Real Estate Videography Tips: Prep, Shoot Day and Timing

This is the practical side of listing video: what happens on shoot day, what you do beforehand, and how to pick the slot. If you’re still deciding whether a listing needs video at all, start with what video actually does for a listing and come back.

What a listing video shoot day looks like

Plan on the crew being at the house for a while, longer for big houses and acreage. The house has to be ready before we get there. Video is less forgiving than stills, because we can’t clone out the recycling bin in post when the camera walks right past it.

We shoot the exterior first if the light is cooperating, then work through the house in the order a buyer would walk it. Gimbal moves get shot twice, once slow and once a touch faster, so the edit has options on pacing. The drone usually goes up last, once we know which side of the house is the hero.

Prep the house like it’s photo day, only stricter

Same list as photo day: lights on, blinds open and matched, cars off the driveway, counters cleared, toilet lids down, pet bowls put away. Our room by room prep checklist covers it. One addition for video: walk the route yourself before we roll and look at what sits behind every doorway. That’s where the laundry basket turns up.

• Turn the ceiling fans off. They strobe on video in a way they never do in a photo.
• Set blinds to the same angle in every room. Almost nobody does, and everybody notices.
• Keep color temperature consistent. Mixing warm bulbs with midday window light is what makes rooms split orange and blue on screen. Either match every bulb in the shot or turn the lamps off and expose for the windows.
• Quiet house, if you can. Dishwashers, dryers and barking dogs all end up in the audio.

Pick the slot by which way the house faces

East-facing fronts want morning. West-facing fronts want late afternoon. A north-facing front is forgiving most of the day. Overcast is fine for video and often better than hard sun, because the gap between a bright window and the room is smaller and the view outside holds up. In neighborhoods with a heavy tree canopy, hard sun throws dappled shade that looks like texture in a still and like a flicker in motion.

What the edit does

The edit is where footage becomes a finished video. Blending exposures so the windows hold detail, balancing color room to room, choosing music that fits the house instead of a generic bed of piano. Color choices carry mood too: warm tones read inviting, cooler tones read crisp and modern. Pick horizontal for the MLS and your site or vertical for social when you book, and ask us for a quote if you want the other orientation too. Delivery follows the schedule in the order confirmation (see our delivery standard), so tell us at booking if the listing goes live sooner.

The local piece: Upstate, Columbia and Richmond

Geography changes the shot list more than people expect. An acreage listing out in Hanover or Goochland wants the drone doing most of the establishing work, because the land and the tree line are the point. A townhome in the Fan, or on a tight lot in downtown Greenville, wants the opposite: careful interior moves, and a walk-out shot that shows the street without parking the neighbor’s porch in the middle of the frame. For a full shot-by-shot example, read the Richmond walkthrough guide.

Airspace matters for the aerial half. Parts of the Greenville area sit in the controlled airspace around GSP and Donaldson, a good piece of the Columbia area is in CAE’s, and Richmond’s east side is close to RIC. Those spots can still be flown with a Part 107 pilot and a LAANC authorization, but it has to be requested ahead of time and approval isn’t guaranteed for every address. Put it in the booking conversation, not the morning of the shoot.

Trim the shot list to fit the house

A bigger shot list doesn’t make a better video. On a vacant house, keep the interior moves short and let the yard and the street carry more of it, since empty rooms on a gimbal get dull fast. On a tight lot, skip the drone orbit that mostly shows the neighbor’s roof. And if you’re still not sure the listing needs video at all, the post linked at the top has the honest list of when to skip it.

When you’re ready to add video to a listing, the packages page shows how it fits with photos. Beyond All Media shoots real estate video across Upstate SC, Columbia, and Richmond. Call our South Carolina line at (864) 714-0724 or Richmond at (804) 913-3013.