How to install an infant car seat

I played director the other day.

I was shooting an instructional video about the proper installation of a rear-facing infant car seat to go along with a story Rebecca Nappi was writing for the Sunday Spokesman-Review. Officer Teresa Fuller of the Spokane Police Department was our expert, and Rebecca’s niece and her baby boy, Rocco, provided the talent.  Watch the finished video below, then click through for my post-mortem.

I don’t think I’ve entered any video project with as much preparation as I did this one. We met a week before the shoot, deciding on a place and going over the plan. When we arrived at the destination parking lot Friday morning, I briefed everyone with my vision for how we’d proceed.

The role of director took some getting used to. Rather than capture unfolding action, I prompted the unfolding. I called for repeat takes on several shots and had Fuller repeat some lines while I shot the A roll to make the instructions more direct or emphatic.

I was a little rusty with the equipment. I forgot to bring headphones, so I was relying on my audio meters to make sure I was getting sound. Classic novice error. Moreover, I somehow bumped the receiver onto a different frequency from the transmitter. All my audio came through my camera’s shotgun mic, resulting in some unpleasant white noise beneath the narrative.

Finally, I wish I’d thought about the light. Even though it was sunny, we shot several sequences in the back of a patrol car. (I’d thought we were going to be working in a minivan with dual sliding doors, but that didn’t happen.) I’m sure there are a couple lighting tools out there that could have helped. At the least, I could have turned the dome light on.

All things considered, I’m happy with how this video turned out. It’s not high journalism by any means, but I hope a few new parents out there might find it useful. At a colleague’s suggestion, I’m getting in touch with representatives from Spokane’s hospitals to see if they might have a use for it.