Filming hints and tips

The following are tips and tricks for compiling your footage for the award montages. Please remember that judging will not be based on these submissions. They will only be used to create an illustrative package.

• If using a cellphone, please turn it sideways to produce landscape format (not portrait).
• Keep the camera or phone steady, or even use a tripod if possible to avoid unsteady shots. It’s much better for us to have several steady shots which we will edit together.
• When filming comments from people:
  • Make sure they are close to the camera so that we can hear them clearly.
  • Position their heads at the top of the screen, not the middle. We don’t need to see much above their heads.
• Do not film in noisy, windy, or echoey areas.
• Make sure you leave about a second at the beginning, and a second at the end of each shot so that we have a ‘head’ and ‘tail’ when we edit the material together.
• When filming comments from people, ask ‘open’ questions to minimise the chance of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers. We are looking for statements that make sense on their own.
• Ask questions such as:
  • Tell us about what this project means to you.
  • Can you describe the effect this councillor’s work has had on your life?
  • How would you say this has changed people’s lives – tell me about that.
• Please send us the names and any job titles of people giving comments.
• Watch it back before you send it to us – if you can’t see or hear it properly, then neither can we.

Please send these details by Thursday 22 September at the latest. 

England and Wales finalists can submit content here.

Scotland finalists can submit content here.