Overseas Video Shooting

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video shoot overseas

Enlightenment Interactive has worked on international training video and multimedia production projects for multinational and overseas clients in Angola, Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Spain, China, Lithuania, Finland, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt ...

Usually this has involved an international video shoot, either taking our own crew or hiring local cameramen and other professional talent. We have directors who can direct in English, French and Arabic.

So what does a production like this involve?

Organising an overseas video shoot for a multinational client is far less complicated than it used to be. 20 years ago you had to have an ATA carnet just to take a video camera on the ferry out of Harwich, even if you didn't disembark in Holland.

Video cameras and other equipment are far lighter and more compact than they used to be, so they can often travel as hand baggage to a shoot overseas.

Even so, it can be complicated, not least because there is no universal system for bringing expensive video, film or audio kit in and out of a country, so called "temporary importation". Europe is fairly flying to overseas video shoot location relaxed and many other countries will accept an ATA carnet, a "passport" for commercial goods used for exhibitions, video shoots and the like. Other countries demand a bond, perhaps twice the import duty that would be paid, which is refunded when you leave. Other countries seem to have no formal system.

Many countries require a visa, so time has to be allowed in the schedule to arrange this.

On a trip to Libya to produce a safety training video for an oil company we used a Moroccan tv cameraman, who needed no visa but who was questioned at length: was he a journalist? who was he working for? Also we had to have permits for working in the desert, permits to have the video camera, permits to shoot with the camera ...

We find it important to have someone in the video production crew who speaks the local language, so they can direct people who don't speak English, and we don't waste time having a third party translate what we want them to do.

Our director can work in French as well as English; we also have an Arabic director, based in Alexandria, Egypt. We can direct drama using local actors in those languages, as well as documentary training videos. In many video shoot in the desert countries we can find local television and video crew who work to high professional standards. Sometimes we have to bring them in from a neighbouring country if the country we are shooting in does not have a well developed tv broadcasting service.

Otherwise we have UK camera operators, sound and other professionals who are happy to travel and are experienced in working internationally.

Technically, television has developed in different ways in different parts of the world. The USA, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Korea and others use the NTSC technical standard. The UK, China, Germany, Australia, Brazil, India and others use PAL. France, Saudi Arabia and Russia use SECAM. These standards determine the way the tv picture is put together, the number of lines, the colour and so on.

Normally we will shoot and edit video overseas in PAL, either SD (Standard) or HD (High Definition). We will then convert the finished result to the local standard.

This is important if the finished training video will be on DVD and played through a tv set. It is not important if it is to be played on a computer either as a DVD or a multimedia CD-ROM or streamed over the web as e-learning.

You can find further information about tv standards on our exporters website.

There are competent professional actors and tv presenters in many parts of the world, but in some there are not.

How do we get around this?

One solution is to restrict the training video production to documentary plus overseas video location shoot voiceover. There are plenty of experienced voiceover artists from many different countries in the UK, so this is not a problem. We can also commission voiceovers from the relevant country.

Another solution for multi-language video productions is to shoot the presenter links in a studio in the UK against a green screen, using actors who are mother tongue speakers of the required languages. We then paste the presenters against a graphic or video background to create the various versions of the training video.

Typically an international corporate video production project involving an overseas video shoot might run as follows:

Initial visit to recce key locations, agree content, timescales
Write script
Script approval by e-mail or telephone/video conference
Engage local video camera crew if appropriate
Arrange formalities: travel, accommodation, visa, carnet, permits
Video shoot
Record English voiceover
Video edit to rough cut stage
Low-resolution copy of the video uploaded to our client website, transferred by FTP or sent by courier for approval
Sample graphics sent by e-mail for approval
Completion of final video edit of English master version, with graphics, video effects, music
Preparation of final script for translation
Translation approved by client
Record voiceovers in other languages
Edit other language versions, changing titles and graphics and inserting the new voiceover
Low-resolution copy uploaded to our client website, transferred by FTP or sent by courier for approval
Client approval. Finished copies sent by courier.

Security Issues

Following the incident at the Almenas gas plant in Algeria, we need to say:

we do not charge a premium for overseas work
it is our client's responsibility to provide safe and secure transport and accommodation in country, once our video crew arrive at the international airport, and to compensate us for any loss or injury
we take UK Foreign and Commonwealth office advice before travelling www.fco.gov.uk
but we have never yet declined a job on the basis of safety; we have filmed at oil camps in the Libyan desert and also on BP projects.