Flight Anxiety, Fake Media Passes, and Over-Preparation
Planning a client shoot in your studio is comfortable. Executing it three states away introduces real vulnerability. My stomach dropped when I learned we were flying to Florida to film a secure virtual visitation platform for Netsync and Cisco. Leading an out-of-state B2B shoot for the first time made me anxious. Over-preparation is the only antidote to travel anxiety. And when you shoot away from home, your checklist becomes your lifeline. I spent weeks writing scripts, refining shot lists, and auditing gear. I packed a little each day, verifying every cable, battery, and adapter. If I forgot a single connector, the entire production would halt. All of our production gear had to be checked, leaving us with our personal items as the sole carry-on bags. The thought of the airline losing or damaging our primary camera package made the flight stressful. To manage travel expenses, my boss printed fake media passes to help us bypass checked baggage fees for our heavy cases. While creative problem-solving is part of production budgets, relying on shortcuts is a gamble. We planned to test the badges at the check-in counter, hoping the airline agents would accept them. Luckily, it worked! Beyond airport logistics, we prepared for a complex shoot. We scheduled a testimonial with the local Sheriff, Grady Judd. To handle the interview, our brand manager scripted all questions, but we still hoped to prompt him for unscripted responses once the cameras rolled.
TSA Mishaps and Road Bonding at Noon
A 4:00 AM alarm woke me on the day of the shoot. Our brand manager, our helper, and I loaded the truck and drove to the airport. In my morning haze, I forgot TSA liquid restrictions, and security agents confiscated my full-sized bottle of face wash at the checkpoint. An agent also flagged my backpack for a camera multitool, reminding me to pack all utility gear in checked luggage. Once past security, we ate breakfast at the gate. We landed in Florida, collected our rental vehicle, and drove toward our first location. The hour-long drive began at noon. We spent the drive swapping stories and music. The brand manager, an experienced Chicago creative, entertained our helper and me with tales from his career, describing past projects with marketing agencies and touring bands. I played my favorite music over the rental car stereo, and by the time we pulled up to the first location, we felt like a crew that trusted each other. That trust mattered later when everything fell apart.
We reviewed the shot list over Sonic drinks in the Florida heat.A Sweltering Tour and the First Emergency
Before heading to the facility, we stopped at a Sonic to review the shot list. Text messages from our home office asked for status updates, which made me feel nervous. We arrived at the Sheriff's Office for a tour of their operations, including a high-tech emergency communications center. The Florida humidity soaked my shirt before we even began setting up. We finished setting up our two-camera interview rig when our guide delivered bad news. The Sheriff was unreachable on emergency duty and canceled the interview. The brand manager took the blame for the day, which felt unfair since you can't plan around a public safety emergency. I felt bad for him. But we didn't let the day go to waste. I spent the afternoon gathering b-roll of the building exterior, the lobby, and drone aerials. When your main subject disappears, you either pack up or you shoot everything else you can. I chose to shoot.
Filming in the Sheriff's Emergency Communications Center.Visions of Failure and Night Drives
Before leaving, we spoke with the Sheriff's staff videographer. He offered to record the Sheriff's testimonial for us the following week. That saved the project, though we still left the building empty-handed. We stored our gear at the hotel and went to dinner to decompress. Afterward, our brand manager drove us around the city for an hour. He talked about life and advertising, the kind of stories you only get from someone who's spent decades in the business. I listened and thought about my own career. You could tell he'd been through shoots that went sideways before, and this was how he handled it: ride it out, share what you know, and don't retreat to your hotel room.
Dinner with the production team after the first day.Into the Dorms: Capturing the VVS
We woke early the next morning to film at the county jail. We had to capture three testimonials, including the backup setup. We began with the Virtual Visitation Service booth. The hardware looked like a standard prison payphone with a screen. Officers supervised volunteer inmates who demonstrated the system for our camera. I wanted authentic b-roll of the environment, so I asked the guards to escort me into a live dorm. Our brand manager stared at me like I was out of my mind, but I wasn't leaving without the shot.
Setting up the Blackmagic 6K Pro inside the facility.Two officers escorted me into the dorm. The inmates watched as I positioned the Blackmagic 6K Pro. I felt nervous, but I focused on the shots and exited the room. Afterward, I gathered extra footage in the corridors, getting staff and visitors on camera. We had four hours before our return flight to set up lights, position two cameras, and record three interviews. The subjects struggled to read their lines in the cramped rooms, so I set up a teleprompter. When one subject froze, I told her we were testing the lights and recorded her rehearsal instead. No performance anxiety, just a natural delivery. Our brand manager coached the interviewees through their statements, steering them toward the core marketing messages. We completed the testimonials, packed the gear, and ate lunch with the client. On our way back, the airline agents in Orlando noticed our fake media passes and made us pay the standard baggage fees. The attempt made for a good laugh, and we boarded our return flight in the afternoon.
The Invisible Frame and Client Approvals
Back at the office, I started editing. The brand manager pulled me aside and explained something I hadn't considered: because a jail is a sensitive subject, I needed to cut the harsh visuals. No barbed wire, no security gates, nothing that made the viewer focus on incarceration instead of the technology. He called it the invisible frame, and it made sense. I spent three days reworking the timeline because I hadn't shot enough b-roll to cover the gaps. I didn't make that mistake again. The initial edit took a week or two, but the timeline between the September shoot and the November release stretched over two months. Most of that was waiting for feedback and navigating client approvals. Corporate brand alignment means a lot of back-and-forth, and it tests your patience.
Editing and color grading in DaVinci Resolve.Resolving the Final Hurdles in DaVinci Resolve
In DaVinci Resolve, I used a color-managed workflow to grade the footage, softening highlights, keeping skin tones warm, and lowering the saturation of the background to keep the focus on the interviewees. The final hurdle came when we learned that our third testimonial subject was arrested. We had to remove his interview, but his face remained visible on the VVS screen during the product demonstration. I did the compositing in DaVinci Resolve, placing stock footage over the screen. It was one of my first times handling compositing in Resolve, and once I figured out the workflow, it was straightforward. Digital compositing became our safety net. The Netsync client loved the final product. We built a marketing campaign and landing page around the video, and it launched with strong engagement. The whole thing went from airport security checks to jail dorm rooms to a client celebration, and somewhere in between I learned more than I expected to.