Action!
We have been discussing video a lot over here, poring over tons of great blog posts on video strategies, even offering up some of our own. But one thing has flown right underneath all of our strategizing: how do you shoot these things in the first place? So I’d like to offer up a quick, cheap (relatively), and easy guide to shooting professional video.
To start, let’s keep it simple: shoot an interview. Now you can define “interview” loosely: it could in fact be your social media coordinator or product manager or CEO simply reading a script, but the point is to center the video on shots of him or her speaking, looking directly into the camera. Strive for three minutes—but absolutely don’t go over five. Of course, choose whatever topic suites your current needs, but just remember to keep things focused. Okay, here are some technical tips to get you started:
1. HD or Bust
It’s pretty hard NOT to buy an HD camcorder these days. Go with that trend. The key numbers to look for are 720p or 1080i. A basic HD camcorder can be had for around $300, even less if you look hard. There are a host of other specs that will drive price up and down, but don’t worry about them now. The only other things to really pay attention to are file formats and external microphone inputs. You will want a camera that records in a relatively standard format, like MPEG-4 or AVCHD, and most of them do. For the mic input, on to point 2…
2. Be Heard…Literally
One thing most amateur videographers skip out on is a good external microphone. USE ONE, especially if you are shooting an interview. While anyone’s speech will get picked up fine with the camcorder’s internal microphone, it will sound like a home movie. A good lapel microphone is cheap and well worth it, adding a greater presence and clarity to your speaker.
3. Hold Steady
If using the internal microphone makes your video feel like a home movie, NOT using a tripod will do so even more. Nothing drives a viewer away like nausea-inducing camera shake. Tripods are cheap—USE THEM.
4. Light and Magic
Lighting is the lifeblood of optics, and you don’t need a black t-shirt or a complicated light meter to get it right. Just keep two things in mind: you want your light source in front of your subject (i.e. behind the camera—even better, off to one side a little) and to be as natural as possible—harsh flood lights or fluorescents actually remove detail and mood by washing the subject out. You can always buy light filters or reflectors, but sometimes good old fashioned overcast afternoon light coming from a window is best. It’s worth setting up a dedicated space and trying a few positions out to see what looks best.
5. Thirds
If you watch any interview, you will see that subjects are rarely centered. This is an adherence to the rule of thirds. Position your subject roughly one third into the frame from either left or right and angle them slightly so they are facing into the center of the frame. Additionally, make sure the subject occupies an adequate amount of space in the shot. The tendency is to shoot from too far away, making the subject feel distant or dwarfed by the room. Get close and personal—it should feel like an intimate conversation. These are all things you can play around with and see what you like. Or, certainly, watch many examples. Here is a Bill Moyers interview with George Lucas that uses these techniques and offers a few different focal lengths.
6. Ctrl-K, Ctrl-V
Even if you only have a single, genius, perfect 3 minute shot, you will still want to run it through an editor (likely, you will have to, to convert it to a Web-friendly file). Many camcorders come with editors built-in that allow you to do some simple cuts and arrangements, but it’s really the sort of tedious work that benefits greatly from a mouse and keyboard. If you have purchased a computer in the last two or three years, it’s likely that it shipped with a video editor for free, iMovie for Macs and Windows Movie Maker for Windows. These are great, easy to use tools. If you want to step it up, Adobe Premiere Elements can usually be had for less than $80, a fraction of its CS cousin’s price. Editing is a whole new ballgame, but again, just keep it simple. Remove any unnecessary footage at the beginning and end, adjust the audio levels to something comfortable, and that is basically it. Oh, and be sure to add your company’s logo or intro screen—here’s where you get to brand the video as yours.
Of course, things can get way more complicated than this, and if you find you like making videos a huge world of creative technical specifications awaits you. Have fun out there!
