Video Production Tips (page 2)

8. Fix it Right Now

You're also better off if you correct mistakes on the spot. How many times have you thought, that take wasn't perfect, but we'll make it work? Whenever you think that way, you can be sure you'll regret it later in the edit suite.

All shoots are made under pressure. With event videography, things happen only once, so you'd better get the money shot every time. With scripted productions, the clock is always running and it makes a sound like a cash register.

Don't give in to the pressure. When you're shooting events you can often substitute a shot or fake it. Have the bride cut a second slice of cake (while you frame off the empty wedge where she removed the one you missed.)

In scripted shows, keep telling yourself that you can't reassemble everyone, return to the location, and rebuild the set. If it isn't quite good enough, fix it right here, fix it now. You'll thank yourself later. Just as in life, you can never go back.

7. Clothe Your Caboose

Last month I watched a CBS cameraman shoot the beach outside a seaside restaurant, even though his assignment was an interview inside. Why? Because the editor might -- just might -- need a couple seconds of fill or a visual for a voice-over intro, or, well, who knew what? Experienced pros protect their rears. Cover shots, protection, cutaways, color: they're all footage recorded specifically to fix mistakes or fill editing needs that are not yet apparent.

For the same reason, pros get far more footage than they need. The ten-minute interview I watched in the restaurant ran literally ten seconds on the CBS Evening News. The rest of the footage was protection taped to give the producer the widest possible latitude in assembling the interview.

One caution, though: in life as in video, don't cover your rear to protect yourself, but to protect your work!

6. Practice! Practice!

How do you become crew for the CBS News? The headline says it all. During that interview, the cameraman continuously hand-held a 20-pound camcorder with no Steadicam, no shoulder brace -- not even lens stabilization, while framing shots on the fly and pulling focus between interview subjects. On screen, the shots were all perfect.

CBS didn't pay him to learn on the job, so he must have put in hours, weeks, years making shot after shot, practicing the techniques of professional camera work. The same is true everywhere. Whether you're a neurosurgeon or a data entry clerk, you have to polish your technique if you want to play with the pros.

5. Make Lemonade

When handed a lemon, make lemonade: create something good out of whatever materials you can manage to find. Some students of mine wanted a futuristic palace for the evil dictator in a mini Star Wars knockoff. Problem: no titanium palace -- oh, and no 43rd century costumes either. What they did have was the biblical robes from the high school's recent musical and our town's Spanish Baroque City Hall, complete with outside staircases, rows of arches, and a lush garden courtyard.

Presto chango! Planet Teknika morphed into a sort of Arabian Nights environment and the story worked just as well. If my students hadn't seen the possibilities in the resources at hand, they never could have made their video. In this world where you rarely get what you want, ordinary people make do; creative people make lemonade.

» Continued on page (3/3)

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Video Production Tips (page 2)

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