Filming a Corporate Documentary About a Sustainable Landfill Near Atlanta
- Chris Kimling
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Last year I worked on a corporate documentary video about an environmentally friendly landfill located right outside of Atlanta. The project was about sustainable landfills and how this particular facility operates.
I worked as the Director of Photography and Camera Operator on the shoot. The project involved interviews, b-roll, and filming around a large active landfill location.
What stood out most about this job was the landfill itself. When you are driving through it, it almost feels like you are in the mountains, except the mountains are artificial. The whole complex goes on for miles, and driving through it was a very surreal experience.
This was a two-day shoot with a very bare bones crew. It was me, an internal videographer who worked for the company, and a producer. I was filming on my Sony FX6 with my EasyRig. The internal videographer from their team had a gimbal and a small drone, so we were able to cover the location in a few different ways.
Most of the shoot was spent driving around the landfill, capturing interviews, and filming documentary-style b-roll of the location. Since we were working with a small crew, I was also putting lavalier microphones on the interview subjects before they spoke. Overall this was a very straightforward corporate documentary shoot.
I do have a few thoughts on how this video could have been improved. We were outside in the summer sun, and at times our subjects were covered in sweat. Some of the interviews were filmed at the top of the landfill, where there was no escape from the mid-day sun. I did my best to angle people so the sun was behind them and not shining directly into their faces, but there is only so much you can do in that kind of light when you are filming outside in the middle of the day.
I really enjoyed working on this project. I got to see a place I would probably never get to see otherwise, and I learned a lot about how landfills work and what actually happens to trash after you throw it away.
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