Making the Most of a Filming Weather Window in the UK
Updated: Oct 9
A practical guide for marketers shooting content on a phone
If you're making content in the UK you already know the weather doesn't stick to the plan, and you'll have had the day where you've booked people, organised staff and blocked out half a day to film, only to wake up to grey skies and rain coming in sideways, and then just as you've given up on it the clouds part for an hour and a half. That gap is the whole opportunity, and here's how I'd use it, even if you're only filming on a phone.
Work out what actually needs the sun
The first thing is to work out in advance what actually needs the sun, because not everything does. Your exterior building shots need it, your team walking or any lifestyle bits need it, anything with a skyline or a landscape in it needs it, and the establishing shots that sit at the top of a video or a website are the ones that look flat and dull without it. Interviews, close-ups and product shots are usually fine in flat light, so the moment the sun comes out you go straight to the stuff that depends on it and leave the rest for later.
Be ready to move
The biggest mistake I see is people losing half the window setting up, so if the forecast says there's a clear spell coming in the afternoon, get everything ready beforehand: phone charged, storage cleared, lens cleaned, on a tripod or stabiliser, framing and audio tested indoors. When the sky clears you want to be able to walk outside and press record straight away, because in this country you often don't get a second go at it.
Get your hero shots first
Get your hero shots first, the ones that'll lead the video or sit at the top of the site, so a clean bright shot of your building, your staff walking towards camera, a wide that shows the place off, a quick ten or fifteen seconds of something happening in good light. Get those in the bag first and then if the weather turns on you you've already got the content that makes everything else look stronger.
Don't write off the cloud
And don't write off the cloud, because overcast is genuinely useful and a lot of the time it's doing you a favour. Soft cloud gives you even light on faces, fewer harsh shadows, less squinting and more flattering skin tones, so when the sun goes in you switch over to the talking-to-camera pieces, the interviews, the close-up product bits and the detail shots. It's worth thinking of the day as having two modes, a sunshine one and an overcast one, and having content planned for both.
Keep it simple on the phone
Keep it simple technically when the sun does come out. On a phone, lock the exposure if your camera app lets you so the brightness isn't constantly shifting, don't film straight into harsh midday sun, put people so the light is slightly behind or to the side of them rather than full in their face, and if it's really bright move into a bit of open shade rather than baking in direct sun. You don't need complicated kit, you just need to notice where the light's coming from.
Stay calm, not panicked
The improving weather does create a bit of urgency and that's fine, urgency is useful, it's panic that isn't, and the way you avoid the panic is by having already decided what you need most, what order you're filming in and where you're going to stand, so you can just move. A short window used well will give you enough for weeks of social and a few website updates.
You probably won't get a perfect day of sunshine. What you'll get is moments, and the difference between content that looks average and content that looks like someone cared is usually just how well you used them. Plan for both, be ready, film what matters first, and when the clouds part, press record.
If the weather is the problem, a second pair of hands helps.
Half the job of shooting outdoors is being ready to move the moment the sky changes, and that is a good deal easier when somebody else is carrying the kit and watching the light.
Or if you'd rather your own team could handle it, we train people to do exactly this.
Tom Vince
I'm the director of Revel Studios, just outside Norwich. I've worked in video for fifteen years, including time at Archant and Mustard TV, and these days I split my time between making video for organisations across Norfolk and Suffolk and training their teams to make their own.
Over the years I've trained hundreds of people, from journalists, camera operators and editors to marketing teams and small business owners, most recently with the Federation of Small Businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk.
If anything here has raised a question, email me. I answer my own email.
tom@revelstudios.co.uk · 01603 336273
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