I figured this was worth posting here. I’m a professional cameraman, and have been for 23 years now. I am in the interesting position of editing the video I shot of my brother-in-law’s wedding last month. I used three cameras. Two home consumer ones and a better industrial grade camera.
I asked for the video tape from someone else’s camcorder, because he captured a wedding toast that I didn’t know was coming and couldn’t very well not have in the wedding video. ( The bride’s father ! ).
I rarely watch home video footage shot by anyone else. I’m incredibly picky about how I do my work, and I take enormous pride in it. That carries over to “home” projects like this video. Watching the other gentlemans’ videotape right after mine is somewhat jarring. I do not wish this to sound snobby in any way, honestly. Watching his tape makes me think that there might be some value in doing a basic list of do’s and dont’s. So, here goes.
Assume your footage will be edited somehow after you shoot it. Most computers sold these days come with some kind of basic video editing suite. ( iMovie, for example ). Therefore, you need to obey a few rules.
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Try to hold still for more than 5 seconds before the moment you THINK will be important, and at least 5 seconds afterwards. You will need that “fat” in the shots afterwards, for transitions during edits. Starting and stopping just during an important speech or moment means you may be limited as to how you can use that shot later on.
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Use a tripod. Even a cruddy one. Oddly enough, I don’t own a good one. ( I own a Steadicam system, which is what I use a lot of the time for my career. I chose not to use that at all here, it would have been too obtrusive) I have two lousy ones good only for still shooting Makes for very irritating home videos. For the wedding, the camera I borrowed came with a decent fluid head. Get one, or at least a higher end friction head. Panning and tilting should always be done slowly, and with no shuddering. Frequently it is a lovely thing to not move the camera at all. Let the moment happen within your frame. It takes practice even to learn what frame works properly, but eventually one finds that less is more. The so-called “locked-off” shots frequently yield great moments.
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If you have to shoot hand-held, then find the physical method most comfortable and relaxing to hold the camera in. The flip-open video doors are a godsend, you can now hold the camera with your elbows locked in, and relax your hands and cup the camera and still see your shot. Makes for wonderful hand-held work.
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Be aware of the headroom. How much “sky” are you showing? People sometimes frame faces in the dead center of the shot, because there is a cross-hair there … a + in the shot. No t.v. shot looks like that, however. Look at the evening news, or any sitcom. Frame people as you see them framed on t.v. or in a movie. A bit of air space just above their heads is appropriate. If you are zoomed way in and the frame is filled with a single face, then yes you will give them a haircut and frame at the eyebrow or bangs line.
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Learn enough about your camera so that the white balance settings do not defeat an otherwise excellent moment. Either leave it on Automatic, or learn to rapidly shift from Incandescent to Daylight. ( Daylight footage shot in the Incandescent filter looks very blue. Incandescent footage shot with the Daylight filter runs very orange ).
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Make sure your batteries are charged, and get spare batteries and tape.
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Learn to turn OFF the camcorder between moments. I am watching a ton of footage here of this gentleman walking and talking, and I see his knees and the sky and the gravel and the parking lot. Waste of tape and of battery.
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Attempt to suppress the urge to speak while shooting. I will admit freely that I talk more than almost anyone on the damned planet, but my voice is 95% absent from the footage I shot. It’s there 5% of the time because it is a wedding video , with my family and kids and whatnots in there, and sometimes they spoke right to me, or I to them. In editing this stuff, I have cut my voice totally but for one fun moment where I deemed it worth leaving in. The camera isn’t a person, it’s the recorder. Try not to talk to people when shooting that kind of a thing. Aside from the aesthetics I just conveyed, there is a practical reason as well. The microphone on the camera body will pick you up a lot louder than anyone else. It will be jarringly loud on playback.
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Be discreet. Zoom lenses are a gift, use them wisely. I hate seeing fast zooming in and out, it’s very disturbing. However, to be across a 25 foot room and set the camera down on a tripod, and zoom in and capture a lovely few moments of people talking and hugging without being right in their faces, is a good thing to try to do. The camera is in a very real sense a license to be a voyeur. Use it wisely. Frequently the shots with the most emotional impact are the ones where I am so far off, that nobody can hear the dialogue clearly but the 10 or 20 seconds are filled with faces, smiling and attentive to one another. They did not know I had it pointed at them, so they were not “on”. It has a power all its own.
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If you do zoom, do it gently. Your fingers may well hit the microphone, and wreck the sound being recorded. This just happened in a shot I am viewing.
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Think ahead. Even though you may not edit the tape ever, think of the kinds of shots that are not just snapshots of people’s faces. Back off, show the party. The wide shot of the back yard bbq is really nice. It shows the context of the event. Similarly, if you will be able to edit, think of a few nice shots to use for the titles. I found a little moment that I used, when everyone went off for dinner. Short vase on a marble coffee table in the sitting room. Daylight indirect, but lots of it- only from one side, so there is a falloff of light and shadow. Gorgeous huge flower bloom in the vase. ( no clue what flower ). I set the shot, so you saw no windows. Just the table, the sofa behind, a bit of furniture off in the edge. The vase is not centered, it’s off to the left. I will take the text of the wedding invitation, and run it right-side justified in a slow crawl. Voila, the open of the video. ( the right side justify may kill me because I think I cannot do it in Final Cut Pro III, but I have a backup plan. ).
I hope a few of these comments help those of you who enjoy using your home camcorder to record family events and special moments. I don’t shoot a lot of video at home because I see it as the job. My brother in law and his fiancee asked me with great trepidation in their voices, because they know how I regard such things. ( I am so glad I shot it, they’ll never know. But, this is the exception to the rule ).
Any other pro’s and amateurs with good solid ideas, please feel free to throw them in here.
Cartooniverse
