Capture, Create, and Share Digital Movies Basic Features of Video

Your Video Footage Your video is a story

Text and Titles You can add headings, titles, scrolling credits, thought bubbles, or all kinds of text to your video project

Still Images Not everything in a video project needs to be set in motion. Still images can be used to contrast the video movement.

Sounds, Music, and Voiceovers To obtain the best sound through your camcorder, try using an external microphone to improve sound quality or add music from a digital audio source such as CD or DVD.

Video Transfer and Cabling Requirements Digital Video is transferred from your camcorder to your computer (and back again) via a Fire Wire connection. Fire Wire is currently the best technology for high-speed data transfer between devices and computers.

Preparing for Your Shoot You will want to anticipate weather, noise, lighting, time constraints, human traffic, and also have an idea of how much control you will have over these factors

Lighting Digital video is very sensitive to light. Turning people slightly to the left or right seems to drastically change the amount of direct light that a digital camcorder sees on a subject

Filming Indoors If you’re filming indoors, especially at home, consider shooting with lots of windows open. Sunlight helps keep your subjects brightly lit and minimizes shadowy, darkish video. Also try to steer the action so your subjects are facing open window. If the light source is behind them, faces and other details will be darkened. Finally, move the action to the center of a big room as much as possible.

Planning a Backdrop A busy background can distract from the subject matter. Focus the viewers’ attention on what is being filmed, filtering out visual distractions.

Tripod Tripods minimize shaky video, allow you to use slower shutter speeds when lighting is low, and provide a solid location for your camcorder

Effective Camerawork If your footage is effective going into the editing process, your completed video project will be that much better

Camera Movement The camera is your audiences’ eye on the world. It is more pleasing to the eye to have subjects move in and out of the camera view than it is for you to try to follow every step they make.

The Rule of Thirds There are some basic rules for shot framing that when followed will result in more watched footage, viewers will have an easy time understanding what your want to convey, The fundamentals for framing a shot are summed up in what is called the Rule of Thirds. The rule of Thirds is designed to avoid unnatural symmetry in your subject’s positioning. Unless you are filming “The Changing of the Guard,” you will want to avoid regimentation The Rule of Thirds can be broken down in the following way. Imagine the video screen is a tic-tac-toe board. The eyes of your subject should be close to where any of your horizontal and vertical lines intercept, never centered in one of the boxes. Avoid having a subject’s eyes exactly in the center of the middle box. If your use the Rule of Thirds, your video will have a spontaneous look.

When framing your shoot, also keep in mind the following: A subject near the edge of the screen facing out looks awkward to the audience, appearing strangely uninvolved in the scene. A subject with eyes at the exact center of a scene will look boring quickly. The scene would seem to lack direction.

Camera Angles Use of camera angles and angle transitions should be deliberate. Upward Tilt: Use this view to exaggerate a subject’s size and height. Downward Tilt: Place the camera on a relatively higher plane and face it downwards. Use this view to shrink a subject or to view nearby subjects that are below the normal camera view