Remote Video Production: From Pre-Production to Delivery

My goal in this post is to put into words how we manage remote productions. This is meant to be a short post on the topic, if there’s clear interest, we can go into greater detail.  

The key challenges for this work are going to be somewhat obvious:

• Communication
• Organization
• Attention to Detail
• Process

You build the muscles to do more work as you need to, so if you are managing your first remote shoot, don’t stress that you’re not managing more. Do your best work. Lean in hard. Have fun. 

1. Pre-Production

Many people, myself included, believe that they can find the story in the edit or that they’re impacting the credibility of the work by using a script, but you always need a script in order for people to look their best. Get clarity with your client about what they want, develop the script, anticipate the needs of your interview subject and then bring that planning with you to the pre-interview. 

• Objectives Call: What do you and your client want? What is driving the production? Answering these questions is essential before getting into the pre-interview. 
• Pre-interview Calls: They can be as short as 30 minutes or less. Connect with talent, clarify why you want them on-camera and frame the exact objectives of your video. Follow up with all of the details that relate to their location and subsequent schedule.
• Scripting & Teleprompter Workflows: Develop clear scripts as if they would be read from a teleprompter. You may think that people want to be off the cuff, but everyone does better with something planned, even if they choose to diverge from it. Ensure your on-screen talent is looked after with a clear message before their shoot date.
• Digital Talent Releases and Compliance: Streamline legalities with digital talent releases. You need permission to use anyone’s likeness in a video. Ensure compliance and protect all the parties involved. We have 3 release types that we use and we send them digitally and have them on hand physically during the shoot.
• Location Scouting & Admin Coordination: As soon as you have a city to work with you can start managing location scouting and administrative tasks. Sometimes the interview talent will offer a location, but they may not be the main contact. Sometimes the interview location will be too crowded or small, in which case you’ll be looking for a photo studio or a public location. Coordinate parking so you know where the crew can unload gear and clear signage (Something like: “Filming from 1-3PM Today”) with a local admin or your own PA to ensure a smooth shoot date. 

2. Crew Coordination

Effective communication and coordination are paramount when working with a distributed crew.

• Sourcing DPs & Crew Locally: Identify and hire skilled Directors of Photography (DPs) and crew members in the talent's local area. Establish clear rates, contracts, and ensure you have up-to-date Certificates of Insurance (COIs). If we don’t know anyone in a given area where we’re producing content, we try to connect with at least 3 DPs to get estimates and we work through DPs to find the rest of the crew they need for support. This is where it pays to hire a producer or a professional as depending on who you are representing when you approach potential crew, you can get different rates. 
• Dedicated Group Chats (Telegram/WhatsApp): Internally, we use Slack for everything, but it's not realistic to bring every contractor into Slack, which is why spin up Telegram and WhatsApp channels. I personally prefer Telegram because of its message scheduling, translation tools, and folder organization, but we always create dedicated group chats for instant updates, troubleshooting, and quick decision-making before and during the production day.
• Shot Lists & Call Sheets: Sent in an email and pinned to the Telegram channel, we provide detailed shot lists and comprehensive call sheets. These documents are your remote team's bible, outlining every shot needed, timings, and key contact information.

3. Production Day Best Practices

The production day itself requires a delicate balance of on-site execution and remote oversight.

• On-Site Logistics: Work closely with local crew for efficient gear staging and to manage B-roll capture requests. Clear communication minimizes delays. Getting shots of the setup and BTS to confirm with the remote producer. We usually estimate 2 hours to set up for an interview, from parking the grip truck to setup. 1 hour for an interview. 30 minutes for a makeup artist. 1 hour for b-roll. 90 minutes for load out. All of these times subject to change depending on the plan.  
• Teleprompt Setups & On-Camera Guidance: Ensure your talent is comfortable and well-prepared with proper teleprompter setups and clear, remote on-camera guidance from your producers. It’s great if you can give talent access to prompter software for practice. Cueprompter.com has a simple, effective one to practice with.
• Quick Feedback Loops with Remote Producers: Establish immediate and concise feedback channels. Remote producers should be able to provide quick, actionable input to the on-site crew as the shoot progresses.

4. Post-Production & Delivery

The post-production phase is where your raw footage transforms into a polished, impactful video. Remote collaboration tools are key here.

• File Upload & Asset Management (Frame.io or Google Drive): Choose a robust platform for file upload and asset management. Tools like Frame.io offer superior feedback and versioning compared to general cloud storage like Google Drive for video projects, but we use both because project sizes vary.  
• Remote Editing in Adobe Teams: Adobe’s tools are often clumsy, but teams for Premiere offers the simple version control for video editing that software engineers have been using for decades. 
• Remote Color-Grading in DaVinci Resolve: DaVinci Resolve for remote color grading allows specialized color artists to work on your footage from anywhere.

There’s more to the business side of the work, but these are the key considerations in planning remote productions, where success hinges on planning, clear communication, and the right tools. 

There’s never been a better time to work with remote teams!