A FEW WORDS ON YOUR CAMCORDER
Camcorders vary widely in their features, tics and idiosyncrasies; you will need to learn them on your own by reading the manual, experimenting, and consulting company Web sites with vexing questions and problems. For instance, one problem we had while developing Camcorder helper was that our camera left a distracting space at the beginning of a new shot whenever we wanted to rewind and redo what we had just shot… a big problem when you’re trying to do a series of short dialogue shots. We discovered that by hitting “pause” instead of “stop” when we reached the point at which we wanted to resume shooting, this gap did not appear-problem solved, though after much rending of hair and gnashing of teeth. It turns out that this problem and its solution are discussed on a bulletin board on the manufacturer’s Web site and could have been quickly alleviated with a few mouse clicks.
What your camcorder can do as you’re shooting will obviously affect the quality of your final product. Ours has a nifty little dissolve feature that comes in especially handy with the Film School scavenger-hunt-type projects; yours may have a feature that allows you to insert a title before a shot (ours doesn’t). Try to use camera effects imaginatively yet sparingly, especially zoom (you’ll rarely see zoom used in TV or in Hollywood movies). Try instead to get steady shots (always use a tripod where possible) from a variety of distances and angles.
USING THE CAMERA
Most of us don’t think about the way we use our video cameras; we just point it around like a firehose at the subjects at hand/Wile this is fine for documenting events as they happen (for later editing), the “Firehose Effect “ tends to produce all the negative things that characterize home movies: wobbly camera; dark, backlit figures; boring subjects (birthday parties, Christmas); bad sound; overly long, rambling shots… all of these are things that make for poor video. Of course, you may want your production to look like a home movie (think Blair Witch Project). But with just a little care and preplanning you can relieve your videos of these unsettling trademarks.
Avoid the shaky camera. The best solution is to put it on a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod, we strongly suggest you buy one… a cheap ($20) on will do just fine. If you absolutely can’t beg, borrow, or steal a tripod there are other solutions. You can set the camera on a table or bookshelf. Or can take great care to hold the camera very steady. But for shots that last for more than , say, three seconds, nothing will do more to make your video look good than a tripod. It will help you deliberately compose each shot and eliminate that nausea-inducing wobbly view (though at times, like for instance during dancing scenes or an action scene, you may want to go for a shaky camera effect).
To make sure you are capturing things well you should check your footage as you go. Especially after shooting a series of dialogue shots, it’s a good idea to go back and look at the timing of the line deliveries. At first you will probably tend to put too much dead time between lines, or you will cut off the line by starting the camera too late. A good way to start a shot is for the camera-person to say “Three, two, one,_______(silence).” Hit the record button on the “one” count, and have the person deliver the line on the “silence” count. Experiment with this a little, and it will go a long way toward making your videos tighter and more professionally- paced.
HERE IT IS: THE BIG SECRET!
Watch virtually anything on TV or a movie screen and you will notice that the filming is broken into separate, usually short, shots. Whether it’s a sitcom, a wresting match, a cartoon, a philharmonic symphony performance or a Hollywood blockbuster, the camera view constantly bounces from place to place, looking a various people and objects from various distances and angles.
Conventions exist for these angles and their timing in various situations… ther is a set of rules for shooting dialogue, another for shooting fight scenes, and still another for shooting a football game. We are all subconsciously well-versed in these rules. For instance, we all know that a football game (among other things) must be shot from one side of the field during the entire course of the game, and that there is usually a close-up shot of a player celebrating after he makes a great play. But most of us can’t describe, much less execute these conventions. What follows here will point out some of the most common guidelines; once you learn and fiddle on your own with a few of them, you will find yourself noticing and learning more just from watching TV.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT MONTAGE
Montage (“mon-tahj;” also called Montage Sequence) is the technique of putting shots of different things next to each other for a synergistic effect, that is, the shots watched together in a sequence are more powerful than the sum total of the shots looked at separately. Here’s a clichéd example: a close-up of a young man’s face dissolves into the pages of a calendar falling away like leaves, which dissolves into a close-up of the same man’s face looking older. The three shots taken together, and comprising only a few seconds, lead us to think that a great deal of time has passed. When we see a shot of a woman throwing a switch on a box with wires coming out of it, and then see a long shot of a car exploding in flames, we take an active part in the film by connecting the two events and realizing that the woman blew up the car. This type of continuity from shot to shot is a staple of audience-engaging film making, and one that you should absolutely try to employ in your own video projects.
Try this: pick a mundane part of your or someone else’s day and distill its essence into four or five well-considered shots. For instance, you might try this series of shots: A full shot of your son waking up to his alarm. Cut. A close-up of a toothbrush which is then snatched from its holder. Cut. A low profile shot of him pulling his T-shirt over his messy wet hair while looking in the mirror. Cut. A close shot of him shoveling Cheerios into his mouth. Cut. A follow shot of him pushing out the front door with his book bag, saying goodbye, and walking down the sidewalk into the distance. Cut.
With a little forethought and considered composition of each shot, you can create something much more powerful than if you had just picked up the camera and started shooting (which is what most of us amateurs do).
