in Melbourne but haven’t been here before then read on for some tips and advice to get you started. Melbourne isn’t a complicated or daunting place to work but it helps when you know how to get what you need quickly. Making sure the little details are all covered and planned for will ensure that your production runs smoothly without any costly delays.

Getting About

You’ll find Melbourne has very modern infrastructure that makes communicating and getting about pretty easy. The trip from the airport shouldn’t take more than an hour on public transport and will be even quicker in a car or cab. Once you get to where you’re staying you’ll find most accommodation has Wi-Fi and telephone facilities. If you get around by car then keep in mind that during peak hour traffic your journey time could skyrocket, especially in central Melbourne.

The Melbourne Weather

Melbourne is notorious for fitting every season into one day. If you see that it’s sunny when you head out then be prepared for that to change. Packing a jacket or an umbrella is fine but if you’re planning to shoot outdoors then you might need to consider the possibility of rain and wind.

Ask yourself if you can get the shots you need if the weather changes and if the answer is no then preparing a flexible timetable or some kind of backup is a good idea. Before you start the day it’s always worth checking in on the Bureau of Meteorology website for their predictions.

 

Crew

Getting your hands on a crew isn’t difficult but you need to make sure you’re getting the right one for the job. Ask yourself exactly what you need from a crew and make sure you share those needs with anybody before you hire them. A standard working day might vary from country to country.

One question we get asked a lot is does your crew work for 8 hours or 10 hours? Some production crews call a standard day 8 hours. At DreamEngine we have found 10 hour working days are better for our clients and are happy to accommodate this.

For more tips on choosing the right crew you can take a look at our previous blog post What to ask yourself when choosing a Melbourne Corporate Video Company. Don’t forget to keep in mind the output for your video production; in Australia we use the PAL system so you might need to specify your intentions for the final product so that it’s consistent with your country’s broadcast standards.

 

Equipment

If there is equipment that you’ll need on the day that you want to use but couldn’t bring or don’t own then there are a few places in Melbourne that you can hire from. Lemac are a great place to rent video equipment like specialty lights or cameras but there are many other places in Melbourne that can do this too. Remember that they rent equipment and not operators so you’ll either need to know how to work it all yourself or find somebody that does.

Dream Engine has a great range of in house equipment like video sliders, autocue, steadicam and lighting with the advantage of a crew that knows exactly how to operate it all. If you do chose to use your own equipment though, it’s good to keep places like Pro Hi-Tech in your contact book if anything goes wrong and you need camera repairs.

 

It might also be necessary to hire a studio to shoot in if you need a space you can have more control over.  Docklands Studios is one example of a very large and flexible studio setup but for simple shoots like interviews you’ll find production companies will most likely either have their own studio space or at least a good relationship with an independent one.

So this is a little introduction to Melbourne to get you started. If you want to get some more information or discuss any upcoming production then I’d love to get in touch, you can do this easily by leaving your details on here our contact page.