One filming day, a month of posts

Repeated setup can take more time than the recording itself: tripod, lights, background, sound check and getting comfortable on camera. Batching is useful when several pieces can share that setup.

Do that eight times and you have paid the setup cost eight times. Do it once and you have paid it once, which is the entire argument for batching and the only part of it that is really about time.

A batch day runs more easily when subjects, props and setup changes are planned. Leave room for what the camera reveals and for a useful idea that arrives on the day.

Why is one day cheaper than four?

Because several pieces can share the setup work.

Setting up a room, getting the light where it should be, checking the sound, clearing the background, changing into something you would be seen in, warming up until your voice sounds like your voice. None of that scales with how much you film.

There is a second saving people notice later. Nine pieces filmed in one session look like a set, because they were lit and framed identically. Nine filmed across nine weeks look like nine different accounts, because the light moved and nobody remembered where the tripod was.

What has to be decided before the day starts?

Everything you would otherwise be deciding at eleven in the morning with a camera running.

Write the list the week before. For each piece: what it is, roughly what you are going to say, which of your formats it belongs to, and what has to be in shot. Not a script, unless scripts suit you. A line and a half is enough to stop you improvising a subject from scratch.

Then add three things people forget. What has to be on the table or the bench before that piece can be filmed. Which pieces need the camera moved, so those can be grouped together. And what the first sentence of each one is, because the first sentence is where a tired person stalls.

Print it. Put it where you can see it from where you stand. Tick things off.

Making one day look like several

Where a visible change suits the series, group recordings into blocks and vary clothing or setup deliberately. Consistent clothing can also be the right choice.

Group the day into blocks and change your top between blocks. Not a costume, just a visibly different shirt or jumper. Three changes across a day gives three visually distinct sets, which lets you publish across several weeks without anybody realising they were all made on a Tuesday in March.

Finish the planned coverage for each block before changing clothes, and keep a continuity photograph. A missed shot can still be recorded later if the earlier setup can be matched.

Film all the b-roll in one block

B-roll is the supporting footage you cut to while the main audio continues: hands working, the thing being made, the door of the shop, the kettle. It is the difference between a video you can edit and a video where every cut is a jump.

Do not film it piece by piece. Do it in one block, at the end, with the day's list next to you. Film each shot for longer than feels sensible, and film the same action twice, once wide and once close. Ten minutes of this rescues an entire day's edit, and it is the first thing dropped when the day runs late, which is why it goes on the list rather than in your head.

When do you film the hooks?

At the end of each block, while the setup and your voice are both still warm.

The hook is the opening: the first line that decides whether anybody watches the rest. It is worth filming more than one of for each piece, in different shapes rather than three rewordings, and it costs almost nothing once you are already standing there.

The spare openings give the editor a real choice. Make the initial selection against the brief and material, then use retention or a suitable experiment to inform later choices. A comparison between separate organic posts remains observational.

Say the take number out loud before each one. It turns an afternoon of scrubbing into a scan.

What goes wrong on a batch day?

The failure is monotony, and it does not announce itself until the edit.

A day of nine pieces, all filmed from one angle, all of you talking, means nine videos with nothing to cut to. The first one is fine. By the fourth, the edit has no options: no second angle, no close-up, no shot of the work itself, so the only available cut is a jump cut in the middle of your own face. That is why the b-roll block exists, and it is why the day should include at least one format that is not you talking.

For the first batch, plan conservatively and include breaks, checks and b-roll. Record how long the work takes before setting the next target. The right number depends on the material and crew.

Pick a date, write the list a week before it, and put the b-roll block in the diary as though it were one of the pieces. The day itself is the easy part, and most people plan only that.

Sources and evidence

Our method. Writing the day's list a week ahead, changing clothes between blocks, and filming all b-roll and every hook take in its own dedicated block, are this studio's working defaults for a batch day, not the only way to plan one.