SHOOTING
GUIDES If
you’re new to video, please review the following:
Carol B. Schwalbe One of the most photographed
spots in the Galapagos, Pinnacle Rock overlooks a quiet lagoon.
Video
Survival Guide by Chuck Fadely
This straightforward how-to about shooting video is perfect for print
reporters and photojournalists who are just getting started. Everything
is geared toward giving the video editor decent material to work with.
Check out Chuck’s videos
for the Miami Herald.
Ira
Glass on Video Storytelling
The producer of NPR’s “This American Life” talks
about story ideas, anecdotes, techniques
of good storytelling, reasons to kill bad stories,etc. (You have
to register at YouTube to view it, but it’s a quick, easy and free.)
There are
four different segments of the interview--each about five minutes long. I recommend
#1, #2 and the trailer.
CONVERTING
VIDEO TO FLV & IMPORTING TO FLASH: LONG WAY
Mindy McAdams created an eight-page PDF
on how to take a finished video file, convert it to the FLV file format
and import it into Flash. It’s specific to Flash 8 because it uses
the Flash 8 Video Encoder, which comes with Flash 8. Using Import to Stage,
you can select from a variety of controllers pre-built in Flash. It’s
quite easy!
The handout also explains how to create a separate Flash interface that
allows users to choose from multiple videos and play any one of them.
If you don’t want that part, then all you need to read are pages
1-3 and page 8.
CONVERTING VIDEO
TO FLV & IMPORTING TO FLASH: SHORT WAY
File > New > Flash document.
File > Import > Import movie.
Where is your video file? Find your .mov file.
How would you like to deploy your video? Progressive download from
a web server.
Please select a Flash Video encoding profile: Flash 8 - Medium Quality
(400kbps).
Skin: Pick something you like.
A name with All gives you all
the controls.
A name with External puts the controls below your video.
A name with Over puts the controls on top of your video.
Later, you can make this disappear when you play the video.
Save your video where you can find it. This may take a while. Please
be patient!
To make the controls disappear when you play the video and move your
mouse below the video, click on the video, then click on Parameters
on the Properties manager. Scroll down to skinAutoHide. Change it to
true.
To make the stage fit nicely around your video
• IF it has controls
on top of your video, move the video to the upper left so there’s
about a quarter inch on the left and top. Click
on the stage, then click on Properties, then Size. Click Match: Contents. • IF it has controls below your video, you’ll have to experiment
and change the dimensions by hand.
IMPORTANT! Keep all the files you’ve created together: NameOfVideo.swf,
NameOfVideo.flv AND MojaveOverAll.swf (or whatever the name of your
skin is).
Carol B. Schwalbe From atop Isla Bartolome,
Pinnacle Peak still looms along the shoreline.
WRITING FOR
BROADCAST & BEYOND (by Al
Tompkins)
Tell the story in three words. One theme per story, one thought per
sentence. Select, don’t compress, what goes in your stories.
Tell complex stories through strong characters. Readers and viewers
will remember what they feel longer than what they know.
Use objective copy, subjective sound. Journalists’ copy should
contain objective words, facts and truth. Let the characters evoke
emotions, express feelings and give opinions in their sound bites.
Use active verbs, not passive ones. Consider the difference between
“the gun was found” and “the boy found the gun.”
Ask, “Who did what?”
Give viewers a sense of time passing. Show me the character in more
than one setting, in more than one situation.
Remember, leads tell me “so what,” stories tell me “what”
and tags tell me “what’s next.”
Will Kirkland Volcanic activity formed
the Galapagos Islands millions of years ago.
Wide shot (WS): “Reveals
where the scene is taking place. Also referred to as a long shot or
master shot, a wide shot helps orient the audience. A wide shot also
gives the actors room to move within a shot, without the camera having
to follow them. Medium shots and close-ups are often cut into a wide
shot for variation.” (source)
Establishing shot: “A
type of wide shot that can [for example] establish a building before
the camera cuts to an interior office.” (source)
Medium shot (MS): Basically
people from waist to top of head—that’s the distance we’re
looking at here.
Close-up: A person’s
face fills the screen. While you’d use these less often than
medium shots in a lot of TV video or other filmmaking, the intimacy
of the computer screen (you are only 12 inches away) makes the close-up
preferable for most talking-people shots. You’ll also be getting
in super-close for detail shots of objects, as well as hands and feet.
Always remember to vary your shots.
Don’t underestimate the difference between TV viewing (12 feet
away) and computer use (12 inches away). Visually you should exploit
the medium for which you are shooting.
Precise framing conventions for standard shot descriptions
vary from studio to studio and from one broadcast operation to another.
One director’s MCU might be another director’s MS.
BCU, ECU
Big Close-Up, Extreme Close-Up
Most of face or subject fills frame
in order to show detail.
CU
Close-up
Bottom of frame cuts where the knot of the tie would be.
MCU
Medium Close-Up
Bottom of frame cuts where top of jacket breast
pocket or waist would be.
MS
Medium Shot
Bottom of frame cuts at waist or thigh.
MLS
Medium Long Shot
Most, if not all, of figure, but less of setting
than in LS.
LS, WS
Long Shot, Wide Shot
Subject takes up the full frame, often in
a landscape or setting.
XLS, VWS
Extreme Long Shot, Very Wide Shot Person is small, perhaps barely
visible, as in aerial shots. Emphasis is on setting.
EWS
Extreme Wide Shot
Overview of scene, often used as establishing
shot. Person isn’t visible.
Will Kirkland Red sand and teal water
highlight Isla Bartolome in the Galapagos.
B-roll: “Stock footage
acquired for miscellaneous needs.” (source)
You need to shoot lots of B-roll so that your video is not just some
boring talking head for three minutes.
Logging: Before you edit—or
hand off the tape to an editor—you should log your footage. There’s
a good explanation here,
as well as a log sheet you can copy.
Pan (verb): Moving the camera
horizontally. Do not do this for Web video. Really. And if you ever do
it, never do it fast. Slowly, slowly. It is far better never to move
the camera.
Post-production, or “post”: “Any
production activity that occurs after the production but before the completion
of a project.” (source)
That would include the video editing.
Production: “The actual
activities in which an event is recorded and/or televised.” (source)
If you’re shooting, you’re in production.
Time code: “Found on most
digital video formats, it stores frame-accurate timing information on
the tape.” (source)
Your video capture program wants to have this.
Zoom: Don’t do it. Well,
if you do it, know that you are going to cut it out in the editing. It
will look like hell in Web video. And if you start a zoom, hold your
steady shot for 10 full seconds before you zoom. Then after you finish
zooming, hold that shot for an additional 10 seconds. Otherwise, you’ll
have nothing you can use (spoken from experience, believe me).
ASSIGNMENT 1 : LOOK AT VIDEOS
Cecil Schwalbe The male lava lizard
is bigger and more brightly colored than the female. Animals that live
on lava are darker than those that frequent sandy habitats.
“I wanted to play hockey, really, but my mother told me to try
figure skating ... I never left figure skating because I loved it so
much.”
—Patrick Chan, Olympic hopeful
Sports shooters will tell you that a lot of getting that perfect single
shot is luck. The right equipment and long experience in knowing where
to look MAKE that luck, of course. But in this sports video, luck has
nothing to do with how good it is. It’s a combination of wonderful
editing (the images are perfectly
edited to the audio track) and a solid (audio)
interview. This was shot and edited by newspaper photojournalist Bernard
Weil. (See more Toronto Star video here.)
3. HD
in Full Bloom (1:30 BBC)
Stunning time-lapse videography. At home on DSL, this might hang up on you, but
only briefly. Right-click (CONTROL + CLICK on aMac) to get the true full-screen
option.
4. Journey
into Amazing Caves trailer (1:30 Flash Video Factory)
More stunning videography in a trailer for a movie called Journey into
Amazing Caves. According to multimedia engineer Fabio Sonnati, “The
movie is smoothed and filtered with On2’s deblocking and deringing
filters. What do you think? Is Flash video ready to enable real HD Web
contents?”
5. Wyoming Cattle Drive by Cyndy Green (3:25)
The reporter, shooter and editor is Cyndy Green, who spent 28 years in
TV news. But she didn’t shoot this for TV. Her blog explains the “making
of” backstory.
She writes: “Shot this with a low end camera (Canon ZR60 purchased
on eBay for about $80), a nine dollar mike, and a thirty dollar tripod.”
7. Between
You and Me by Patryk Rebisz (length: 5 min.; frame rate: 8 fps)
Don’t miss the kitty at the end.
Patryk Rebisz, 27, wrote about how he made this video (a fictional
story) in Still
Life magazine (summer 2005). More than 2,000 still photos are stitched
together to form movement.
“A friend recently bought the Canon EOS 20D. I tried its burst
mode and was in seventh heaven. In this mode we could record at five
frames per second (as opposed to film’s 24). We could shoot for
about 12 seconds before the camera’s memory buffer would fill up,
so our takes had to be really exact—no long, hypnotic shots. I
did a series of tests beforehand to find the best setup...
Carol B . Schwalbe Paradise in peril?
Increasing numbers of visitors threaten the Galapagos’ unique
habitat and wildlife.
We would shoot until the camera’s memory card filled up (1 GB—about
650 stills), and then we would take a break to transfer the pictures
to our laptop.”
In an interview with ABC News, Rebisz said he was inspired by La Jetée,
a 1962 French film made up of still black-and-white photos. (La Jetée
was also credited as the inspiration for Terry Gilliams’ 1995 American
feature film Twelve Monkeys.)
8. Video blogs from
The Spokesman-Review
The toxic waste clean-up blog explains why the producer has been using
more and more of his own voice in videos rather than letting the story
tell itself.
9. Fuel
truck explosion in northeast Spokane (1:28): This breaking-news
video (shot by a newspaper photographer) illustrates what you can do
if you’ve
worked at the craft. Note that the fire started about 5:30 p.m., and
Colin Mulvany posted this video at 8:59 p.m. On top of that, the footage
is edited very well. Notice how many different shots he has and how informative
his interviews are. He’s a real pro.
10. Leonard’s
Look: The Ride of Our Lives (4:21): Life’s greatest lessons
by ordinary people. Note the scenes of the videographers (Mike Leonard
and his son) at work, including one that reveals emotional sensitivity
and distance. The video touches on universal experiences—love and loss
and the small moments that really matter.
Produce a 1:30 to 3:00 video that your
audience will watch to the end.
Find a subject and a CCC (central compelling character) relevant
to your zine section.
Keep your subject tightly focused. You’re
not producing a piece for 60 Minutes!
Problem-solve
and make good editorial choices.
Discover the opportunities and limitations of working in video.
An important thing to remember: If you shoot bad video, it
will only get worse after you compress it for the Web.
Outcomes
Shoot and edit a
compelling, focused video that might help you land
an internship or a job. Or you might have to shoot video on
the job.
Understand
the power of video to enhance storytelling, particularly in conveying
emotion and action.
Appreciate the challenges that videographers
and video editors face so that when you work with video colleagues,
you’ll have realistic expectations for assignments and deadlines.
Emerge
with a video vocabulary so you can communicate clearly
as part of a team of professionals creating a multimedia package.
Shooting
No panning (in other words, do NOT sweep the camera from side to
side).
No zooming.
Get in close. Very close.
Hold the camera steady. Use a tripod if
possible.
Do NOT talk while your subject is talking.
Shoot action and movement.
Shoot lots of B-roll on location.
Wear headphones while you shoot. Use an external
microphone whenever
possible.
Grading
Quality of video shooting
• Steady shots (you used
a tripod)
• No panning or zooming
• Clear audio, both natural
sound and interview
• Well-lit
• Avoid talking heads,
but if you have any, shoot them at eye level from a
slight angle to the left or right. Interviewees
should not be looking directly at camera.
• You are silent during
interviews (no laughter, “uh-huhs,” etc.)
• Composition
o
rule of thirds
o in focus
o level
o no distracting backgrounds or poles
emerging from people’s heads
o
close to source or action
o varying
angles and perspectives
o
fill the frame
Quality of video editing
• No
jumpcuts
• Appropriate shot lengths;
good pacing
• Good
mix of wide, medium and close-ups
• Good transitions
• Title
• Credits
• Good
audio levels
• Audio matches action
• Every edit has a purpose
• Opens
with strong visual
• Continuity of content,
movement, sound
• Compressed
properly and uploaded to our jmc460 folder
Quality of overall storytelling
• Coherent
story arc: beginning, middle end
• Good character(s)
• Captures
emotion and/or action
• Tightly focused
• Strong
visuals
• Good
sequencing
COMPRESSING VIDEO FOR YOUTUBE (courtesy
of Mrs. Dodge)
Compression Type: H264 Data Rate (Restrict To): 4:3 - 300-350kb/s for 320x240 video Keyframes (every): 120 Resize to (custom): 4:3 - 320x240 Sound
Sound Settings
Format: AAC Channels: Stereo Rate: 32000Khz Quality: Normal Data Rate: 96-128kbps