Every client asks this, usually the day before. Here is the short answer and then the reasoning.
Wear something you already own and feel normal in. Solid colors. Nothing brand new.
That covers about ninety percent of it. The rest is worth knowing if you want to get it right.
Grey suit, open collar. He wore what he wears to work.
What causes actual problems
Tight patterns. Small checks, thin stripes, herringbone. On camera these can strobe and shimmer, an effect called moire. It happens because the pattern is close to the same size as the camera's sensor grid. It looks like the shirt is vibrating, and there is no fixing it afterward.
If you own a shirt with a fine check, save it for a day you are not being filmed.
Pure white. A bright white shirt under lights pulls the exposure down, which makes the face darker. Off white, cream, light grey, or light blue all read as white on camera without the problem.
Pure black. The opposite issue. Black loses all detail and turns into a shape. Charcoal, navy, or dark grey hold texture.
Logos. Company logos are fine and usually good. Brand logos from somewhere else date the footage and can create licensing questions. A video meant to last three years should not have a season specific graphic tee in it.
Anything brand new. New clothes look new, and people sit differently in them. Wear something you have worn before.
What works
Solid colors in the middle range. Blues, greens, greys, burgundy, tan.
Company branded shirts, polos, and jackets. On a plant or a job site these are the right call almost always. They look normal because they are normal.
Layers. A jacket or an overshirt gives the edit some visual separation between people, and it gives you an option if the room runs hot.
The plant floor and the job site
Different rules apply, and they are simpler.
Wear what you actually wear to work. Somebody in a clean shirt they never wear looks staged, and everyone watching can tell.
PPE stays on. Hard hat, safety glasses, hi vis, steel toes. If the site requires it, it stays on for filming, including for us.
That is not a compromise. A supervisor in a hard hat on his own floor is more credible than the same person in a conference room. The gear is part of why the footage works.
Hard hat, respirator, hi vis, gloves. All of it stays on. It's part of why the footage works.
One thing to check. Safety glasses reflect lights and can hide the eyes. We can usually angle around it, but tell us in advance if the person being interviewed wears them all day so we can set up for it.
Mirrored or heavily tinted glasses are the one real problem. If somebody has clear lenses available, that helps.
Glasses, generally
Regular glasses are fine and we work around the reflections.
Transition lenses are the one to watch. They darken outdoors and near windows, and then the eyes disappear. If somebody has a non transition pair, bring it.
A few practical things
No jangling jewelry. A bracelet that clicks against a table shows up in the audio and cannot be removed cleanly.
Bring a backup shirt if you are the main person on camera. Coffee happens, and so does the drive to the site.
Skip the heavy makeup unless you already wear it daily. Documentary style means people look like themselves.
Lav mics clip to a collar or a placket. A shirt with a button front or a collar makes that easy. A crew neck tee is workable but takes longer.
The short version
Solid colors, nothing you just bought, no tight patterns.
Off white instead of pure white, charcoal instead of pure black.
On a plant or a site, wear what you actually wear and keep the PPE on.
Flag transition lenses and mirrored safety glasses ahead of time.
Bring a backup shirt if you are the main person on camera.
None of this matters as much as being comfortable. Somebody at ease in an ordinary shirt beats somebody stiff in a perfect one, every time.
We make documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across Greensboro and the Triad. Happy to come to you.
Dylan Smith is the owner of With A Twist Media in Greensboro, NC. He has been making documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across the Triad since 2019.