Video is becoming more and more popular as way of storytelling — but while creating a single-take short video is a piece of cake with our modern cameras and smartphones, creating a proper video diary from a holiday or an event takes a little more thought and effort.
It’s not just a matter of pressing the record button. To tell a good coherent story, you need a good plan.
Even the most basic video can be improved by having a good plan with a script and shot list.
Your shot list should include establishing and finishing shots plus various cutaway shots to use in the editing process to show interesting details in the shot and break up the vision.
Then there’s the sound. You may also want to include a commentary to accompany the ambient sounds — and you may want some funky background music.
Getting started
First firm up your ideas for a video. Plan it. Jot down a script and a shot list.
Now think about the gear you need to make it work.
You have the phone or camera that can do the job, but you’ll need a few extra things to really make the video sing.
Good sound is as important as good vision in a video and the internal microphones in phones and cameras will generally not work that well because the sound you want is too far away.
A shotgun microphone or a cordless lapel microphone allow you to capture the sound where the action is without too much distracting ambient noise.
A tripod with a fluid head and/or a gimbal will help keep things smooth and steady. There is nothing worse than jerky and unstable vision and while most phones and cameras have some sort of image stabiliser onboard, you’ll get much better results with a tripod or a gimbal.
Settings
In your camera menu, set the video resolution and frame rate.
Most good phones and cameras pre-set options like 1080 HD at 30fps or 4K at 30fps.
While 4K is the best quality, I think you’ll find 1080 is perfectly fine for most things. It requires less processing power, takes up less space and is easier to upload to your favourite social media platforms.
The standard frame rate is 30fps, the 60fps rate you’ll see in most phones and cameras is for slow motion.
Turn on the grid and level on your screen — they are great aids to help to keep things level and well composed.
Shooting tips
Before you press the record button, think about the lighting, and use nice simple composition when you frame up your shots.
Don’t overdo the zooming and panning — keep everything slow and steady and make sure you have enough vision of each take.
If for example, you’re recording a musician performing a song, make sure you have one continuous take. It’s important to get the sound in one take. Once you have that, you can get some close-up cutaway shots of the musician and his or her instrument to insert into the main shot. The cutaway shots don’t need to be super long, 10-20 seconds are generally more than enough, but its always better to shoot nice long takes. . . you can always cut, but its difficult to stretch the vision if you haven’t got enough.
Editing
Editing can be a lot of fun and it is much easier than you might think. And, there’s a lot of good video editing software you can download for free.
DaVinci Resolve is probably one of the best. It has lots of features but it can be a bit of a steep learning curve to get your head around them all. That said, doing basic video editing is not rocket science, and you can always explore some of the more advanced features as you gain more confidence and knowledge.
InShot is a popular and easy to use video editor, particularly for iPhones. (It is also good for stills.)
If you are serious (or plan to get serious), consider Adobe’s easy and very smooth Premiere Rush, which comes with Premiere Pro as a package for $29.99 a month from adobe.com/au
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