Anyone can point a video camera at something and press record. However, creating quality videos requires an understanding of basic video production concepts. This time, Videomaker takes video production back to the basics with the newest addition to our webinar training series: Basic Video Production.

Whether you’re interested in video production for your business or interested in improving your home movies and personal projects, our comprehensive Basic Video Production webinar will teach you the techniques needed to get a jump start on making better video. You will learn basic techniques such as shot composition, camera moves and controls, microphone and audio techniques, as well as lighting setups and techniques.

Following the webinar, all registrants will receive a copy of our special report “Handheld Shooting”. In addition to valuable information and a free special report, the Basic Video Production Webinar will also include a live Q&A segment; our team answering your questions. The Basic Video Production Webinar starts at 11:00 AM (PST) on Wednesday, Jan. 11, so be sure to sign up soon!

Not interested in Basic Video Production? Videomaker’s Webinar Training Series provides a wide variety of webinars that cover topics including Advanced Editing, Documentary Production, Lighting for Video, Advanced Shooting, Audio for Video, and much more.

The art of the long continuous shot has always been rooted in exhaustive pre-production planning, precision timing, disciplined talent, and more than just a little bit of luck. To shoot a video in one continuous take means getting the ball rolling (sometimes literally) and then following the action, hitting one’s marks along the way, until the climactic end. Filmmakers and videographers have been pushing the boundaries of the continuous shot, aiming for longer duration and challenging themselves, and their talent, to nail these long shots in single takes.

When thinking about long continuous shots, most of us start with Alfred Hitchcock’s iconic Rope. Rope (1948) is often casually referred to as the best example of a feature length movie shot in a single continuous take. The reality is, of course, that the film was shot in 10 segments, ranging in length from 4:37 to 10:06. (The maximum shot length at the time was approximately ten minutes due to the limit of the film magazine.) But even though Rope is not actually a single continuous shot, the length of the shots, the beauty of the transitional edits, and the resulting real time narrative is still astonishing 63 years after it was made.

Hitchcock may have been a pioneer of the marathon continuous shot, but he has been joined by others since. Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) features the famous opening sequence, a continuous shot with a duration of 7:47. Orson Welles’ 1958 Touch of Evil opens with a 3:20 continuous shot. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is famous for it’s long shots, as is Martin Scorsese’s The Godfather.

Much more extreme are examples like Timecode (2000) and Russian Ark (2002), both feature length films shot in a continuous take. Timecode, in fact, consists of not one, but four continuous shots displayed simultaneously with each shot occupying a quadrant of the screen and relying on the audio to direct the audience’s focus and to drive the storyline.  Russian Ark, is a 99 minute feature film shot in one continuous take; it follows the narrator (in first-person POV, no less) as he wanders from room to room in a palace (actually The Hermitage Museum) in St. Petersburg encountering figures from 300 years of Russian history.  Pretty heady stuff and a masterful technical achievement.

And, of course, one of the most extreme examples of the continuous take is Andy Warhol’s Empire. Made in 1964 with cinematographer Jonas Mekas, Empire consists of over 6 ½ hours of film shot at 24 frames per second and designed to be projected at 16 frames per second so that when viewed the film lasts for over eight hours. This would be mind (and rear-end) numbing in and of itself, but add the fact that the film is simply an unblinking still-mounted camera shot of the Empire State Building as it transitions from sunset to full darkness on the night of July 25^th, 1964, and you have a piece of cinema that is all but unwatchable.

But you don’t have to go to that extreme the next time you set up a long duration shot. YouTube and Vimeo are both replete with examples of continuous shot videos (at least in part made famous by our favorite contemporary example, the band OK Go and their continuous-shot music videos). While perhaps doing something of an end-around on the editing side, these unbroken shooting sessions are great exercises in pre-production work, from storyboarding to set-design and from directing to complex camera work. After checking out the examples we’ve described here, give the long continuous shot a try and let us know how it turns out.

There’s no question that production planning can save you loads of time. As videographers, we often plan ahead for location shooting, camera movement and angles, but tend to overlook plans for lighting even though light planning is just as important to the overall success of the production. Without light planning you could bring the wrong lights, too many lights, not enough lights, overextend your budget or waste valuable time on set deciding from which angle you should light your subject. One way to avoid all of these potential problems is by creating a lighting layout.

A lighting layout allows you to visualize the set prior to starting the production phase. The first step to creating a lighting layout is to make a sketch of the set. Be sure to add the planned location of your camera and talent, and make note of any windows, doorways or furniture. Once that is done, you can start plotting the location of your lights.

By plotting your lights ahead of time, you will have an easy-to-follow blueprint of where each light should be placed, making every set-up a snap. A light plot will also help you keep track of how many lights are needed, how much wattage you will be using in each setup (which can help prevent overloading the circuits), and can assist in catching potential problems before they happen. Addressing these factors during pre-production will allow you to focus on the task at hand when it comes time to switch on those lights.

Videomaker’s Complete Book of Forms will help you ask the right questions as you plan your next video. Our Complete Book of Forms contains 91 useful forms including Lighting Plots & Layouts, Location Scouting, and many more forms that will assist you in pre-planning, record keeping and organization. The Videomaker Complete Book of Forms is a great resource for any videographer wanting to take their video productions to a professional level.

Interested in more tips on Lighting? Sign up for Videomaker’s free Video Lighting Course. This free tip series is designed to help you improve your video production skills, fast. Learn More.

The office is bustling, here at Videomaker, as we prepare for our upcoming workshops. The weekend of October 9^th is coming up fast and we couldn’t be more excited. For the first time ever, we’re offering an Intensive Lighting Workshop, as well as our Basics of Video Production Workshop.

Our Basics of Video Production Workshop is a start-to-finish course on movie making. This is a great way for beginners to become familiar with the equipment and the processes involved when telling a story with video.

For those of you who already have a grasp on the basics of video production, the Intensive Lighting Workshop will allow you to build upon your production skills and knowledge by focusing on light theory, equipment and techniques.

If you’ve been to one of our workshops you know that it’s a great way to get hands-on experience with professional equipment, learn new techniques and work with people who are as enthusiastic about movie making as you.

It’s not too late to sign up, so if you have never attended one of our workshops, or just want to build upon your previous experience, now is as good of a time as any to join in on the fun.

Click here for more information on attending a Videomaker Workshop