Filming the product

In UGC the main character isn't you, it's the product. The brand is paying for its item to look desirable in an ordinary person's hands. So product filming has its own rules, and many revision requests come down to them.

The product has to be clean and readable

Wipe the product before you film. Fingerprints on a bottle, dust on a box, drops on a cap show up in close-up like someone lit them on purpose. If the product is new, remove the protective film, unless that's part of the unboxing.

The label faces the camera. Always. If you're holding a jar, turn it so the name reads. It sounds obvious, but "label turned away" is still one of the most common notes.

The product takes up a noticeable part of the frame, most of it in close-ups, and sits next to your face in shots with you. Light is soft and comes from the side at an angle to the product, as in the filming course: that's what shows texture. Glossy packaging glares, so keep turning it until the glare moves off the label.

Read the brief for what you must not show: part of the label, the ingredients, old packaging. Those requests exist, and they're easy to miss.

Hands in frame

Clean, tidy nails, no chipped polish. Take off rings and bracelets if they distract or catch the light. Slow movements: open, press, apply at half the speed you would in real life. On video, fast movements read as fidgeting and slow ones read as confidence.

Hold the product so your fingers don't cover the label: by the base or the cap. When you show an action, the hand enters from a bottom corner, not from the centre.

Tip. Film your hands with the product separately, no face, several times. Those shots will cover pauses and stumbles in your speech during the edit.

Close-ups

Close-ups are what make a video believable. You need three kinds.

Texture: whatever gives material or movement. Foam, liquid, fabric, wood grain, bubbles. Phone at the distance where it still holds focus, focus locked on the product, as covered in the filming course. If your camera has a macro mode, use it.

Label and details: the name, the volume, the pump, the cap, the button. A slow move or a static shot for two or three seconds.

In use: the product doing its job. On a surface, in a hand, in a device. The moment of use itself, not before or after it.

Film each close-up for three to five seconds. The edit will use a second and a half, but you need the margin.

Background

Keep the background neutral, in the place where the product is normally used. Context tells the viewer where the product lives.

But the context has to be clean. A shelf without other brands' packaging, a desk without clutter. The biggest mistake here is other brands in frame. A mug with a logo, a well-known brand's packaging in the background, a different phone brand in close-up. The brand won't use those shots, and in paid ads it's a legal problem too.

You and the product in one frame

For the talking parts you need a shot where both your face and the product are visible. The rules: product at chest level or slightly higher, in the same plane as your face so both are in focus. Not in front of your face, not at arm's length, or the product looks huge and you look tiny.

Look at the product now and then, not only at the camera: that's what people do when they're actually talking about something. But say the key lines into the lens. And don't forget sound: the talking parts are recorded in a quiet room with the mic or phone close, as in the sound course. A beautiful product with echo on the voice still gets sent back.

Ten shots for any video

Film this list every time, whatever the script. With it there's always something to build a video from, even when things go wrong.

A wide static shot of the product on the background. Unboxing or opening. The label in close-up. The product in hand, label to camera. Applying or using it. A macro of the texture. The result, if there is one to see. You talking with the product at chest level. A short context shot: the room, the desk, the shelf. A final clean shot of the product, catalogue-style.

Film everything vertical, with exposure locked, at whatever quality the brief specifies.

Do this now

• Take any jar or box, wipe it and film three close-ups: label, texture, in use.
• Film the "you and the product at chest level" shot and check that both are in focus.
• Go through the list of ten shots and film all of them for one product.