Mexico City If shooting in Mexico city can be summed up it one idea it’s logistics. Our client likes to keep us at hotels near the airport which is nice on arrival, but the rest of the week is mostly spent in cabs. Getting across town is usually a nightmare. Traffic in the DF is notoriously awful and this year was no exception. Nothing as bad as last years two hour bus ride across town (at least I got some sleep), but 45min-hour to go 6 miles at night even was the norm.
The shoots themselves went off rather smoothly with the clients being extremely happy with the final videos we delivered. There was one executive who came into the makeshift studio we set up in a backstage dressing room for his on camera delivery, who after perhaps 40 seconds of total time from walk in to mic up quipped “why don’t we just shoot these on an iPhone? It would be quicker. What do we need all this equipment for?” Now if there’s one thing I’ve learned about corporate video work is to never engage any executive in banter. Our client knows that you can’t shoot an interview on an iPhone and have it look and sound professional, and she knows the value we bring to a production, that’s all I care about. It did help highlight the growing problem of people who are not familiar with video production think that since their daughter got a cute video of the cat on her iPhone, then an iPhone is fine to use to shoot something that will be projected on a 30 foot screen or record a two person interview with mics.