Industrial video: filming without stopping production

What makes an industrial shoot different?

4 things, in this order of importance.

Access. Mandatory safety induction, protective equipment, restricted zones, people authorised to accompany you. All of it takes time in the morning and is prepared the week before.

Production. We shoot while the line runs. Shots fit the machine cycles and the shift changes, not the other way round. A missed shot of a gesture that only happens once a day cannot be retaken.

Confidentiality. Some equipment, some screens, some documents must not appear. The list is made beforehand, not at the viewing.

Noise. A workshop rules out on-the-spot interviews in most cases. A quiet place has to be planned in advance, or the interviews are lost or reshot.

How do you prepare a shoot on an industrial site?

One document, sent beforehand, 2 pages long:

• the hour-by-hour schedule
• the list of shots by zone
• the people involved, and when
• the protective equipment required
• what must not be filmed
• the name of the person accompanying me

That document circulates internally. It lets your HSE manager, your workshop supervisor and your communications director see the same thing. It is the reason shoots go well.

On complex sites, a half-day recce beforehand consistently saves more time than it costs.

What films are made in industry?

The know-how film. What you make, how, and why it is hard. The film that serves sales and recruitment at the same time.

The process film. A step-by-step explanation, often completed with motion design where the camera cannot go. Serves internal training as much as client presentations.

The safety film. Instructions, induction for new arrivals, reminders of the rules. The most watched format internally, and the most often botched.

The site or commissioning film. A follow-up over time, several visits, one film at the end. Decided at the start of the project, not the end.

And if the site cannot be filmed?

It happens: trade secrets, a confidential end client, an inaccessible zone. 3 solutions combine.

The tight frame that shows the gesture without showing the whole machine. The animation that rebuilds the process from your drawings. And the acknowledged off-screen: a film that says plainly it cannot show everything is often more impressive than a film that shows it all.