Shooting Video

Making Videos in Easy Steps

Step 2: Shooting The Video

Okay, so you have written your script and planned your video and now it is time to start shooting video. As I have said before, practice makes perfect and what seems difficult now will soon become easier.

Expect to do a number of takes as you stumble over your words or say uuum as your forget what you were planning to say. This is where a remote control comes in useful so it is easy to stop the video, compose yourself and start over again without getting up to touch the camcorder. There will be plenty of room on your miniDV tape which can record an hours footage, so no need to keep rewinding the tape after each unsatisfactory take.

Play back your first couple of takes to check the sound level, lighting level, background shadows, if inside, and how you appear. Are your shoulders level or are you sitting lop sided, are you frowning or squinting without realizing it. Now is the time to put this right.

Check to see that there isn’t a clash between your clothes and the background. Some video presenters like to wear ‘loud’ clothes as their signature so to speak but make sure that the background is plain if this is your style.

Remember to run the camcorder for at least six seconds before you start talking, this is known as ‘pre roll’ and at the end of the shoot keep looking into the camera and hold your pose for six to ten seconds. This is known as ‘post roll’ and along with ‘pre roll’ it makes editing easier during the editing stage.

Even in a short video you could have the opportunity to have two or more planned takes that can be edited and joined together to look like just one take when seen by your audience. This will give you the opportunity to compose yourself and check your notes as it is easy to forget thinks when you are new to shooting videos.

Once you have completed shooting the script wind back the video to the start of shooting and review your work so far on the LCD screen. By now you’ve probably discovered that there are a very large number of variables in making a video. So be critical and check the speech, sound and lighting for any issues that might need you to reshoot a scene. You might feel that you are not getting your point across and may need to rewrite the script. It will save time to shoot a retake now and also while the conditions are same so that the finished video will look right with the correct continuity.

So well done, your first video clip is in the can and it is now time to get started with the video capture which will be featured in the next article.

Read other ‘Videos in Easy Steps’ articles
Planning The Video
Video Capture
Video Editing
Flash Video