Filming A Runway Show At London Fashion Week
On 19 September we filmed the HUBING SELECTS show at Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden during London Fashion Week. It was the third season of the platform Hu Bing founded to bring Asian designers onto international stages. Our brief was one 60-second recap film, in 16:9 and 9:16, with the first cut due at 9am the next morning.
Here is how a job like that comes together, and what we would tell any brand booking runway coverage in London.
The runway is only half the story
A runway show lasts about half an hour, and the catwalk is the part every camera in the room is pointed at. What makes a recap feel like the night is everything around it, and we planned our crew around that.
Decide this before you book anyone. A recap built only from the catwalk looks like every other piece of footage from the same show. The details are what make it yours.
The track came first
The music for the recap was approved before the show, which is the single most useful thing a client can do for a fast edit. With the track in hand, the cut can be planned almost shot by shot before anyone arrives: where the match cuts land, which moments carry the transitions, how much of the show fits into sixty seconds. The brief asked for match cuts and creative transitions, and those only work when they are designed into the shoot, not hunted for in the edit at two in the morning.
One crew, one plan
Our crew shot on cinema cameras including a DJI Ronin 4D 8K and an ARRI Alexa Mini. Everyone was briefed together, with the edit plan agreed before the doors opened.
A running order measured in minutes
The day started backstage at 3pm, with runway rehearsal at 5pm, doors at 6pm and the show itself from 7pm to 7.30. Rehearsal is where a runway crew earns its night. It is the one chance to see the light, the walk and where the models turn before it all happens once, for real. The light changed through the show, and that is far easier to match across every camera on the night than in the grade afterwards.
Overnight, then out the door
The raw footage went to the client on production’s drives at wrap. Our footage went straight into our in-house edit for the first cut, due at 9am. The finished recap went out the same day as 4K masters in both 16:9 and 9:16, graded and with sound design, ready for the brand’s website and channels.
Booking runway coverage in London
- Send the running order early. Backstage, rehearsal, doors, runway and after-party times decide how many cameras you need, and when.
- Ask for backstage access. The build-up before the show is half the recap, and it only happens once.
- Approve the music before the show. It turns the edit from a search into an assembly, and it is what makes an overnight cut realistic.
- Write the deliverables down. Ratios, resolution, when the first cut is due and how many rounds of feedback.
- Get the crew into rehearsal. One look at the light and the walk is worth an hour of guessing on the night.
The finished film is on the HUBING SELECTS case study. For how we run event days more generally, see event coverage and our event videographer London page, or send us the date and the venue.
