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We recently collaborated with ICG on our fourth TVC for Braintree Village Outlet Shopping Centre (formally Freeport Braintree).
The creative team at ICG approached us with a fantastic concept, storyboard and creative vision for the ad. Since it was going to fit into their rebrand and wider spring/summer campaign strategy, it was important for both the client and the agency that it be shot outdoors on a sunny day. Of course, since most retail/fashion commercials are rolled out at the start of the season, we were tasked with shoot in an outdoor summer advert in winter.
With the request to shoot a summertime ad in the UK in February, you can probably guess the kind of issues we would be up against. In the end, we were incredibly lucky and managed to do our shoot during that brief window of unseasonable sun and blue skies.
But there’s never any guarantee that this is going to happen. (In fact, the day after the shoot it rained non-stop for about a month.) This is where contingency plans come into the picture.
Planning Ahead
Video production is a complex game to play. And like any complex game it helps if you’re able to anticipate things several moves ahead. Because no shoot ever goes ahead without at least one or two hiccups along the way (even if these are often minor ones), it’s crucial to be able to plan for any and all eventualities. If a video production company can only deliver on its promises when everything goes 100% right, it is tantamount to admitting it can’t do its job properly.
We don’t like screw-ups. In fact, we actively try and avoid them. But when they happen, we have an experienced team that can identify potential problems before they occur and work to fix them. This kind of experience makes it easier to better plan for what might otherwise be unforeseen circumstances.
There’s no shortage of things that can go wrong on a shoot. An actor might get sick the day before their crucial shoot (again this happened on Braintree Village SS shoot). Someone could get injured while filming. The access to an important location might fall through at the last minute. Or even something less dramatic, like bad weather, which nonetheless has the potential to ruin that stunning outdoor sequence you had planned for your ad-closing beauty shot.
Get Your Backup Option in Order Early
As a result of this, contingency plans are vital. We’ve written before about the importance of being able to think fast and solve problems. But not every problem can be solved at the eleventh hour by putting your heads together on set as time, light and money is ebbing away. A good contingency plan, although you hope never to have to use it, means advance planning to get things moving should the worst happen.
For example, if a child actor drops out, it takes a minimum of two weeks to secure a license for a new actor. As a result, if we’re in a shoot with a child actor, part of our contingency plan is to license multiple actors as backup options should the situation call for them. The same thing is true with adult cast, crew, locations and more.
Phoning around your mates looking for a lighting cameraman or someone who has access to a cathedral interior with large stained glass windows at 11 o’clock on shoot day is bad form. You need to make sure that you have a backup primed and ready.
The Cost Conundrum
The flip side to this, of course, is the issue of cost. Video production can be pricey enough at the best of times. Do you really want to add to that by assuming a disaster scenario that may not happen at all? It’s a fair point to make. As a company, Paragon Pictures always aims to be transparent. When we’re budgeting a production with potential risk elements, we will always discuss these issues and possible contingencies ahead of time with clients. We want you to understand risks as best as possible.
The cost of contingency planning can vary wildly depending on what is involved and the risks posed to the production. In cases where a contingency plan is necessary, we will always supply two budget costings. One of these is a best case scenario: the shoot we’re all hoping for where no problems occur. The second is a contingency budget making clear the potential extra costs involved. This will all be signed off by clients before they are implemented.
Saving Clients’ Money
Although contingency costs are usually in addition to the planned for budget, they are implemented in an effort to save a client money should the worst happen. APA Guidelines state that if a shoot is cancelled within 7 days of the shoot date, all booked crew are entitled to half their rate as compensation. This is based on the fact that they may well have turned other work down in order to appear in your video. If a shoot is cancelled within 24 hours of commencement, crew are meanwhile entitled to 100% of their rate. Similarly, if a shoot is rained off all crew, cast, accommodation, travel and other costs must be rebooked for another attempt.
This means that insufficient forward planning and transparency could cost a client considerably more than it would have, had it gone ahead as planned. Or worse, you may not get a finished video out of it at the end. All because contingency plans weren’t drawn up. (This is also why insurance is important.)
Ultimately, the decision to cancel or postpone a shoot is up to the client. What we want to make sure is that we’ve always got a plan in place to ensure the job gets done with as little compromise to the end result (and the least additional cost) as possible. In short: we never want to be the reason things don’t turn out as well as they can. And that’s why we’ll always plan ahead.
