Liberate

When shooting footage of animals in factory farms (or any type of situation really), you want to get a few basic, yet essential, shots.

Outside: Get shots of the outside of the farm. Factory-farms look ominous, industrial and disturbing. You want to get shots of the outside so that it begins to set the scene and so that you can show the public, for example, the reality of what ‘barn raised’ really means. If the farm name is visible anywhere, make sure you get a shot of that, if possible, with the farm in the background.

Inside: Slowly pan the camera across the scene to show the overall conditions. Hold the camera as steady as you can, or use a tripod if possible. In a factory-farm situation, you want to show clearly the immense number of animals inside the building, contrasted with the automated, factory-like conditions of the interior.

Get up close! Get down on the ground if necessary and let the animals interact with you and the camera. Focus on one animal at a time and try to capture something of that animal’s personality, suffering and individual situation. (i.e. if he/she is wounded or sick or appalling conditions).

Look for dead, wounded, sick or deformed animals, rats, excess excrement, extreme overcrowding, and obvious abnormal behaviours and film this stuff. As horrible as it sounds the more shocking the more likely it will get on TV.

Add in a person. If you add an activist to the scene, it can make the footage all the more interesting for viewers. The activist can be portrayed openly, or covered up; that is up to you and ultimately what you want to do with the footage. Show the person interacting with the animals. Get close-up shots of them holding an animal, rescuing the animal, pointing out conditions and talking to the camera about the situation. Try to create a story/scenario rather than just shots of him/her standing and walking. It can also be a good idea to get shots of other activists filming and photographing the conditions.