You’re filming a bait ball. Thousands of panicked small fish. Predators slicing through the ball from below and above. Light and visibility conditions changing by the second, sharks bumping you from behind.
Everywhere you look there is an insane image just begging to be filmed. You snatch a moment here, snatch a moment there and then then realise your dome is covered in bubbles. Amost all the shots you have got to date are unusable.
Overwhelm sets in. You try frantically to reshoot what you have already shot, and more. With each passing second the action subsides and you know deep in your heart you have blown it. The opportunity of a lifetime, the culmination of a huge investment in time and money and equipment to be in the right place at the right time. Only to drop the ball on the try line.
Most inexperienced shooters get overwhelmed in this kind of chaotic situation because they ask the wrong question. They ask: “What looks good to shoot?”
The pros on the other hand ask: “Who am I serving”
In a bait ball, you serve:
The narrative (not your ego)
The director and producer (who need characters and story beats)
The editor (who needs coverage, not random beauty shots)
The audience (who need to know where to look and what to feel)
Your job isn’t to shoot the most intense thing you are seeing at any moment. Your job is to deliver a set of rushes that delights your director, your editor and ultimately your audience.
Once you’re clear on who you serve, the rest becomes systematic.
You frame for clarity so your audience knows what they should be looking at. You vary your shot sizes and relative angles to subject so your editor has coverage and cutting options in the edit. You position yourself relative to the ambient light to create dimensionality and serve the mood. You move your camera as a character to serve the narrative arc.
This is the recursive principle.
Ask yourself in any context: Who do I serve?
In your work: Who will this help and in what way.?
In your writing: Who needs clarity from this message?
In your life: Who is more important to me that myself?
Once you know who, you can answer what: What job does this footage need to do? What job does this email need to do? What job does this conversation need to do?
Clarity follows service.
The 21st century is the age of overwhelm. Infinite options. If you don’t anchor yourself in service to a clearly defined something or someone, you will squander your life energy and focus on chasing the shot that will always elude you.
Clarify who you serve, and the rest follows. On a bait-ball, and in life.
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