With virtually every camera and smartphone being able to shoot HD video, most of us are going to want to try our hand at shooting and editing a video. While these tips won’t help you shoot the next OK GO video, they will get you well on your way to getting a better finished product for your YouTube channel.
Tripod – Bigger is Better
Probably my biggest pet peeve and the number one factor that will make your video hard to watch is shaky footage. Your camera may come with a cute little hand strap, or may be able to fit inside your pocket, but please try to use a tripod whenever possible.
Tripods, or “sticks” as they are sometimes referred to in the business, come in many shapes and sizes but the general rule of thumb is: you get what you pay for. The bigger the better when it comes to tripods – the more expensive ones are going to be solid as a rock, giving you rock steady footage.
When buying a tripod for video you’ll want to look for one with fluid head, which is basically a tripod head that moves in two directions; pan (left to right) and tilt (up an down). The head is actually filled with fluid to give you silky smooth shots.
Sound Advice
Getting great sound is almost as important to video as getting amazing footage. The little mic built into the front of your camera just ain’t going to cut it. A lot of cameras have a jack for an external mic, or have an option to add a mic to the hotshoe. This is definitely a great investment.
If you do a lot of interviews with people you might even consider a little lavalier mic to hook on their shirt, which gives you great sound and if you don’t buy the wireless versions, are not very expensive.
Once you have a better mic, the key is to get as close as you can (you know, without getting to “paparazzi” on your friends and family). If you get up close you will get more of the sound of the person and less of the other noise in the room.
Know Your Camera
Today’s cameras are packed with cool little features from night shooting, to time lapse options. Most of us rarely take the time to move beyond the basic controls of turn it off and on. For example one of the most overlooked features is setting your white balance.
White balance corrects different colour casts given from various light sources (ie household light bulbs make everyone look orange). Auto white balance is the default but you can also change the setting to give your footage a different look, or boost the colours in a sunset for example. Have fun and play around with the features, just remember to turn them back to normal when your finished, so all your people don’t look like Soylent Green.
Editing (tell a story)
Probably the biggest mistake most of make is to let the camera roll from one angle and capture hours of footage. One of the biggest things you can do to make people say “wow, that was great!” when watching your video, instead of falling into a deep slumber, is taking the time to edit your video before sharing it with others.
We all have basic video editors built into our computers for free (e.g. iMovie for Mac) and a lot of cameras come with editing software, so there is no excuse not to edit your work. Try to steer away from the crazy transitions that these programs offer and stick to straight cuts or simple cross fades between clips.
What helps when editing is to be sure to shoot lots of footage at different angles and try to tell a story. If you are covering your kids’ hockey game for example, grab a few shots of them packing up the gear, getting in the car, lacing up the skates as well as the usual game footage.