Video Production: A Messy Balance of Art & Science
Greg Olson - May 20th, 2013
Here at Videomaker, we often delve into the academic fundamentals of video production. We try to boil everything down to the “right way” of doing things. From proper organization, to attaining the perfect exposure with the ideal framing, right on down to best practices for editing and exporting your project. But time and time again, as we research for our training videos and articles, we run up against a simple fact. Video production is a messy and delicate balance between science and art. The complex technology that goes into making video cameras, lights, microphones, and software is astounding, and the tools we have at or disposal have gotten smaller, more powerful, and more affordable. But the ultimate goal of video production is to create a final product that is engaging, informative, or just plain fun, and there's nothing scientific about that. The technology provides us the tools, but our creativity drives the way we use them.
For every video rule we teach, there is almost always a good reason to break it in certain situations. For those of us whose brains are practically split right in the middle between right (creative) and left (logical) it can be maddening to search for the definitive answers our left brains demand. Just peruse any forum and you're bound to find numerous approaches to get the same result. But the right side of our brains relish in the vast gray area that allows various creative solutions to the same problem.
