In 2016 there were a staggering 12,000 registered production companies in the UK. So which are the top production companies London and how do you get to become the best of the best? Who is chosen by AdAge as an A-list production company?

“There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins.”

Frank Capra

Everyone makes mistakes, even the best of us. Eliminating those mistakes goes a long way to making professional production company become one of the top production companies London. Although a painful and sometimes expensive experience, it is still an excellent way to learn. Each good crew has its chain of command and it is important to follow the instructions that your superiors gave you. Failing to do so can create confusion and result in delays that slow down the video production. The real trouble begins when the people who issue commands don’t do their job well, therefore it is absolutely crucial to be certain that things you want to do on the set will not cause complete chaos.

I recently heard a very funny story about Bruno Coppola, son of legendary director Francis. Bruno was directing his own movie and wanted to take a producer’s credit. So he decided that he would take on the role of booking flights and accommodation for all the talent. It came to the first day of principal photography and everyone was on set…except for the lead actress…she wasn’t even in the country as here schedule and bookings had been completely miss-calculated. The point is stick to what you know and allocate the right person for the right job.

There are certain mistakes everyone has made at least once. Cameramen often leave the lenses at home, makeup artists have a habit of starting to do makeup too late and then take too long to finish their work. All these mistakes seem benign, but if they keep happening, they can be really irritating, besides being potentially dangerous for the effectiveness of your crew. Things become a little easier as your experience level grows, but even the seasoned professionals can from time to time make basic mistakes. So how do you get to the top of the London production companies list and stay there? Here are five most common mistakes all of made at least once in our career.

Not using lighting

There are thousands of books about the science of light. Each of the authors agrees that creating a well-lit scene is nearly impossible without a help of some artificial light. Yet, transportation of this equipment can cause a lot of problems, and then, of course, there is a question of the power source. These issues can influence your choice of location and various other decisions, but the one decision you shouldn’t make is to choose to film a scene completely without professional light.

Regardless of whether you are shooting outdoors or indoors, natural light is often not enough. Without additional light, the subject in your shot will not look as good as it would if only light set up was used properly. And consider too that without additional light you can not control the scene so if you have several takes in one location you will notice in the edit that your shots do not match up.

Choosing not to use the light set up may save you some time, but your image quality will probably suffer. This mistake is more common than it seems, and a lot of video production companies choose to work in poor light conditions just to save some money. In fact, hiring professional light equipment and technicians isn’t that expensive, and money you save won’t make up for the poor quality video you get. Click here and find amazing tips for creating amazing light set ups from some of the top production companies London.

Touching Gear Without Permission

Usually, there are no signs on the set, but if you see something just laying around, it is best to assume that someone left it there on purpose. There are so many things happening on the set and everyone is busy doing their jobs, so if a piece of equipment is left unattended it isn’t the brightest idea to take it and put it somewhere else.

David Elkins, a cameraman, and an author writes in his book:

‘…when working on a production, don’t touch a piece of equipment that is not part of your department unless specifically asked to do so by someone in that department…’

Within your own department, you will usually have the permission to use every piece of equipment, but this doesn’t mean that you should not be very careful even when handling the tools you have specific permission to use. Not only you can end up damaging the cameras, rigs, spotlights and god knows what else, but you’ll have to pay for it.

CGI and visual effects

The emergence of digital cameras and editing software has taken the pressure of the video and film professionals to take perfect shots. A small oversight can be corrected in post-production, but obvious mistakes can hardly be corrected once the filming process is done.

If your script says day interior, but instead you are shooting night interior, you will have a hard time finding a way to correct this. Most video professionals have fallen in love with almost endless potential of image editing software, but still, there are limits. The fact of the matter is that if you don’t create great footage, the visual effects will do little to help you change the fact that you have a couple of shots missing. Click here and start learning how to use visual effects properly.

Professional camera set up

It is a popular belief that you need to have the latest and the most expensive cameras to be able to create breathtaking images. The professional equipment is useless if you don’t know how to use it, while an iPhone in the right hands can capture extraordinary footage. An inexperienced camera operator may disregard the basic rules of filmmaking which can have disastrous effects on the final product.

The safest way to capture a scene exactly the way you want it is to mount it on a tripod. Shaky images are not pleasant to look at and the handheld camera is not usually the best choice if you want to have a steady image. If you want to take tracking shots a steady cam should be your first choice, but make sure that you have a cameraman who knows how to use it. Your camera is the eyes and ears of the viewer, don’t shoot anything you wouldn’t want your audience to see or hear. Follow this link and find out all how to set up your camera like a pro.

Being late

Until you have worked on a set, you don’t really have an idea how important it is that everything is on time. A film set is like a mechanism and all its little parts are closely connected. This goes for anything from Holywood feature films to low budget video content company shoots. If a costume designer is late for work, then actors will be late, which will then cause the rest of your crew to sit idle for hours waiting.

This doesn’t mean that everything is always on time, but just that you shouldn’t be the reason why the crew can’t start doing their job, especially on the first day of the shoot. If you expect to be one of the top production companies London, avoiding this mistake is essential and easy, you just need to arrive at the set fifteen minutes earlier. It is better to be early and drink coffee with your colleagues than it is to be the reason why everything is being postponed for tomorrow. You can read more about the importance of time on a film set at this link.