Video Basics:
- Camera – Know what your camera can and cannot do
- Resolution (720, 1080, 4K)
- Recording Medium (Type of SD Card, or other Storage)
- Lens (Fixed/Interchangeable, Wide, Narrow, Variable Zoom)
- Recording time
- Lighting
- Color Temperature (Fluorescent lights tend to be cooler 4000K-6500K,Incandescent is warmer 3200K)
- 3 Point lighting (Key, Fill, and Backlight)
- Indoor/Outdoor
- Adjust white balance for color temperature
- Audio
- Audio is the most important part of video
- Select appropriate microphones (Shotgun, Lavalier/Lapel, Stereo)
- Room tone vs. no audio
- Storyboard & Script
- Plan what you are going to shoot.
- If it is something repeatable, e.g. a process, watch the process a few times to see what the best angles and times to shoot
- Make sure what you shoot is reflecting the story you want to tell
- Do not over shoot
- Some b-roll is good, but hours of b-roll is a waste of time in shooting and editing
- Plan what you are going to shoot.
- Schedule your shoot
- Time is valuable to everyone involved.
- Schedule location time
- Schedule talent time (actors/person(s) being recorded)
- Schedule video crew
- Shooting
- Format your storage
- Charge your battery(s)
- Test microphone/audio levels with headphones on
- Light scene/talent
- White balance the camera after lighting has been set
- Roll for 1 to 2 seconds before speaking
- Let people/action naturally go out of scene (these are natural cuts)
- Pan and tilt only when necessary
- Editing
- Time is valuable to everyone involved.
Post-production (editing)
- Any editing software should do, we use Premiere Pro on campus
- Premiere Pro
- Final Cut Pro
- Graphics
- Intro/Outro graphics aka header/trailer
- Size graphics accordingly (static should match your resolution, scaling graphics should be designed for the maximum size)
- Sound design
- Background audio can influence the mood of the video.
- If you follow your storyboard, editing should go quickly
- A good plan leads to a good edit
- Decide on a finishing point, you can edit forever (don’t)
- Lower Thirds – used for names/titles/locations
Video Distribution
- Final Format - This is determined by delivery method
- MP4
- MOV
- AVI
- Publish to YouTube/Vimeo/Other online video distribution
You can use royalty free music, some requires licenses or attribution pay attention to the terms/service agreements so you or your client don’t get sued.
There is a YouTube music library with free and attribute required audio
There are also graphics/lower thirds available for free and purchase.