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Shoot, Edit, Inspire! Part Two – The Big 5 |
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By Bill Davis, Creator: Start Editing NOW! Our Camcorder Classroom Making videos is a VERY complex undertaking. If you’ve tried it personally (or with a class full of excited kids!) you know how very true that statement can be. I’ve seen a lot of people get frustrated with the process. Particularly when their efforts don’t turn out like what they see on TV or in the movies. It seems like it should be simpler. After all, pointing a camcorder at things is easy. Operating even powerful computer editing software is much simpler today than it was in the past. And when it’s time to show the work to friends, neighbors, classmates, or even the world at large, DVD burners and YouTube are right there waiting. But the truth is that all this purported simplicity is masking a very complex process. When I started teaching groups about video, one of my favorite approaches was to break down the video production process into five basic areas required for really good results. Pre-production Camerawork/Shooting Lighting Sound Recording Post Production Let’s look at them. Pre-production can be loosely defined as everything that happens before the camera initially rolls. It includes developing the concept for the video, writing the script, securing cast and crew and props and equipment and everything that happens before the director calls ACTION for the first time. Next is the first “technical” area – camerawork. I say technical because generating good pictures with any camera – still or video – is always a combination of technology and art. Famous “still photographers” are revered, largely because we know it’s not just knowing how to push the buttons on any camera that makes great pictures. Framing, angle, composition – they all come into play when you wish to make quality pictures of anything. And with a video camera you’re generating around 30 pictures a second, all while your subject may be in motion and everything from the camera angle to the very content of the your scene may be changing over time. It’s a challenge. The next two technical areas – lighting and sound are areas that cause a LOT of grief for people trying to learn to make good videos. Yet both are typically critical to a video’s success. All any camera does is record reflected light. So good and bad results are often the result of good or bad control of the light hitting your lens. Sound is special as well. How special? One of my favorite class exercises has always been to stand in front of the group and tell the class to momentarily close their eyes. Then I loudly say: “My name is Bill Davis and I’ve been making videos for more than 20 years” Then I ask them all to open their eyes and I SILENTLY mouth the words “and I was born in Phoenix, and have lived in Arizona all my life” Then I tell them “you’ve just experienced audio without “video” – then “video” without the audio. Which was easier to understand? ” The point is that in most videos – the real communications “heavy lifting” is done by the dialog and/or narration. So sound should NEVER be merely an afterthought. Finally, we have Post Production. Like pre-production, this encompasses a lot more than most people think. Editing lives here. So does tape logging, title design, sound design and music, and in the modern era, DVD authoring and/or some kind of encoding for delivery to the audience via disc, tape, the web, or perhaps upload to a media server somewhere. After I explain these five areas in my lectures, I enjoy reminding the audience that in the professional video industry people spend their entire careers trying to achieve mastery and professionalism in just a SINGE ONE of these areas. But now that camcorders and editing software are so accessible, we somehow think that great movie making should be the product of simply purchasing the right camcorder or software package and hitting a few buttons. The truth is it’s a lot more than that. It’s an orderly and sometimes surprisingly rigid process. And we’ll start to break down that process in the next installment as we begin to look at these five areas with some practical tips on how to achieve better results in each. Bill Davis is a video professional with more than two decades experience producing, writing, shooting, and editing video. He spent 10 years as Contributing Editor at Videomaker Magazine and conducts seminars and lectures nationwide on the art and craft of videomaking. He is the author and producer of the Videocraft Workshop series of video editing training programs, including the START EDITING NOW! Classroom Workshop Edition. Available now in The Broadcast Bookstore
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Start Editing Now! By Bill Davis is available at |
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May, 2008 |