Im Getting into Video...and have a few questions

[Shorts]

I wanna get into Video, I traded a 42" LCD Tv For a Canon GL2.

Just a few questions

1) Is it a good camera to start with?

2) Common Mistakes people make when they Start Learning Video?

3)What are some techniques to practice as a beginner?

4) What questions should I be asking?


Regards

[FlyingPhotog]

I've worked in broadcasting for 25 years (with five Emmys along the way) so this is a short list but it hits some important elements regarding Question #2:

- Beginners usually do far, far too much zooming in or out (or both)

- Beginners rarely shoot enough footage to properly cover an event or scene (think 50minutes of footage = 1 minute of finished rather than just 2:1 or even 5:1)

- Get a quality tripod with a quality fluid head and use it. Nothing will make a viewer sick faster than constantly shooting hand-held with the wobbles. Also, learn to move in six axis at once. Get good at panning, tilting and zooming all at the same time. Zoom wide, put an object in one corner of the frame and keep there while zooming to it full frame and back out again.

- Wider is steadier than zoomed all the way in

- Newbies usually get carried away with the wow factor of post production. Just because you can shred an outgoing scene into a million tiny boxes and fly it off in the shape of a dollar sign, is that transition really necessary and appropriate. Same goes for the treatments you can apply to the video itself. Nice, clean, well-exposed scenes assembled with simple cuts and dissolves are your best friends. Embrace them...

- Do a little studying on why different transitions give different impressions. eg: Cuts keep you in the present. Dissolves can show a passage of time or change of mood, Dips To Black can mean a longer passage of time or complete change of location, etc.

- Learn what an "L" cut and a "J" cut are (Their shape is a big clue...) AKA "Split Edits"

- Save every take. The one you burn over or delete from your hard drive may be the one that saves your azz when the one you really want is corrupted or lost.

- Learn to love audio as well as video. The soundtrack of a production is far more impactful on the senses than the images and the wrong music or sound effects can ruin a production faster than anything else. Learn who ASCAP and BMI are before you run afoul of music copyright laws. You can't just toss the latest Top 40 hit under your masterpiece and go on your merry way.

- Never forget to record "Room Tone." Room Tone is simply the ambience in a space when no one is speaking. RT is vital for editing into gaps in dialogue so that you don't get awkward holes of dead air. Traffic noise, air conditioning, airplanes flying over, etc... Wherever you shoot, there is ambient sound all around you. Always get some of it for later use.

- However much storage space you think you need, at least double it if not triple it. Video eats up massive amounts of space.

[Shorts]

Thanks Jay,
Thats some good stuff. Im actually gonna copy and paste this into MS Word and print it out.
Thanks for taking the time to create such a post. I really appreciate it.

Ray

[FlyingPhotog]

Thanks Jay,
Thats some good stuff. Im actually gonna copy and paste this into MS Word and print it out.
Thanks for taking the time to create such a post. I really appreciate it.

Ray

Hi Ray,

It's by no means a complete list but IMO, these are some of the biggest pitfalls to avoid right out of the gate.

Best of luck...

[Trey T]

I would've start out w/ a HD camera. HD camera have become the norm. That guy that traded you for that TV realized that SD is a dead-beat technology. IMO.

in photography, you got dirty-tricks you can learn to compose here and there. the skill in photography is very easy to pick up today. In video, it has never change since the time of Alfred Hitchcock. A good video always tell a story from beginning to end. the way i look at video is that you have to compose twice, in production and post-production. you gotta have a shots and then compose those shots together to create the story. unlike photography, you just compose your shot and that's it, you don't do anything to it.

-keep camera moving or the subject moving if all possible. static shots can be boring. if you start out, get a good tripod. libec got good ones for about 500bucks.
-keep transition simple and do cut-transition. another common transition is fade to black or white.
-avoid zooming. zooming footage has a special emphasis but makes your video looks noobish.
-audio is just important as video. this is the advantage of video over photography, you get to have sound so take advantage of it.
-NLE system... if you got MAC, invest in Final Cut. if you got PC, you got premier, vegas, avid, and many others.
-youtube is your best-friend. you can learn how to edit from there.

that's just enough to get you started. not trying to scare you but there are a lot of more stuff to learn about video, but very fun stuff.

[Shorts]

I actually have premier...I know it , but not all of it..
Ive been told ive put out some good vid edits and compilations..but I want to get better and more professional to the point the PROs say I have "not so bad work".
Thanks for your comments.

[stevieboy378]

Most common beginner error IMO is moving the camera around too much. Take, for example, a shot of a person walking down the street - a beginner will pan to keep the person in the centre of the shot, whereas a more experienced cameraman will use fixed camera points and let the person walk in and out of shots. They'll then use transitions (crossfades) to link footage.
Watch a few TV programs and notice how the vast majority of shots are from fixed cameras . . . .

[MaliCali]

I've worked in broadcasting for 25 years (with five Emmys along the way) so this is a short list but it hits some important elements regarding Question #2:

- Beginners usually do far, far too much zooming in or out (or both)

- Beginners rarely shoot enough footage to properly cover an event or scene (think 50minutes of footage = 1 minute of finished rather than just 2:1 or even 5:1)

- Get a quality tripod with a quality fluid head and use it. Nothing will make a viewer sick faster than constantly shooting hand-held with the wobbles. Also, learn to move in six axis at once. Get good at panning, tilting and zooming all at the same time. Zoom wide, put an object in one corner of the frame and keep there while zooming to it full frame and back out again.

- Wider is steadier than zoomed all the way in

- Newbies usually get carried away with the wow factor of post production. Just because you can shred an outgoing scene into a million tiny boxes and fly it off in the shape of a dollar sign, is that transition really necessary and appropriate. Same goes for the treatments you can apply to the video itself. Nice, clean, well-exposed scenes assembled with simple cuts and dissolves are your best friends. Embrace them...

- Do a little studying on why different transitions give different impressions. eg: Cuts keep you in the present. Dissolves can show a passage of time or change of mood, Dips To Black can mean a longer passage of time or complete change of location, etc.

- Learn what an "L" cut and a "J" cut are (Their shape is a big clue...) AKA "Split Edits"

- Save every take. The one you burn over or delete from your hard drive may be the one that saves your azz when the one you really want is corrupted or lost.

- Learn to love audio as well as video. The soundtrack of a production is far more impactful on the senses than the images and the wrong music or sound effects can ruin a production faster than anything else. Learn who ASCAP and BMI are before you run afoul of music copyright laws. You can't just toss the latest Top 40 hit under your masterpiece and go on your merry way.

- Never forget to record "Room Tone." Room Tone is simply the ambience in a space when no one is speaking. RT is vital for editing into gaps in dialogue so that you don't get awkward holes of dead air. Traffic noise, air conditioning, airplanes flying over, etc... Wherever you shoot, there is ambient sound all around you. Always get some of it for later use.

- However much storage space you think you need, at least double it if not triple it. Video eats up massive amounts of space.

yes yes and yes..

great advice everywhere here.

ive mentioned it around here and there on the site as well..but...

im not sure what focal lengths those GL lenses have, but wide angle focal lengths for tight shots, as cool as they may look in stills just dont work in video unless you are trying to convey something with it.

as flyingphotog said, zooming is a big no no, but im sure he means during a shot....if you are zooming in to a certain focal legth, and then shooting, you will often get very pleasing results, creating a nice natural looking image along with a much better depth of field..

-Mike

[FlyingPhotog]

yes yes and yes..

great advice everywhere here.

ive mentioned it around here and there on the site as well..but...

im not sure what focal lengths those GL lenses have, but wide angle focal lengths for tight shots, as cool as they may look in stills just dont work in video unless you are trying to convey something with it.

as flyingphotog said, zooming is a big no no, but im sure he means during a shot....if you are zooming in to a certain focal legth, and then shooting, you will often get very pleasing results, creating a nice natural looking image along with a much better depth of field..

-Mike

Correct.

Avoid running the zoom in and out and in and out and... :shock: ;)

[Shorts]

Thanks everyone.
I did trade the tv for the camera becuase .

1. I need a Video camera period!
2. Im in Guam.and easier to ship a camera from Hawaii than it is for a TV
3..I have another TV already to replace. (Pioneer, SWEET!)

Since you all mentioned that I should start with HD right out of the gate...I think ill now purchase a HD cam and use the GL for Surf (cause Id rather get the GL wet than the HD).

What HD would you guys reccomend?

[MaliCali]

Thanks everyone.
I did trade the tv for the camera becuase .

1. I need a Video camera period!
2. Im in Guam.and easier to ship a camera from Hawaii than it is for a TV
3..I have another TV already to replace. (Pioneer, SWEET!)

Since you all mentioned that I should start with HD right out of the gate...I think ill now purchase a HD cam and use the GL for Surf (cause Id rather get the GL wet than the HD).

What HD would you guys reccomend?

well honestly, depending on the "HD" camera you get, id rather get that wet than a GL

if you are talking about something like an HVX or EX3, then risking a GL would make more sense, the HD camera you are going after though is likely a consumer HD camcorder, which though it may shoot a somewhat nicer looking image due to a higher resolution...i wouldnt consider it a better camera for filmmaking as most of these cameras do not come with camera controls of a GL2...as i said all they really have going for them is the high resolution, which is what consumers eat up...they dont care about frame rates, shutter speeds or aperture/iris settings..

good luck!

-Mike

[Shorts]

Mike

...True that.. I am thinking of getting a higher grade camcorder, one with all the fun stuff like shutterspeed and aperture adustments..not the potato sized "pretty" little camcorder.

Thanks for your Time and comments.