Home Video Hints: Holiday Videos that Rock! (page 3)

Work Like the Pros

Real-time documentary shooting is always hasty, so work to remember and practice good techniques. Try to roll each shot five seconds before the important action and keep rolling another five seconds afterwards. Instead of firehosing the camera, frame one composition and hold it. Then move cleanly to a second good composition and hold there. Watch out for backlit shots that throw important subjects into silhouettes.

If you can't move the camera position, zoom in until the camera auto-exposes for the faces. Keep people's eyes in the top third of the frame to avoid gunsight compositions and keep the rule of thirds in mind, for quick but very effective compositions.

Most of all, get away from shot-after-shot at standing eye level. The external viewfinder frees you to boom the camcorder up to the top of the Christmas tree or scoot along the carpet at toddler height. So, without making a big deal of it, keep this review of holiday tips in mind. When you sit down to edit the results, you'll find you've given yourself another gift, and oh, how thankful you'll be to get it!

Ho, ho, ho!

Contributing Editor Jim Stinson is the author of the book Video Communication and Produ…