TIP FIVE: Shoot Your Video Using Five Basic Rules

When it comes to shooting video, if you want the best quality end product there are several production things you must take into account. If you are shooting the video yourself, or having a nonprofessional shoot it, following these guidelines will help to insure the best results possible.

Lighting: Good lighting is essential for producing a high quality video. Here’s some do’s and don’ts:

• As a rule of thumb, your light source should be on a 30- to 45-degree angle in relation to the subject. 
• Indirect light is always better than direct light. Never shine a bare light bulb in someone’s face. Bounce it off a white wall. 
• If you’re indoors, use a good-sized window as your light. Turn off the other lights in the room and shoot a few seconds of video to test it. 
• For smaller video cameras, like the Flip, it’s even better if you can shoot outside on an overcast day. The diffusion the clouds create is perfect for providing even lighting. 
• Never put a person with their back to the primary light source; it will black out their face. 
• When you look through the camera at the lighting, look for shadows. If they are too dramatic, either change the position of the person or the position of the light. Bright, noon-time sunlight, for example, will create a lot of shadowing, but a late afternoon shot will give much more even and interesting light. 

Background: Pay attention to what will be in the background of your shot. Keep your background as simple as possible so not to distract your audience. When framing your shot look at the whole image in the view finder. Your subject should take up the greater part of the shot.

Keep your camera stationary: Utilize a tripod whenever possible. Keep your shots simple, well framed and still. When shooting a scene, turn the camera on, count to ten in your head while keep the camera from moving. Then, stop the recording, move on to your next shot and repeat. If you follow this simple rule, your video quality will improve dramatically.

Sound: Sound is a critical part of your video. When you are interviewing someone, your audio should be clean with no background noise. Use a lavaliere microphone to pin on the subject’s lapel vs. the camera’s microphone. This will give you the best quality sound. If you are videotaping b-roll, keep the camera microphone on and take advantage of natural sounds where you can.

Interview well: Editing can be a nightmare if you have done a poor job of interviewing your subject. Professional interviewers know that they must explain to their subject that the question asked will not be included in the video so it is critical that they wrap the question into their answer. They also know that the only way to get a usable response is to ask an open ended question. But, think in sound bytes. The perfect answer to a question is approximately two to three sentences long. This makes for easy breaks in the edit process.

FYI: It is better to ask a lot of questions to get short sound byte answers than a few questions and let the subject ramble on. Ramblings are highly difficult to edit!

Come back for TIP SIX:Use Good Editing Software and Keep it Short