Video Warm-ups

The old story has it: in a New York City subway station, a man stepped off a train and heard a violinist playing from a distance. As he walked toward his exit, he was disappointed to hear a scratchy, screeching rendition of a barely-recognizable tune. When he drew nearer to the violinist, he was relieved to see that the latter was packing his instrument, preparing to leave the station. The violinist asked the man, "Sir, could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?
"Practice, son, practice," was what the man had for an answer.
Musicians hone their skills by running their instruments through various exercises. They play scales up and down, backwards and forwards, slow and fast. They play various "studies" or "etudes" of increasing complexity to develop the techniques, muscles and reflexes necessary to master their art. They work through a series of warm-up exercises before each performance. None of these exercises is meant to be heard during a performance - except the rare exercises that turn out to be good music, like Bach�s Well Tempered Clavier. Normally, this playing all takes place before the real music starts. Musicians call this "shedding wood" and "building chops."
Why should videographers expect to master the craft of video without shedding some wood of our own? Yet, where are our scales, exercises and studies? Where are the books of challenging videographic stunts that can sharpen our skills? Toward filling this hole in our education, here are a few exercises. Read these, then create your own. If you do, share them with us in the Your Tips column.

Etude I: The Walking Truck

Improves: smoothness of hand-held trucking
Stand 5 feet from your subject with lens set to widest view. Bend knees, but keep back erect. Press "record." Walk smoothly past the subject, keeping the subject�s eyes on the upper "rule of thirds" horizontal line. Let the subject move from outside the frame through the frame from right to left, then out of the frame again. Press "record" again to stop recording. Repeat until the shot looks as smooth as though it were shot from a wheeled dolly, keeping the subject�s eyes on the "rule of thirds" line. Practice this same move in reverse direction.
Advanced: practice the same move with the subject facing the right side of the frame and walking along with you. Frame the subject�s eyes on the point where the upper and left-most "rule of thirds" lines cross. Practice until the shot is smooth and the subject never loses that position in the f…