Working as a Lighting Camera Operator on a Corporate Shoot for Advertainment Media

Jordan, the head of production for Advertainment Media, got in touch with me through my website about working as a lighting camera operator and recording sound for a series of corporate interviews they wanted to shoot for FFNews Show, which they produce.

It was great working with a production company with a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve. The process was straightforward: I was provided with a sample video and we discussed the technical requirements of the shoot and the equipment needed.

Taylor, the producer, did a great job of providing call sheets and securing the locations, which allowed my team to fully focus on our job.

We filmed the interviews at some of the leading financial institutions in Cambodia. The scheduling gave us time to arrive in advance to prepare the locations and set up lighting, cameras and sound before the talent arrived.

We went with a 3 camera set up (1x Sony a7siii and 2x Sony a7ivs), to give us a wide and a close up of both Douglas, the presenter. and the interviewee, 2 x Aputure LS 300D II lights and a radio mic each, with a backup in case there were any interviews with 2 people at the same time.

Below are a few behind the scenes photos Taylor kindly took:

Here are the 3 videos Advertainment Media edited from the shoot. They were happy with the final results. It’s always good to see the final product when someone else has done a good job with the edit.

You can see more examples of my work as a lighting camera operator here.

On Location - Taking Commercial Drone Interior and Exterior Photos for Endo Lighting

During pre-production on a corporate video for Endo Lighting to show their lighting installation at AEON 3, the client requested some drone photography to use on their website.

While Simon Toffanello was doing the photography for them, it made sense for me to take the drone photographs as I would be operating a drone for video I was shooting.

Endo Lighting requested a series of exterior and interior drone shots to show the building and their lighting installation.

The exterior drone photographs were taken with a Mavic 2 Pro. They were taken at dusk so the photo gives the impression of it being dark will retaining detail in the background and reducing the noise due to there still being a bit of ambient light.

Due to the height restriction on the Mavic 2 Pro, I hired a Mini 3 Pro, which is a lighter drone that is better designed to fly indoors.

Here are a small selection of the photos.

You can see the corporate corporate video I made for them here and check out other examples of my drone photography here. As predominantly a videographer, I mainly use the drone to shoot video and take photographs as an afterthought. It would be great to make more of an effort to explore the creative potential of drone photography.

On Location - Filming a Corporate Video for Endo Lighting

It was great to team up with Khreativa Cambodia to work on a corporate video for Endo Lighting to showcase their lighting installations at the newly opened AEON 3 Mall in Phnom Penh.

Endo Lighting commissioned Khreativa Cambodia to provide a series of photos and a video and I was fortunate to be given the lead on the video production.  

After a pre-production meeting and looking at the sample videos provided by the client, we decided on the techniques and equipment that we would use to capture the feeling of entering the mall and experiencing the different moods created by the coloured lighting throughout the day.

For the exteriors, I used my DJI Mavic 2 Pro due to its low-light capabilities, as some of the shots were taken at dusk, and stability in wind.

The client also wanted interior drone shots to show the Skywalk and to fly up the central atrium to show the different lighting atmospheres they created on different levels.

As the Mavic 2 has height restrictions when it can’t use enough GPS satellites, we had to hire a Mini 3 Pro to be able to capture the interior drone shots.

For the ground shots, I used a gimbal at eye level and a gimbal mounted on a boom to capture higher shots for a different perspective. A wireless transmitter was mounted to the set up so that we could monitor the feed and an assistant could remotely control tilts to add dynamism.

Endo Lighting were very happy with the video and even entered it into a corporate video competition!

Below is the finished video:

You can see other examples of my corporate videos here and here.

Lighting camera operator on corporate shoot with CEO of Forte Insurance

Ooshot contacted me to work as a lighting camera operator on a corporate video shoot with the CEO of Forte Insurance Cambodia as the main interview on some branded content for Scor, a global reinsurance company. I also filmed b-roll of the CEO in their offices in Vattanac Tower and interiors and exteriors of the office space.

The brief was clear and Ooshot provided me with a good samples of what they wanted.

It was a 2 camera, 4k set up with 3-point lighting using Aputure 300c MKii lights. One of the cameras was locked off on a Miller DS10 tripod and the other was on a Zhiyun Crane 3 gimbal to add movement and dynamism to the interview.

We worked as a 3 person team with me acting as the producer, director and lighting camera op. The other team members were a lighting/ camera asssitant and sound recordist.

For the sound recording the we used a shotgun mic on a boom stand and a radio mic as a belt and braces approach to make sure we captured optimal sound.

For the lighting, we used the hyper reflector and the 2x fresnel mount through scrims to maximize the brightness of the lamps to balance the light with the bright outdoor conditions.

You can see more of my work on corporate videos as a lighting camera op here and more of my work as a camera operator here. Below are are sample of images we captured.

Lighting camera operator for BECL Corporate Video

It was great working as a lighting camera operator and drone pilot with Christina and the teams from Cast Laboratories Singapore and Cast Laboratories Cambodia to produce this corporate video for Board of Engineers Cambodia Laboratory (BECL).

The video highlights the work that BECL do to emphasize the importance of testing and ensure safety standards in both existing and new structures in the burgeoning Cambodian construction market. This is an increasingly important job as the construction boom in Phnom Penh and many areas of Cambodia shows little sign of slowing down.

The corporate video demonstrates the tests Cast Laboratories do in Cambodia, including compression strength testing of concrete, testing steel and concrete in a non-destructive way, rebar tensile testing and many more of the services they provide.

My work as a lighting camera operator included working with two, Apurture C300D ii lights and 2 LED panels to give the video clean, even lighting to highlight the technical processes. Overall the client was very happy with the quality of the images I shot. The variety I provided them with allowed them to create split-screen segments in post-production to add dynamism to the final video. You can see another corporate video I shot here and more examples of my camera work here.

A corporate video about testing construction materials for BECL.

Here are some behind the scenes (BTS) photos of me in action: