Behind the Scenes: How We Filmed the Charleston Wine + Food Festival

This was our fourth year filming the Charleston Wine and Food Festival, an annual event that brings people from all over to Charleston, South Carolina to celebrate and enjoy food culture from around the world. One of our favorite parts about working with clients on a recurring basis is that we really get a chance to understand their brand on a deeper level, which naturally translates positively through to our work.

Each year we deliver a collection of creative video assets for the CHSWF team that range from 15 second vertical shorts for social media, to 2.5 minute full event recap videos featuring footage from over 20 events and interviews with the biggest talent in the food industry. With this year’s festival being their 20th anniversary, we wanted to take the creative up a notch. 

In years’ past, we’ve dedicated an entire day to filming interviews in the CHSWF offices, but we wanted to do something different this year, and that meant filming interviews on-site during the crazy busy festival events. We also wanted to bring in a nostalgic vibe with our visuals as a nod to the festival’s early 2000’s roots. But how were we going to do it? 

Here’s exactly how we filmed event coverage for the Charleston Wine and Food Festival.

Adapting to On Set Challenges

First things first, none of this would be possible without our dedicated in-house production team of videographers, producers, and editors. This is an all-hands-on-deck kind of production and we work together to iron out every detail of the 5 day event. 

Filming Interviews on Location

Making the decision to film all of our 8 interviews on location at the festival presented some benefits and some challenges. First, it made scheduling somewhat easier, because we knew exactly when and where our interview talent would be. We planned for quick 5-10 minute interviews, with thoughtfully crafted interview questions specific to each interviewee to ensure we got the exact soundbites we needed but didn’t take up too much of their time. 

This new format allowed for the energy of the festival to be present throughout the video; every single frame in our event recap video was captured at an event. It also allowed us to spend more time filming event coverage, and less time setting up the lighting and audio typically needed for on-camera interviews. 

But that advantage also brought its own challenges - how were we going to film these interviews in the middle of a busy festival in 10 minutes or less, with little to no lighting or traditional audio gear without diluting the visual and sound quality?

Finding the Right Production Gear

The answer is: with the right gear and cinematic production techniques. We needed reliable mics that were easy to clip on and captured excellent sound quality. We opted for the DJI Mic 3. These were super easy to charge and clip onto our interviewees and they delivered the crisp and clean sound quality we’re always after. 

While we didn’t intend on a full lighting set up, we used our favorite run-n-gun light panel, the Aputure F21, to shape the natural light to make sure our interviewees looked great. This enabled us to be run and gun, but still made sure our on-camera talent looked good. 

Lastly, we dusted off our TV broadcast lens, a Fujinon LYNXll A18x8.5BERM-28C, from the 90's that allows for crazy parfocal zooms and a vintage look. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our approach with the zoom lens here!

Delivering Creative Assets that Perform

The zoom lens, in combination with the use of super 8mm film, a walkman prop, and funky-on screen graphics created the nostalgic vibe we were going for. The Charleston Wine and Food team was over the moon with the creative assets we delivered and we’re stoked to continue to build on this momentum as we approach the 2027 festival. 

Watch the full Charleston Wine and Food event recap video here.