Payoneer Travel photographer digital nomad video in Chiang Mai

I shot a lifestyle promotional video for payment platform Payoneer in the fall of 2015 Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was a fun project shot in the trendy area of Nimmanhamen in Thailand. I was happy to do this project and showcase a professional video of Chiang Mai and the lifestyle. The video features travel blogger Eliana Barrionuevo and you can see her site here. In this post I'm going to share some top tips with you from this video shoot.

Scouting and securing locations
Before the video even begins you have to figure out the details. One of the key details was to find location(s) to film at. I was fortunate that I was living in the area of Nimman and knew some potential spots. I met with my client and actor at the Kaweh cafe. During this meeting we discussed the script, video, and agreed on good locations for the video. We also met with the owners at Kaweh and Libarista to schedule a time to shoot the video. We decided to film at 8am for the first location and 10am for the second location. This was a quieter time in Chiang Mai so we wouldn't disrupt regular business. It's super essential to scout the locations you will be shooting in beforehand. I examine the space for it's lighting conditions, best place to film in that space, and figure our how to best record the sound. The time of day affects the natural lighting. I opted to film near the window to benefit form the natural light at that time of day.

Be adaptable and creative
I try to plan as much as I can, but there may be situations that can call for some improvisation and creativity. For example, there were some scenes like the tuk tuk (thai taxi) and food cart scene we had to go with the flow. For the tuk tuk scene we didn't have budget to hire a tuk tuk all day, but just wanted to film a scene. We politely asked if we could film a scene with Eliana sitting in the tuk tuk. We also wanted some local interaction and culture in the video. We weren't exactly sure what to include before shooting day, but happened to spot a food cart during lunch time. We quickly took advantage of the opportunity and bought some food in exchange for letting us film that scene.
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Working within the corporate standards with room for creativity
Since this was a corporate video shoot there were some specific things that I needed to adhere to while keeping some room for creativity. For example, there were some specific scenes we needed to get with Payoneer's product in it. I also studied many of their previous videos to get a feel of the style they wanted. I also had to take some photo stills with the subject in the location we filmed. I was also given some payoneer files to create a customized intro for them.

drawing on stock footage to save time
I had already shot plenty of stock footage around Chiang Mai, Thailand from the ground and air. Because I owned the rights and had already taken the time to film the footage I was able to offer them in this project as a value-add. You will notice these stock footage clips give a feel for the city and area of Nimman.

work with the first-time actor
There are some videos where you have to expand your role beyond just a camera operator. This was Eliana's first video and the advice I offered to her was to practice her lines and smile. She did her homework and because she knew the lines she was able to focus on her delivery. She was able to smile and let her personality shine and save us time on getting through the shoot.
Want to learn more?
In this post I didn't focus too much of the technical side of Videography. I spoke about the business side of things that often doesn't get taught in video schools. If you're interested in learning more about the business side of Videography perhaps you'll enjoy my on-line video couse "The Business of Video and Photography". Here I teach you some of the hard lessons I had to learn building a career in Videography.
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