Create More Interesting Video Using These Simple And Effective
Tips
By Jeffrey Nielsen
You’re on a
dream vacation in Europe, on a walking tour of an old walled
city. You’ve got your camcorder, so naturally you want
to tape everything. But will you want to watch everything again?
Getting a lot of video footage is great—if you’re
shooting with the edit in mind. That way, you can condense your
one-hour tour into an interesting, fast-paced presentation that
your friends will be begging to see again, rather than begging
to leave.
Thinking
As You Shoot
Like news videographers, you may not have time to plan and research
your destination. But like them, you can consider how you intend
to edit your video while you’re shooting.
The first shot in a scene is called the establishing shot or
cover shot, a wide-angle view of the setting that gives the
viewer an overall reference of what’s coming next. How
many times have you seen a movie start with the Manhattan skyline?
You know right away where the story takes place. It doesn’t
matter if the next shot is in a restaurant, an office or an
apartment, you know it’s New York City; you have the context
for it.
Do the same thing in your videos; use the first shot to set
the scene. If visiting a cathedral in a foreign city, start
with a wide shot that would include features such as the street,
adjoining building, skyline and people walking about.
Next, get the supporting images. Using a variety of zoom and
lens settings (medium, telephoto or close-up), capture details
of the cathedral, including the doorway, a close-up of the statuary,
the flying buttresses or the towers. Walking around the building,
record the structure from different angles. This variety of
images will provide you with an assortment of choices when it
finally comes time to edit your video.
Using Your Tools
After you get a good static shot of a feature, you might want
to zoom in to a highlight or zoom out to show a larger context.
Keep the zoom smooth and steady. Again, do zooms at various
speeds, so you’ll have more options when editing. Be sure
to have a stable shot at the start and end of each zoom. In
most cases, an edit in the middle of a zoom movement looks awkward.
Use extreme zooms sparingly. Zoom after zoom will make some
viewers feel seasick. Instead, use it more selectively to greater
effect. For example, you might start on a detail of a building’s
roof and then zoom out to reveal the building’s settings
and the street.
Finally, practice with your camcorder before an important shoot,
and become familiar with the manual controls for focus and exposure.
See how steady you can hold the camera while taping. Bring your
video footage home and do a test edit to see what kind of shots
work best together.
