Where would the world be without videos?
Telling stories through moving pictures is really something else. It has been one of man's joys since its discovery. Now, it's impossible to imagine life without them.
We're no strangers to the beauty of video production. We've always believed in the magic of visuals and sound weaved together to share a compelling story. What isn't usually talked about, though, is the mundane behind the magic: the painstaking effort, attention to detail, and the right tools to produce videos that hold an audience under a spell.
Through technology, making videos have been more and more accessible. Yet how are videos transformed into works of art through technique, creativity, and heart—and the right equipment? We spoke with our video producer, Michelle Koswara, to walk us through a usual day in her professional life.
"Before a shoot, my team and I will have a meeting over what we're going to shoot, how and where we're going to execute the idea, and what kind of equipment we need to bring. From there, I'd make a call sheet—basically a rundown of the shoot with details and timings of the shoot. Then, our creative and I will brainstorm to create a shot list. The day before the shoot or D-day, we usually come back to the office and prep our equipment," Michelle shares.
Michelle also says that in her field of work, time is of the essence. "[The most challenging part of my job is] mostly deadlines and sensitive time-frame of the content we release. We have to be on our toes to produce as fast as we can. Most of the things we do are quite time-sensitive due to the fast pace [that] trends turn over. We want to be the first ones to release exclusive content!"
For Michelle, though, quick doesn't mean poor quality.
"Quality equipment elevates our content. We wouldn’t want our audience to be affected by the lack of quality in our content. All aspects are important be it sonically or visually," Michelle notes. "Our camera is a priority, of course. We like to travel light for our shoots mainly because we have to jump location to location. The nature of our job revolves around a 15-30 minute time limit; be it interviews or press conferences, setting up quickly is a plus point. We’ll always bring along either a tripod or monopod, but more times we like to do freehand since it feels more raw and natural on camera. We always carry around two long tube lights.
"Of course, microphones are extremely important, especially for interviews! It's always nice to have microphones that can minimize white noise and wind noise but, at the same time, are sensitive enough to pick up the "right" sounds. We recently tried the Sennheiser MKE 600 microphone and it was pretty good! It's a shotgun microphone, something that is specifically used for concerts and live show shoots where it gets a bit loud, with speakers blaring and all. But the sound was still crisp! It also has the low cut filter feature where it cuts low-frequency sound or noise, like hums or aircon noises!"
As someone who works on music-related content, Michelle couldn't stress enough how important having the right quality tools with her during shoots.
"My favourite part of the job is the diversity of videos we produce. Doing this for the music industry [means] my team and I get to do a bunch of cool stuff, from artist interviews to original content related to people and music. Every project is exciting in its own way," she says. "And of course, state-of-the-art equipment alleviates difficulties in our work process. Quality equipment is what separates good content and great content."
Despite whatever difficulties, though, Michelle finds joy in what she does—and encourages others to do so, too.
"Video production for editorial content and actual production are polar opposites. But to me as long as I enjoy the process, then it’s something worth pursuing," she enthuses. "It's good to keep learning even as you go so the process feels a lot more fulfilling."
Interested in pursuing video production? Whether you'd like to make your own film or publish video content on YouTube, there is a Sennheiser MKE microphone for you. Get started with your filmmaker dreams by purchasing the MKE600. Buy now and get an MKE200 for free—the perfect gift for your content creator friend. Find out all about it here.
Like what you read? Show our writer some love!
3