We just had a fun corporate video shoot, shot with a Steadicam. Mind you, it was not a chase scene through a warehouse but a corporate video shoot. Nevertheless it was fun. We had the president of Hewlett Packard Inc. for an hour and we needed to record several programs. Since each video was intended for a different audience, we could leverage a single walk-and-talk Steadicam shot and record three different scripts. This made for an efficient and cost-effective production, and it was definitely worth it for these high-profile messages.

When we were done with the president, we shot with the Steadicam in the offices of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the company founders. Their offices are kept as a shrine with their original furnishing to remind visitors and employees of the corporation’s humble beginnings. We shot nice, dynamic stock footage to be used in other programs at a later date, and we did a couple of nice exterior shots as well, featuring the HP sign in front of the old company headquarters building.

Steadicam video shoot on the HP Inc. campus.

The Steadicam operator was Benjamin Casias, truly a joy to work with. Spencer Commons’ 3-person crew did our lighting and Lorin Fink was on TelePrompter. The Prompter was a portable rig which we own. It runs wirelessly on a pair of iPads, so wires didn’t interfere with the Steadicam shot. The Prompter software can be a little finicky, but Lorin has it handled so well that he never slowed down the production.

Steadicam and a wireless TelePrompter

A Steadicam is one of several ways to dress up an otherwise ordinary project. It’s amazing how much more watch-able a walk-and-talk scene can be compared to a static setup. It takes longer to light and perhaps more takes before all the moving pieces click into place, but the result is worth it because you may be able to forgo a bunch of B-roll while still making the talking head compelling. We always do our best to bring the highest production values into every corporate, marketing or advertising video program while keeping an eye on the bottom line. Even though it was an additional expense, the Steadicam shot added excellent value to this high profile corporate video shoot.