Video Tips for Photographers: Have a Plan

Photography often doesn’t take much planning, obviously with some exceptions. If I’m going to do some street photography, I might leave the house not even knowing where I’m going to go. Occasionally I’ve taken the subway and only choose which stop to get off at when I get there, and then just because I like the name of the stop rather than knowing anything about it. I might set out with ideas for a few images, or a particular light, but not always.

To make a cohesive film, planning becomes a much more important part of the process.

I’m currently working on a ‘highlights’ project, taking clips from a library of images. I had some rough ideas and was going to start gathering some clips into Premiere Pro when a wise friend suggested creating a storyboard for it first. It’s not going to be a long piece, maybe 4 or 5 minutes, but suddenly the whole project feels less daunting. I’m now working through ideas first, clarifying and sorting and considering how the types of footage might work together before getting into the edit. I can share the storyboard and discuss ideas, and we’ve already identified two more sequences that we’d need to add..

It’s that tricky part of the project that feels less productive because you’re not starting to make the final product yet. It’s difficult to allow yourself time. But it’s thinking time and time to visualize and communicate and get early feedback on what you have in mind. And many of us should probably do that more in photography too.