Camera Work: Learn from the Pros

Often, the simplest way to learn a new skill or technique is simply to learn from those people who know how it's done. This way, you can learn from the collective experience of the profession, and avoid trying to re-invent the wheel each time you pick up your camcorder.

This month's installment of "Camera Work" looks at almost two dozen techniques that professional videomakers use to deliver quality programs. We'll focus on production techniques, of course, but we'll also cover some pre-production strategies than can help you shoot the footage you need to create top-drawer videos.

To impose some organization on the process, we'll look at six popular types of programs: documentaries, event videos, training videos, promotional videos, commercials and TV programs.

As we set off on this short safari, keep one point in mind: the techniques we examine have applications beyond the program types under which we discuss them. For example, precise production budgeting is hardly exclusive to training videos, where we cover it here. In fact, the whole idea is that you can practice these professional techniques in every type of video you make, amateur or pro.

If that's true, then why bother attaching techniques to particular video genres? Because, for all the traits each form shares with others, it has a few characteristics that essentially define it, and these often take the form of the techniques we'll cover.

So read on, and as you do, you're sure to learn from the prose. (Sorry--just had to get that groaner out of my system.)

The most obvious trait of documentary videos is that they record the unexpected. Whether the subject is the butterflies of the Olympic Peninsula or a family vacation at Disney World, you can predict what you'll find in a very general way, but you can't know what you'll shoot in advance. So, like a Boy Scout, you have to be prepared!

In prepping a location shoot, a professional documentary maker will research the subject, assemble a video kit and develop a viewpoint.

The need for research is obvious: where do Olympic butterflies hang out? What are their habits? What is their life cycle and how long does it take? Or if you're researching Disney World, what are the attractions? Which ones will be videogenic? Do they allow camera lights in indoor areas? Though you can't know exactly what you'll be shooting, you can anticipate your needs in a general way.

And by doing that, you can plan your video kit. For butterflies, a sturdy tripod, a long telephoto lens and a plastic camera shield. (On the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, it rains eight days out of seven.) For Disney World, a lightweight monopod, a neutral density filter to improve color in the bright sunshine and maybe an on-camera light. (Your research revealed whether they permit lights indoors, didn't it?)

Last but by no means least, you develop your viewpoint--the concept that will organize your entire show. Whoa, you say, butterflies are butterflies, and theme parks are theme parks. Truly objective documentarians simply record them doing their thing, don't they?

Not if they expect to get the resulting programs on PBS or the Discovery Channel. Look carefully at any social, technical, or nature documentary and you'll discern the concept that organizes the program in a way that satisfies the audience. For butterflies, it might be the fact that the life of the butterflies mirrors the cycle of life in general. For Disney World, a concept could be as simple as so many attractions, so little time. But without a concept, however simple, you won't have a program--just a bunch of footage.

Two other professional techniques appear during actual shooting. First, documentary makers are supreme opportunists, able to respond rapidly to anything that may come up. That's because they're always ready to shoot and they've mastered the technical details of their equipment.

Does a six-foot Goofy suddenly appear and shake hands with your child? You get it on tape because the camcorder's in your hand, the power's on and your finger's on the record button. Does a brown bear amble into the meadow where you're taking a butterfly's portrait? Without so much as a jiggle, you rack focus and tilt up to include the bear in the shot. You can make that transition smoothly because you're completely comfortable with your camcorder.

Secondly, professionals shoot and shoot and shoot, obtaining raw footage that may run as much as 100 times the length of the finished program. The more you tape, the more likely you are to get that killer shot-- that oh-wow! moment that makes your show unforgettable. And with tape costing about a dollar an hour, you can afford to go hog-wild.

Weddings, reunions, birthdays--event videos are like documentaries except for one thing: you know in advance what you're going to shoot. For these kinds of programs, the professional keys to success are scouting, shooting unobtrusively and capturing essential moments.

Scouting means checking the locations before the shoot and then making plans to cope with them. In the birthday party back yard, will the pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey poster have the sun behind it? Change its location. In the church sanctuary, will the main camera have to be 50 feet from the bride and groom? Get a wireless mike for the groom. At the reunion, will the light level be too intimately mellow for the camcorder? Charge up your on-camera fill light. You get the idea.

Next, truly professional event videomakers shoot unobtrusively. Have you ever noticed that in the very finest restaurants, the waiters never visibly hurry or intrude; yet they somehow provide for your needs almost before you express them? Top-gun event videomakers work the same magic.

How can they stay inconspicuous with an obvious camera and often a portable light? By moving smoothly, working swiftly, and not forcing themselves on people. They simply materialize, get the shot, and then melt into the background. If you think of yourself as a hunter with a camera, stalking your prey, you can cultivate this invaluable skill.

Most importantly, video event professionals capture the obligatory scenes. To take just the wedding example, they get to the right places in time to record the "I do," the kissing of the bride, the emergence from the church, the toast to the happy couple, the first slice of cake cut, the first dance danced, the bouquet tossed and caught, the departure trailing paper streamers and clanking cans. Because omitting even one of these key events would disappoint the customer, they never miss a single one.

How do they maintain this perfect record? By identifying all these moments in advance, figuring out where and when they will happen and planning a strategy for covering them.