When we filmed “Lights in the Forest V-Raiklen,” I had to guide people to film their own videos. Read the suggestions we offered to get the best shots!

Filming during a pandemic introduces a lot of new challenges rarely have anyone of us had to face, but still, we wanted to make a music video about this experience! Since we couldn’t be together to film – and because we knew we needed a lot of different shots to keep up with the fast-paced music – we had to give very specific guidance for filming to assure we got enough options that could work for the piece. My producer and I reached out to people we knew around the U.S., Canada, and Australia to ask if they’d be willing to ‘press play’ on the music and record themselves doing anything – dancing, jiving, playing an instrument, interpretive, you name it.

I gave clear directions to each person about lighting, shot sizing (horizontal – not vertical like an Instagram story), and then asked for variations. To get their brains thinking outside the box, I described various things each person could do with their camera to assure we got moments to work with (most people were self-isolating with someone to hold the camera, so that helped out a lot).

Some suggestions I gave:

  • get different sizes of shots (close ups…wides); and make sure it’s shot in 16×9 (NOT 9×16 or Instagram story size – this is a toughie to get people out of this habit). We also tried really hard to get 1920×1080 but beggars can’t be choosers 🙂
  • play with angles — show us just your feet or just your hands, low angle, high angle
  • As for the locations – it was important that it not be in a crowded place – we are social distancing remember! But this also meant that they’d probably be shooting in their homes or front yard, so we asked people to actually clean up their spaces! (Or we made them do it again if they didn’t…) With a simple environment, our eyes will only focus on the person in the frame moving; and with such quick shot edits, we have to tell the viewer EXACTLY where to look in the frame right away.
  • To that end – we needed movement. If someone recorded themselves just sitting playing an instrument – oh no, that wasn’t good enough – get up and ROCK with us! Or jive to the music as you play!
  • And for the dancers – I suggested that they try using their phone as a dance partner – that footage actually turned out really cool!

It’s important to note – while this was all great guidance, we were actually pleasantly surprised of how many people took these ideas and literally ran with them! We had a dancer know we needed a stoic backdrop, so she danced across the frame next to a monument in Minneapolis. We wanted to see people in face masks, so a friend of mine and her sister headed out to the beach to dance in front of the ocean while wearing masks! There are so many more surprises we saw in the footage than we could have even imagined – which made this piece even stronger and more special. People were truly being creative!