Hello Everyone,

Its Josh here from Loveridge Digital, this week on “Getting into it with Loveridge Digital” we are going to cover what Principal Photography is!

During the creation of any piece of content, it is a best practice to always break down the production into a number of production steps, The exact number of steps of a production will vary depending on who you ask.
Their is generally no wrong answer, just different ways to divide the different production process steps.

Principal photography in production generally is when the majority of shooting takes place. These are the scenes that typically involve the lead talent. This is in contrast to second-unit photography or certain VFX shots needing to be completed. Principal photography does not include re-shoots or screen tests done in Pre-Production. In the 3 core stages of video production, principal photography falls into the middle between Pre- and Post-Production.

Principal photography is one of the stages of production where the most amount of people will be on set, this can include everyone from Art coordinators to Stunt teams.

So you may ask what are the goals of principal photography?
Well the main 2 goals are to gather as much of the raw material or footage necessary to construct the video and to stay within the pre-determined budget and schedule that is laid out in the pre-production

With so many people involved, principal photography can seem like a daunting and complicated element to be involved in. However, as long as you are working with a quality production team, it will be a breeze and hey you might have some fun!

Thank you very much for taking the time to watch the video, I hope you found it informative and engaging, until next time.