Our goal is to produce high quality programming for Sights N Sounds. Every step in the production process (from camera work … to the on-screen talent … to postproduction and editing) is important to achieving this goal. But no amount of performer talent or editing magic can save a show that does not start out with good original video. So in a very real sense, good camera practices is Step 1 in producing quality programming.
The following camera tips and tricks are provided to help Sights N Sounds videographers take good original video. We will not address the specifics of operation of any particular camera here. That will come later. Using these tips and tricks will lead to better, more useful original video, regardless of what camera is being used.
Rule #1: Use a tripod whenever practical. Shooting without a tripod is very tempting. It’s just so much easier to grab the camera, point and shoot. But regardless of how steady you think you are, you will not be able to hold the camera rock-solid steady. Every little twitch and even every breath you take will cause the resulting video to bob and weave with your slightest movement. This is very distracting for the viewer.
Possibly counter intuitively, small cameras are harder to hold steady than the big shoulder units the professionals use. Our cameras are about as small as they come, so we’ll have to pay particular attention to this. So, whenever your subject is stationary, like in an interview, for instance, never shortcut this step. Take the extra 3 minutes to set up and position your camera on a tripod.
Rule #2: When you can’t use a tripod … Regardless of how desirable it is to use a tripod, there are some situations where it is just not practical. If you are constantly moving the camera from place to place or taking pictures of moving subjects, using a tripod is, at best impractical, if not impossible. For these situations, there are things you can do to minimize the bouncing picture.
First of all, hold the camera as steady as possible. To do this, plant your feet in a comfortable and stable position. Hold the camera with both hands. Grasp the camera with your right hand and rest the bottom of the camera on your left hand. Rest your arms and elbows on your chest. This will allow you to hold the camera a lot steadier than if you just held it in front of your eye with one hand.
When you pan, move at the waist, rather than just turning your head or, worst of all, moving your feet. When you know you are going to pan, face in the direction of your final shot. Then turn at the waist to point the camera for the beginning of the shot and slowly turn back to your facing and final position as you pan.
The effects of camera movement are magnified at high (telephoto) zoom values. So, the most significant thing you can do to minimize shakiness is to zoom back to the widest possible angle and get close to your subject. If you’ve ever seen a TV camera operator taping an interview, you may have noticed that the camera was positioned almost right in the subject’s face. This is done to reduce the effects of camera shake.
Rule #3: Knowing when to violate Rule #2. For the sake of a complete discussion, I will tell you there is an exception that proves the rule on hand-held zoom ratio. I once shot a whitewater kayak event where I was zoomed in at 40x, hand-held, filling the frame with a kayaker shooting the rapids. The effect was dramatic and the shot showed no camera movement at all. The reason is that everything in the frame was already moving. The kayaker was paddling like crazy, bobbing all over the place in the rapidly moving river. The effect of camera movement (while undoubtedly there) was indiscernible from the subject movement. We probably won’t be shooting any whitewater events for Sights N Sounds. But if you ever find yourself in a situation where everything in the frame is in motion, you can get away with a hand-held telephoto shot.
Composing your frame is how you make the picture pleasing to look at. If you were shooting a rifle, you’d want the “target” to be right in the center cross hairs. But locating the subject dead center in a picture (still or moving) creates a sterile, uninteresting shot.
Rule #4: The “Rule of Thirds”. In photography, there’s something called the “rule of thirds.” Imagine your viewfinder divided into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. Artistically, the best place to put your primary subject is at one of the intersection points of those imaginary dividing lines.
If you’re shooting a person, it also helps to place something else in the frame. If you’re recording a “talking head,” place the person next to a plant or something else that adds a little warmth to the shot, and place the plant/person along one of these “one-third” dividing lines.
“Take 2” … “Take 3” … its all part of shooting a production.
Unless you’re shooting a live program, you can re-do your shot when things break down beyond the limits of a quality production. Retakes may be especially called for in a talking head situation, where the speaker “flubs” the narration. If you’ve already recorded a significant portion of the scene, you don’t have to start over. Just pick up after the last good shot or other logical place, and start taping again. But there’s a camera technique for doing this that will let the editor transition seamlessly to the new take.
Rule #5: Reframe the shot when you start a new “take”. You’ve probably been watching a video where the subject seems to unexpectedly jump, maybe ever so slightly, but enough to be noticeable. This is where something was cut out. This jump between deliberate takes can be avoided by reframing the subject before you restart the camera. Zoom in or zoom out or reposition the camera angle by a significant amount. The editor can then transition between the shots and the result will look like a planned transition. If you restart with the camera and subject just as they were in the previous shot, a distracting jump in the picture will occur.
That said, don’t overuse this technique. A different frame setup every 5 seconds would look very unprofessional to the point of being uncomfortable to watch.
Rule #6: It’s OK to be human. Not every little verbal flub needs to be redone. We are all human after all. In normal conversation, we sometimes misspeak, correct ourselves, and go on. No one notices. As long as your program flows like face-to-face conversation and doesn’t deteriorate to complete gobbledygook, keep right on shooting.
Rule #7: Use an external microphone. Getting good audio is frequently harder than getting good video. Therefore, special attention needs to be paid to the audio portion of your recording.
Our cameras are equipped with a built-in microphone. While this may be adequate for some situations, this is probably the exception. Not only is the built-in mic remote from your subject, it is also omni directional. That means it will be picking up all the surrounding sounds, as well as the subject. Ambient noise seriously detracts from the quality of the recorded audio.
For this reason, we ordered cameras with a remote microphone input. This will allow us to use a higher quality microphone right at the source to capture superior audio. When conducting an interview, affix one of our remote mics to the speaker and plug the remote mic receiver into the mic input of your camera.
All of our “on location” shooting will be edited and some of our studio tapings will also go to the editor before being burned for broadcast. The resulting edited program will be better if the videographer pays particular attention to a few techniques.
Rule #8: Record lead-in and lead-out footage. In the editing suite, we can cut out anything that is extra. But we cannot add video that you did not shoot. Also, we will also likely be adding transition effects between your shots … dissolves, fades, or other animated transitions. This cannot be done over the top of content footage. We need leader video at the front and trailing video at the end. It’s up to the camera operator to give the editor the extra footage.
So start shooting the subject at least 5 seconds before the action starts and don’t stop shooting until at least 5 seconds after the scene ends. If you’re shooting an interview, for instance, start the camera rolling and tell the subjects to hold still for the camera until you signal. Then count down with your fingers or simply signal the subjects when they can start. Also coach your subjects to hold their pose after they are finished while you roll off extra footage that will give the editor flexibility in how they put the scenes together.
Rule #9: Never use on-camera effects. Our cameras have the ability to generate some effects on the fly, like fade-in and fade-out. NEVER USE THESE. As long as you follow Rule #8 and provide lead-in/lead-out footage, it’s much easier for the editor to add professional-looking effects after the fact, than it is for you to anticipate what might work and insert the effects into the original video, thereby tying the editor’s hands.
There are times that we will be covering an event with more than one camera. This will happen frequently in the studio and sometimes on location at a live event.
There are two ways to merge the video from two cameras:
Option 1: real time in the studio with a video switcher;
Option 2: in postproduction by the editor, who will handpick the shots and put
them together for the best coverage.
Because of initial equipment limitations, we will probably not be using the real-time option to start with. So for now, we’ll address only Option 2, where the editor will be merging the footage from both cameras in postproduction.
While it’s the editor’s responsibility to put the footage together, it’s the camera operator’s responsibility to give the editor coordinated shots to work with. This requires a pre-planned strategy.
The strategy will usually go something like this:
Camera 1 – Stationary on a tripod. A stationary camera fixed on a tripod will capture the “overall shot”. The camera operator may pan and zoom for effective coverage, but the camera position will not change during the shoot. Primary audio (remote mic hookups, etc) will be recorded on Camera 1, because of the simpler logistics of making connections to a stationary camera.
Camera 2 – Roving camera. This may be modified as the situation dictates, but in general Camera 2 will wander around to places that will provide the best close-up shots and/or interesting camera angles. The necessity for mobility will probably dictate that Camera 2 will be hand-held. Audio will be recorded with the camera’s built-in mic. In the end, Camera 2 audio will probably be thrown away by the editor. But even if Camera 2 audio is not used in the final program, it serves a very important function in helping the editor synchronize the two videos.
Rule #10: For 2-camera shoots, let both cameras run continuously. This is definitely counterintuitive, especially for Camera 2, which will be moving around from place to place, collecting a lot of “garbage video” along with the good stuff. But this is the key to making it easy for the editor to merge the two videos. Since this is “Camera School” not “Editing School,” I’ll leave out the editing techniques. But suffice it to say, that if the editor is provided with 2 continuously running videos (one from each camera), all the editor has to do to synch the videos is to match the audio tracks from both cameras one time. Then the editor is free to pick and choose the picture he/she wants to use at any given point in the program.
To see how effective this technique can be, take a look at the following example. This is a two-camera shoot of a live square dance. One of the cameras was fixed on the stage. This camera is Camera 1 in our example above. It was mounted on a tripod. Outside of a little panning and zooming, this camera never moved. All the music used in the final edited program also came from this camera.
The second camera was hand-held, as the videographer moved around the floor catching interesting shots from various angles.
Since this was a live dance performed to a live square dance caller, video from both cameras had to be precisely synchronized to make the cuts from camera to camera come at the right spot. By letting both cameras run continuously during the dance (even when the floor camera was moving from place to place), all the editor had to do was to match up the music from both cameras once. Then, the video was automatically synchronized.
If you have a broadband Internet connection, you can play the online video of this example to see how it worked. Try to pick out when you are seeing through the “eyes” of Camera 1 and when your seeing Camera 2.