Crispen up your Communication | Post Shoot Learnings

In this episode of Post Shoot Learnings, we're going to discuss the importance of tightening up your direction on set, and how that can help handle the chaos.

Note: this was originally written in December 2025, but the photos finally dropped so I can post about it now.

I've worked alongside a lot of different directors in my short career. I've seen shoots go well, shoots go wrong, and shoots that simply got the job done. But for all of the successful shoots, there was one skill that kept standing out: just how well the director was at communicating.

And it wasn't that grandiose communicating your vision narrative that people often reference when they talk about the great directors, those that stayed assertive and on message at all times without compromise. I'm talking about very basic communication; the words that come out of your mouth when you speak to the client, to the actor, to the DP.

The good directors had clear, simple direction. If it the ask was complex, they would break it down. If the client had questions, they would explain things logically in a way people could follow. And most of all, they spoke to the problems they needed to solve and how they suggested to do it.

On this most recent set, I spent the day as both the director and photographer for a product centric shoot for a major brand. This was a two day shoot, split between a yoga studio and a kitchen.

The first day went just alright; we accomplished everything on the shotlist, but it wasn't as tight as things could have been. There were miscommunications between set decorators and myself, lighting changes were slower than necessary, and there was sometimes confusion between the directions clients were giving and what was being communicated to the crew. And while the poor communication was across the board, as a director or department head, you set the tone and dynamic for the day. My level of communication determines the level of communication for the rest of the team.

Case in point: there was a moment where we are trying to solve for an immovable item in the background of our location. Our solution was to test out a couple of plants and props to cover said element.

"We need to cover this spot," I told the set dec, circling an area on the monitor with my hand. And while we were testing it out, nothing was really working. Mainly because things were being placed exactly where I circled, but not to cover what needed to be covered. Why?

Because I didn't communicate the problem I was trying to solve. Very simply I could have said, "We're trying to hide or cover this so it isn't very recognizable. Can you add things to the scene to do this?" This would have identified the problem to solve and allowed set dec to work their magic to test out different solutions. I had given a singular unclear command, instead of a defined, structural problem to solve.

As a result of this, the next day I focused on 3 elements to my communication.

1. Start the day by defining the goals to work against.
   1. We are in the kitchen today. Let's get the lighting look like it's coming through the window and making the scene overall really bright and airy. This is the angle I'm going to shoot, which means that we'll need set dec to extend from here to there.
2. Give clear, definable problems to solve.
   1. We're looking a little dark in the ambient. Can we take up the levels of the background lights?
   2. The box is a bit too angled. Can we clock it clockwise to camera a bit more?
   3. The background has a bit too much color that distracts from the product. Can we adjust the background props to draw more attention to the product?
3. Mention the person by name to solve the problem when communicating over the headset
   1. This was more because when we are all on a headset (Hollyland C1's for the win), it became unclear who was in charge of solving the problem. Stating the name clearly before asking the question helped define the task and focus the person.

Needless to say, the second day went great. Communication was tight, and as a result, the schedule was tight and the movements were tight. And while there are always going to be problems to solve on a set, being able to define the problem is the first step towards a solution.