Found a trick to batch film my talking head intros in one take and it tripled my output

I was spending 2 hours setting up for each 5 minute intro video until I realized I could shoot 10 different outfit changes and all my B-roll clips in a single 45 minute session by mapping out the angles first, has anyone else tried pre-planning their content this way?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_oscar1mo agoMost Upvoted

haha yeah the lighting thing is so real... I tried doing the whole outfit change thing and ended up with half my footage looking like I was filming in a cave and the other half like a police interrogation room. That part about "looking busy while just changing shirts" hit me hard because I literally had my roommate timing me between takes thinking I was being super productive. What finally worked for me was just doing all the same-outfit shots in one lighting setup, then moving the whole kit to a different spot for the next look instead of trying to make one angle work for everything. It still takes some trial and error but at least I'm not sweating through five shirts anymore...

murray.spencer1mo ago

Tripled my output" huh? Sounds like you discovered the holy grail of looking busy while actually just changing shirts. I mapped out my angles once and spent the whole time realizing my lighting was perfect for one outfit and garbage for the next. Now I just film everything in the same t-shirt and hope nobody notices the sweat stains from the 4th take.

jesse_fisher1mo agoTop Commenter

Well hold on, I don't think the whole sweat stain thing is something you can just hope nobody notices. That's like hoping nobody sees the coffee stain on your shirt during a video call. It's the first thing people spot. If you're doing multiple takes in the same shirt, you're gonna sweat through it eventually, especially if you're moving around or talking a lot. Might be worth just keeping a second shirt nearby and swapping to it between takes. That way you keep the same look but you're not sitting in a damp shirt for the whole shoot. At least that's what I started doing after I watched a YouTube video where I looked like I'd just run a mile.