Pro Tips from DP Jon Brysh
Making a high quality video for your organization or business is a vital part of marketing and communications these days. So how do you get started? Jon Brysh, the director of photography for many 1623 Studio productions, says that getting a team together for the video project is the most important first step. “It’s undervalued,” Brysh says. “When the idea is there and the project is given the okay to move forward, that’s the time to gather a team and start the process.”
Brysh recommends getting people in a room to discuss ideas and recording these ideas on paper or a white board. “You don’t have to walk out of that meeting with this super concrete structured workflow. Rather, it’s important for people to be physically in a room together bouncing around ideas and being creative.”
Brysh suggests seeking out a video production group to work with if you are looking for a professional video. The next step is getting three key players for the project identified: a director, producer, and a director of photography. “The key players will get a project off the ground and running. A director is the leader of the vision and the person who says yes or no. You need someone making decisions and signing off,” says Brysh. Once a project gets going, Brysh notes, a director is critical to a successful project. The director is a creative lead as well as decision maker and often is a person in charge of the project.
The second person is a producer. “This is the person working behind the scenes, finding locations, talking with the director, and being the go-between with the director of photography,” says Brysh. “The producer makes everything happen. Producers know how to ask questions and who the right people are to answer them. They create the to-do lists, ask the DP about scheduling, and the approach to visuals.” The producer’s role is interactive and based on communication with all parties so that questions get resolved, the project gets revised, and the entire process moves forward.
The third person is finding and engaging a director of photography. “The DP is responsible for the technical and visual side of the project,” says Brysh. “The DP coordinates the visual ideas and the vision of the project with the technical needs and executes these through video all while working within the project’s budget.” The DP offers options if things get stuck, or budgets change, and directs the storytelling aspect of the project. Bringing on a DP for a video project is a game-changer. “While the director and producer can be the same person on a project, the DP heads up the technical side. I can tell you from experience that having these roles filled for a video project will get it lifted off in a good direction. Clients are much happier in the end.”
