Interviews are the most common form of nonfiction television; and with just a little practice, you can adapt this cheap and versatile format to your corporate, school, church, club, community and family programs. Most studio interviews aim one camcorder at the subject and the other at the reporter, providing...
Eureka! You just had a great idea for your video, but how are you going to place your talent inside a lavish landscape when your available surroundings are dull and dreary? That's where special effects come in. Thanks to chromakey, you can have your talent trudge across the frozen...
You've seen it, the glaring spotlight shining into the face of a reporter as he talks about the latest accident or weather phenomenon. You also have seen the shiny little light sitting in your gear bag just begging you to put it on the camera and illuminate the noses...
The ocean in the Caribbean is a beautiful aqua-blue. Its shores are a glistening white. It is a great place to shoot a video, especially during the time of year when all your friends are looking forward to Groundhog Day and hoping for a short winter. Excitedly, you set...
One of your most important jobs as a videographer is to make your talent look as good as possible. While this may seem like a simple task, it can get pretty complicated. Why? Think of the last five people who appeared in your videos. Were they the same? Did...
In the video world, cookies aren't tasty baked treats to eat with a glass of cold milk. To video pros, cookies are lighting accessories used to cast shadows to decorate a set and create illusions. Whether you wish to create tree leaves, windows, doorways or random patterns of light,...
In the 1973 movie Day for Night, Francois Trauffaut tells the story of a man who just wants to make movies. This classic film is a must for every aspiring auteur, as it takes the audience behind the scenes of many classic movie tricks including an old favorite,...
The next time you go to a movie or rent a video, pay close attention to the way the director uses lighting to help create the mood in a scene. Good lighting designers work very closely with directors to build a lighting scheme that adds to the drama of...
Whether it's for a high school news program, a corporate promotional video, your church's quarterly video newsletter or that community calendar show you'd like to do for public access, lighting for news and interviews can be complicated if you don't know the rules. Fortunately, you can create great news...
All right, you've mastered the basics of lighting talent: key, fill and back lights, and maybe a splash on the background. But this one-size-fits-all approach doesn't account for Abel the chinless wonder, Bravo who's way over-nourished, or Charlie whose nickname is Schnozz. To address the problems (and opportunities) of...
