Top 10 Tips for China Remote Shooting

Time needed: 30 minutes.

The following tips will help your remote shooting in China, whether it’s in Shanghai Beijing Shenzhen Hong Kong, or other area in China, it’s always good to check these tips before you contact the production company in China.

1. A clear brief of your production is the most important thing to start with

   This tips not only apply to shoot in China, but also anywhere else in the world, having a clear idea of what you want to achieve during your production in China is essential, no only the production company in China will know what exactly you want to achieve here, but also give yourself an idea of the work amount.
   
   To start with, it’s good to pencil in these info:
   When is your shooting?
   Where is your shooting?
   How many days is your production?
   What level of production is this? Is this a corporate video or a commercial?
   How many film crew would you consider hiring for the shoot?
   Who will be join the remote shooting?
   Is there any celebrities involved?
   What software would you require for the remote shooting?
   Or the question can be: What would you like to achieve during the remote shooting? Live plaback, sound monitoring, applying luts on the monitor? Etc
   
   Having the info above will be very useful for your first communications.

2. A reference is always the shortcut for communicating the production

   You have to admit that no matter how good your description is, the reference will always win when it comes to communicating the idea, especially in the video production. Prepare a few reference will make sure everyone involved understsand what you and your client want to achieve.
   Remote shooting requires good communication, not only verbal meetings, but also the both parties interaction on the ideas, this will help you to build the bond before the actual shooting, at the same time, the visual reference will help your partners in China budget more correctly.

3. A timetable for the production

   When you try to do remote shooting in China, it’s easy to lose track of the progress, adding the time difference will make the communication more complicated. Not everybody is organized like you, so having a timetable that everyone can view will help them to aware the progress.
   We really recommand to use these software to keep track of your progress:
   Google Calender: It’s free and it’s quite easy to use, and available on Mobile&Desktop
   Trello: Having a great kanban software can cover a lot of details of your production task.
   

4. A good indication of your budget will save your time

   The idea of getting your budget estimate is not worth your waiting time, when you are running a remote shooting, it’s very important to save this process, rather than waiting for your local production house quote on your project, you should come up with a top limit figure for your project, so that the local production company can immediately tell you whether it’s workable or not.
   Having the direct approach on the budget will save you a lot of your time, at the same time, your local production company will appreciate the direct approach, this will already start your conversation way ahead since the budget is already half way there.

5. Test Everything is the best practice when it comes to remote shooting

   You never know what would happen in the production, well when it’s remote shooting, this theory works too. Always test everything before you start your production, here is a list of things you should test for your shoot:
   -Internet, whether it’s 4G/5G or WIFI, consider having a cable network as it’s the most stable network;
   -Locations, if you are shooting in a studio, make sure you pre-build the set, and nothing waste more time than fixing the set issues, walk through everything in the studio is always a good idea; if you are shooting outdoor content, make sure you know where you are going and the place is filming friendly, or locals aware that you will be filming that day, so you don’t have to encounter any permit issues;
   -Talents, we have done a few shooting in 2020 during Covid with celebrities, it’s definetly better to have all your style related issues out of the way before the shooting day, you want to save all your time on the production, not discuss the wardrobe&style on set;
   -Test your shooting, it’s worth to test everything if budget and time allows, you can run through the shoot with the remote film crews for everything, this makes the real shoot much easier and almost bullet proof.

6. A communication software is never enough

   When it comes to communication software, you shouldn’t rely on one, as the Chinese internet is not very friendly towards the website and software,
   You should prepare at least two:
   Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Team, Wechat, Whatsapp, Google Voice,
   And more if you think the software above doesn’t work.

7. Less long Meetings, More Short Meetings

   Long meetings are very time consuming, and time is the most important thing in life, if you want to convince your remote crew that you have everything under control, shorter meeting will make things different, because in short meetings, people tend to focus more on what you want to communicate, the long meetings on the other hand, is relatively easier to lose people’s attention, thus it’s way better to keep your meeting short and effective, and have them more often, so make the team aware that you are easy to access to.

8. Final shot list should be the final, at least close to it

   Before you start your shooting, especially remote shooting, you should finalize your shot list, if not, it’s going to create a lot of communication issues, as any changes that’s not fully elabrate with the team will be a issue, and it will cost a lot of time, so if you try to make your remote shoot more efficient, it’s the best to keep your final shot list as it is, or not too far from what you would want to achieve.

9. Film Crew and Film Equipment Insurance is good to have

   It’s never a bad thing to have your film crew and film equipment in insurance, not all the Chinese film crew will have insurance themselves, so it’s a good idea to cover them, it’s not very expensive to have insurance, and it will be a great support if there is any accident occurs during the filming.

10. Hire your bilingual assistant director/producer early, the earlier the better

    With all the tips above given, we still think the best asset on remote shooting is the producer, there are some great assistant directors options in China, and having them on-board will save you a lot of time on planning, and this assistant director/producer will be your onsite manager, the earlier you have someone like this to help, the more communication time you will have, thus will be time saving for your whole project.