The bootcamp teachers were ruthless with my first video. The reason I’m showing you is so you too can see what is wrong and why. The main problems with this clip is not being aggressive enough, not following through on the sequences (close up, then wide shot, from the side etc). The assignment was to shoot in a certain order. OK, so I screwed up. Take a look:
Here are some more helpful tips I learned by producing this clip:
10 More Tips for Producing Great Video
1. Be aggressive. Do not be afraid to get up close. Put the camera right in the action, get right in people’s faces. Your shots must make the viewer feel like they are right there, i.e: in the kitchen with the cook.
2. The best edits don’t feel like edits. Make sure you shoot in a sequence.
3. A moving image is no different to shooting still images. Think of it the same way.
4. Soundbites should only be there to answer the question that begs to be asked. Get two soundbites after the shots. Make sure they are short.
5. Do not chase or move the camera.
6. Do not break timecode by turning the camera off.
7. Make sure the audio is good, or that you have a mic that will pick up the audio you need. The audio can be even more important that the visuals.
8. It is OK to look into the camera directly. This was an old rule that started when cameras were so big that they could not fit in front of the subject.
9. Find the story. The selection of the story is most critical once you get the shooting down.
10. Watch any good show, you will see that the camera almost never moves.
