Videography Production Fundamentals

Some Videography Tips

• Watch the experts. While this may seem obvious, many videographers don't take this important step. The key is to watch with a critical eye. When you watch a movie, try to grade the videography. Analyze what's going on. Does the lighting work with the scene? Where are the actors in the frame? Are important elements adequately highlighted? What about the angle of the shoot? Do the transitions detract from or add to the movement of the story? Is the audio clear? Is the volume consistent? How long does each scene last, and why? Are cuts between scenes jarring, or do they seem natural?
   
• Limit the lighting. If you watch the outtakes of many movies, you may have repeatedly heard that directors prefer to work in the studio instead of on location. A key reason why is they can control the lighting. Daylight can vary from minute to minute, and the lighting on location might come from a source that doesn't provide good color rendition (or has some other flaw). Try to eliminate or reduce mixed lighting sources. If you can get one source to be the dominant source, then you can set your camera's white balance for that source.
   
• Limit backlighting, especially. If you watch many good movies with a critical eye, you will notice the conspicuous absence of backlit actors. In some scenes, backlighting the subject works. But generally, it does not. It produces a darkness around the subject, often in conflict with the story that's being told. The camera's metering system latches onto the light from that backlighting source, and guess what happens to your foreground? It essentially becomes a background! You don't want a dark foreground, unless there is a specific artistic reason for doing so. This is another reason directors try to avoid location shooting; light streams in between buildings in some other way makes a bright area in the background instead of diffusing and lighting up the scene.
  
  Your first defense, then, is to avoid these situations. If you must shoot on location, then see if you can put shades on windows or in some other way block this nuisance lighting. You can also try to drown it out by using reflectors and your own light sources on the foreground. A trick learned from still photography using auto-aperature cameras is to set the exposure (and focus too, while you're at it) on the intended subject. Then lock it there. This prevents the camera from adjusting to the nuisance lighting and ruining your shot. Of course, it may prevent you from adjusting as the subject moves and ruin your shot anyhow.
  
  One of the most common mistakes in amateur videomaking is capturing footage of a backlit subject. Often this happens while panning, when a brightly lit background enters the frame. Everything in the foreground suddenly turns dark as the camcorder's metering system measures the bright sky or light streaming in through an open window.
   
• Use lens shades. One way to instantly tell a pro still photographer from an amateur is the big honking lens shade on the camera of the pro. The same thing is true of videographers. You can also spot the videographer who is moving from amateur skill level to pro, because s/he has a camera that doesn't accept a lens shade and his/her hand is hovering over the top of the lens to block sunlight. You need the right tools for the job. Use a camera that accepts a lens shade, and use a shade made specifically for that camera.
   
• Eliminate blue screen. Microsoft Windows was once widely criticized for the "Blue Screen of Death," which was a reference to the blue screen that came up during the Windows crashes that were so frequent in earlier versions of Windows that users wrote to Microsoft requesting air bags come with the next release of Windows. While Microsoft has seemingly gone out of its way to make the OS harder to use and more annoying than ever, it has also reduced crashes so much that you seldom hear laments about the blue screen anymore. But in videography, blue is still a problem.
  
  The blue screen is related to the time code feature. If you start recording while the screen is blue, the time code starts over. It will do this even if you're in the middle of the "tape." That can play havoc with later editing. Pros do a trick called "black the tape." They load in a new SD card (or tape, as the case may be) for each shooting (and label each one). The removable media aren't all that expensive, so don't go cheap here and end up wasting your entire effort. To ensure it starts on black, they leave the lens cap on, mute the sound, and hit "record." They let it run for a few seconds, which initiates the black screen and the time stamp. Problem solved.
   
• Hold the camera steady. You should be using a tripod. But if circumstances make that really hard to set up, then consider using a  monopod. It will at least give you a base you can steady.
   
• Use filters. Take the time to learn about the different filters available for your camera. Make a point of doing practice shoots with the filters, so you can see and understand their exact effect with your camera and your shooting style.