Video production for events and exhibitions

What this is about

There is no second take and no second day. The keynote starts when it starts, the award is handed over once, and the stand is busy for exactly the hours the hall is open — which turns coverage into a question of how many cameras you can afford rather than how many angles you would like. The venue adds its own layer: filming permission, hall electricians for power, restrictions on tripods in aisles, and fees for shooting outside your own stand. Neighbouring exhibitors did not agree to appear, and their unreleased products sit in your background. Setup happens in the hours before doors open, alongside riggers and caterers, and it ends the moment the first visitor walks in.

Sector routine beats general experience: knowing the field's approval paths and constraints produces more realistic plans than more shoot days without that context.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• Filming rights on the show floor belong to the organiser: you shoot your own stand freely, and anything in the aisles usually needs a permit and a fee
• Power, rigging and anything suspended above head height go through the venue's contractors, booked weeks ahead at deadline prices
• Neighbouring stands and their unannounced products end up in every wide shot — camera axes have to be chosen against the hall plan, not the stand design
• Visitors are members of the public: signage at the stand entrance plus release forms for anyone who speaks on camera, collected while they are still there
• Setup and strike sit in the narrow build-up and dismantling windows, and stage rehearsals are often the only chance to light a keynote at all

What the plan has to deliver

A production plan is useful to this role when it provides the following:

• A minute-by-minute plan tied to the event schedule, marking which moments are single-chance and which can be re-staged in a quiet hour
• Venue permits, power orders and rigging requests submitted before the organiser's deadlines, not after the concept is approved
• A second camera on every unrepeatable moment, because coverage cannot be built from one angle after the fact

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Planning stand atmosphere for peak hour and discovering the aisle permit was never bought
• Covering the keynote with one camera and losing the reaction shot the client wanted
• Ordering power on the morning of build-up, at the rate the venue charges for late requests

With TillyGen

TillyGen converts the event schedule into a timed shot list where single-chance moments are flagged and staged shots fill the gaps, so the crew knows before doors open what cannot be missed.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.