1. Do an adequate Site Survey with particular attention the ambient light present in your location. What is the available light? Will you use it or will you need it turned off? If there is daylight can you minimize its effect with drapery or other controls? Can any florescent lights be turned off?
2. White balance each time you change locations or change the lighting significantly. Be sure to set up your field monitor with the blue screen function and Color Bars to be sure you are seeing what is being recorded to tape. This is especially important if you are not working with a Vectorscope. If you do have a Vectorscope and your Color Bars line up, double check with skin tones and make sure they fall in their proper place on the scope.
3. Pick one color temperature for all your light sources. If you choose Tungsten, get rid of all other sources. If you cannot or choose not to get rid of daylight then bring all additional lights to daylight using color correction gels or use HMI lights, which are daylight balanced. If you cannot turn off the florescent lights you can add florescent video lights such as Kino-Flos and white balance to florescent. Alternately you can increase your Tungsten sources to the point that they over power and "burn through" the florescent light.
4. How much electrical power is available? Where are the circuit breakers and how can you gain access should you blow a circuit? Pay attention to the electrical loads you are putting on any one circuit. Burn in your load and make sure the circuit will hold. Find out what else is on the circuit; if there are high power consumption devices like heaters, coffee makers or refrigerators turn them off. If there are computers on a circuit try to avoid it and find another. You will become unpopular very fast if your lights bring down a critical computer. Partner with the Facilities people.
5. Take your cues from reality in your lighting. The sun is the original Key Light and informs how we perceive things like time of day. If you are shooting in an office and that is the look you want then a soft diffuse lighting approach is appropriate. For a more dramatic look use harder light sources.
6. Pay attention to the Contrast Ratio of light to dark areas in the frame. The eye can perceive much more detail than film and film can hold more detail than a video camera. Acceptable Contrast Ratios for video typically range between 2:1 and 5:1, Film can go up to 10:1, while the eye can perceive 100:1 or higher. Avoid excessively bright and excessively dark areas in your frame.
7. Consider using "Bounce Light" for fills. You can bring reflectors and bounce light off of a white wall or white card to add nice soft fill light. Often you can bounce the Key light off a reflector and get enough fill without adding another light. This cuts your power usage, knocks down the amount of heat you put into the room and is ultimately much more comfortable for your talent.
8. They say, "The Devil is in the Details" and in video the details are in the shadows. Pay attention to the shadows you create as you add lights. Are they pleasing or are they distracting? Use the shadows to direct the direction of your light sources. Remember every time you add a light source you create more shadows; you cannot loose a shadow by adding a light from a new direction. You may lighten the effect of the original shadow, but it will still be there while you will create more shadows that may not help your shot.
9. Use the Inverse Square Law to control your lights. This physical phenomenon means that as the light gets closer to the subject it the brightest increases logarithmically to the point if you halve the distance you will get four times the light on your subject. Conversely if you double the distance you will get one-fourth as much light. Moving the light is a quicker and more efficient method than adding more lights. This physical law applies to sound as well.
10. Carry controlling tools like flags, reflectors, diffusion material, color and color correcting gels, barndoors, wooden clothes pins, Black Wrap and Black Cloth to control the light you do use.

1. Do an adequate Site Survey with particular attention to what ambient sound fields exist and how to control them. Can you hear traffic, whether auto, airplanes, or people; and is there any way of controlling that traffic? How loud is the Air Conditioning or other motor noises like ice machines, refrigerators, copiers and the like; can they be turned off? Are there phones or fax machines which may ring during the shoot and can they be turned off? Is there a music playback or audio paging system and can it be turned off? Pay attention to all the sound that you hear in the environment.
2. Get as much detail about what you will be recording as possible. If this is an interview, how many people will be interviewed? Will you need to record the questions or just the answers? What other sound sources need be recorded? Can any of those sources, like music, be added in post, or must they be recorded live on site?
3. If you must record a live band or large discussion group with many microphones or other sound sources and a live Sound Reinforcement System, can you get a sound feed from the live mix? Is there a Press Pool? Can you get a test of that feed during a sound check or rehearsal? Is there any specific control of the mix you will receive versus that going to the house or monitor mixes? If so how can you best communicate your needs to the person in control of that mix?
4. Bring Headphones to monitor the signal going into your Video Recorder. If there are signal meters on your gear be sure to check the meters for overloading or weak signal. You can use a field mixer with meters for this purpose if you do not have meters on your Video Recorder.
5. Make sure you have a clean and properly balanced signal path from all sound sources into your Video Recorder. This means you must know the impedance and gain structures of all gear that is in the signal path. Be sure that impedance is matched into and out of each piece of gear. If there is noise at your Video Recorder, check each step in the chain to see where the noise is coming from and make the proper adjustments.
6. Carry a supply of adapters and cables so that you can connect to a variety of devices. A cable tester can be helpful in checking connections and signal flow. Consider carrying a Match-Box or other such device which can take a variety of signal types in and convert to a variety of outputs. An electronic music Direct Box is an inexpensive way to convert Hi-Impedance, Unbalanced signals into Lo-Impedance balanced signals.
7. For long cable runs be sure you have converted the signal to Lo-Impedance balanced level signal, either Line level or Mic level depending on your equipment's needs.
8. Choose the proper microphones for the application. For individual speakers, each should have an Omni-directional Lavalier Mic properly placed on each person's chest. Some situations may work better with a Shotgun Mic on a boom with a Boom Operator. A Hand-held Cardiod Mic may be best for Person on the Street interviews, a Q & A session or an Entertainer.
9. If you are using Wireless Mics make sure there are no conflicting frequencies between the Mics. Allow adequate time to insure that there is no interference from Taxis, Emergency Channels, Walkie-Talkies or other wireless communications devices in the area. It is a good idea to have at least one back up wireless in a Live Event application.
10. For Wireless or Condenser Mics (most Professional Lavalier and Shotgun Mics are Condensers) and Field Mixers that require batteries, start with fresh batteries and be sure to bring plenty of spares. If the event lasts all day, check the batteries at a break and change them before they go dead or get weak enough that they start making noise. Consider using Phantom Power when available when working with Condensers, but make sure the signal is clean prior to the shoot.