Field Taping Style Guidelines
Over the years we have established a quality driven Voyages shooting ‘style,’ so that all our shows have a similar look and feel, even though videographers all over the world are sending us raw footage. WWe give our videographers & producers freedom to explore, experiment and shoot in a different style given the uniqueness of different locations, however only after they have shot the main coverage footage matching the Voyages guidelines. This ensures that all programming is of the highest quality and standards.

Coverage
We provided each field producer and crew a very specific checklist for your consistency of coverage. This is discussed when planning the taping with the hotel management or tour management. It saves a lot of time and energy and ensures that the property is filmed in its best light with no special features left uncovered or missed.

Within reason, the general Voyages rule is “When in doubt, DO NOT leave it out.” We feel it's better to shoot everything, and let the Voyages editors and writers decide what to leave out. We are interested in the entire experience of the traveler and cover these basics:

• Hotel lobby
• Hotel room bathroom
• Bedroom
• Hotel restaurants
• Hotel grounds
• Hotel pool
• Sports facilities (tennis, golf, volleyball)
• Hotel gym and spa
• Hotel beautician shop
• Hotel shopping opportunities
• Local transport for travelers
• Local color
• Tours
• General sites of the destination

Most important we make sure to capture a good selection of a wide shots of a property. These wide shots are used as establishing shots as well as background imagery for text information within the segment.

DETAIL – DETAIL – DETAIL
We are always on the lookout for specific detail. Catching a close up of a unique lobby sculpture, the the beautiful mosaique tiles by the pool, or even the silverware and glasses on a dining room table setting is extremely important to us. The big difference in Voyages coverage of LUXURY DESTINATIONS is the detail. We work close with the hotel management and staff to make sure that food looks magnificent, the beds are perfect and the rooms appear spotless,inviting and well framed when shooting. Close ups are great for our editors to paint a tapestry of the property and experience beyond the general coverage.

Editorial License
Our credibility as an accurate and thorough producer of travel destinations programming is critical to us. Therefore, we shoot in a manner that will accurately reflects the destinations we are covering. However, it is expected that our crews deliver footage that shows the
destination in a positive light.

For example:

• When shooting a hotel room, and the bed is not made in a tidy fashion, we take the time to tidy the bed, or ask the hotel staff to provide you another room.
• If the bathroom is not perfectly clean, then we contact the hotel staff and ask to shoot a different bathroom.
• When shooting a hotel restaurant, and we have a choice of featuring a restaurant patron who is attractive and well-dressed and a restaurant patron is less attractive and not as well-dressed, we choose the former rather than the latter.
• With a restaurant patron, we avoid taping them chewing their food. We shoot everything else, including shots of patrons conferring with the waiters, receiving their dishes, serving food onto their plates, engaged in conversation, drinking, and toasting each other. The best shots are of those specialty dishes that are visually impressive.

• When shooting a hotel property, we take time to understand the range of room offerings, and shoot accordingly. If we just shoot the Presidential suite, that won’t accurately reflect the property and what we are offering the consumer on Voyages. However, the quality of the Presidential suite is an interesting feature, and should be considered in our taping. However, if your hotel has 10 categories for hotel rooms, it won’t be necessary to shoot every single one.

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Professional Conduct

As we are dealing with quality destinations it is imperative that our crews are polite, courteous and unassuming when filming. We understand that the guests are on their vacations and the crucial importance that we not upset the workflow of the staff AND the enjoyment of the patrons while filming. We understand that the guest are on their vacations and the crucial importance that we not upset the workflow of the staff ad the enjoyment of the patrons while filming. Guests privacy is of course respected. We have worked with many of the world’s leading luxury brands and have never encountered a problem.

We make sure that our crews, always wear tidy, presentable apparel and present a pleasant and professional disposition when dealing with your hotel staff and management and any guest that they may encounter.

Improper conduct, use of inappropriate language or poor manners by our crew members WILL NOT tolerated and Voyages will ensure an immediate dismissal for the Voyages team should we receive even the slightest complaint.

Video Standards
Our primary standard is that everything is shot in native High-Definition video format. This ensures the maximum quality of video presentation possible and beautifully captures detail. We also use footage that properties may already have such as a TV commercial, corporate video or Guest Introduction video. This is generally discussed before we arrive to shoot. We understand that if your footage is shot on standard NTSC or PAL format in the past we will upsample your footage to high-definition to blend in with our format. We upscale your footage to high-definition to blend in with our format.

We take immense pride in having the most professional and creative travel footage in the world.

Releases

Voyages issues a release form that must be signed by all the following parties:
• Videographer or Producer
• Management of property (hotel, restaurant, tour operator etc,) where we are videotaping
• Any individual who appears in the footage in any significant way. (Example: if we shoot a parade, we don’t need to get a release from everyone in or viewing the parade. But if we get a long close-up of a person watching the parade, Voyages crew will have them sign a release.)

Releases must be signed for every shoot, even if the same parties signed release forms from a previous production.Voyages production administration will photocopy and save all signed release forms for your records. This will ensure against any liability that may be encountered in the course of shooting, and indemnifies the participting property.

Ethnicity of subjects
When filming, there are opportunities where we have a choice of nationalities of subjects (in restaurants, playing sports, participating in tours). When possible, we try to shoot a variety of ethnicities. Because Voyages productions are distributed worldwide, it is important to present a diverse cutural mix to the global community. We believe this presents the best possible picture of your property to our wide consumer audience.

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Stable, professional photography & eyes and ears for detail

Voyages aims to capture the beauty of every property. To do so we set some basic but rigid production rules for our creative teams to adhere by. Although they may sound obvious, it these guidelines that keeps a standard of quality in terms of the visual presentation.

Shooting.

Whenever possible we use a tripod, and avoid handheld shooting to make sure that the architectural aspects of the property has integrity and that the luxury element of the Voyages brand is kept in tack. Many shows now days use shaky hand held camera movements and quick editing to inject personality into a production. Although fine for some applications, Voyages sets a refined and dignified tone in it's imagery opting for well framed, well thought through shots. Times when handheld shooting will be permissible include:
• In very tight quarters (such as small bathrooms)
• When in a moving vehicle (car, train, airplane, bus)
• When going on day trip where it is not practical to pack a tripod

In such cases of handheld shooting, we follow these guidelines:
• The videographer is advised to brace themselves against a stable surface (wall, chair, table) to stabilize the picture as much as possible
• Shoot wide to minimize jolting camera work
• Pan, tilt and zoom slowly and deliberate
• Shoot more than one take, when possible, to ensure that an acceptable shot has been recorded

Camera Movements
Movement – whether panning, tilting, zooming, or tracking – is essential, and is what differentiates our video programs from brochures and static-web site images. However, camera movement must be smooth, deliberate and slow enough to not disorient the viewer.

We take the attitude that 'when in doubt', it’s best to shoot each element of the property in a static shot, with a locked off tripod (or in a steady wide shot if shooting handheld), or shoot the scene in a slow pan/tilt. This will present an elegant image.

We avoid excessive zooming. Again, when in doubt, we shoot the scene at a variety of paces and combination. A night club scene is a good example of this.

Lighting
Under most circumstances it will not be necessary for us to bring in large number of lighting instruments when taping indoor scenes; today’s camera chips are extremely light sensitive.

The general rule is to shoot your property during the day to maximize natural ambient daylight, but when we have no choice but to shoot a small area, such as a hotel room or small restaurant, at night, and we feel that we must use one or two lighting instruments (500watt to 1K) then we do it in a manner that doesn't’t distract from the ambient lighting of the setting. Heavy diffusion or bouncing of light off ceiling helps us give the image a small boost without distracting from the ambient lighting.

If you are shooting in a large room or outdoors at night, it will almost never be practical to introduce lighting instruments. In this case, we increase the camera’s gain slightly so detail can be captured

Audio

As we produce segments in multiple languages, we generally do not have a host present while filming the resort or hotel features. The host is brought in with the Signature Series crew when interviews and more in depth editorial is desired.

For most of the footage that we capture, audio is needed for ambiance or a guide track such as the hustle and bustle of a lobby or the splashing in a pool etc. Some instances where recording clean audio dialogue is needed will be when taping:
• Tours
• Performances (dances, plays, speeches)
• Activities such as lessons (golf, tennis, diving)
• Impromptu interviews where people are close enough to discuss their reactions with the camera.

Most important we ask everyone who is working on the production: PLEASE DO NOT TALK WHILE WE ARE SHOOTING. It is important to capture either the ambience of the scene or the dialogue when someone close by is talking. In these cases, a cardioid or directional microphone on camera is used to capture such audio. It will not be critical to capture the audio of an entire event, just the highlights.

And that's a wrap!

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