What’s the best way to do a commercial shoot?

I have my first commercial shoot coming up, and I’m just wondering what’s expected of me?

Taylor: That’s a little vague since I’m not sure what the commercial shoot’s for, so I’ll speak from a product sense. You should go in and have a good idea about what you’re going to be shooting – try to understand what they want to accomplish. For the most part, there should be an art director or at least a member of the marketing team there to sit with you and make sure you’re getting what they need and what they’re going to work with. And the skill of the art director can range from being very meticulous to the other end of the spectrum.

Dave: The first thing I like to do is to make sure the expectations of the art director are what I think they are, so I shoot a wide shot and show them, and let them know how it will look if I take a tighter shot. It’s quite important to understand what the brief is – so talk to them about it and get to understand the marketing message.

Taylor: I always try to keep it to “as few cooks in the kitchen” as possible – so the art director or one or two members of marketing – because then it becomes an anti-marketing department at that point due to competition.