What’s Your [Video] Beef? Top 5 List, What’s Yours?

Whats Your [Video] Beef?

Here’s your chance to “Speak Out”! To let the Videomaker World know how you feel about stupid OBVIOUS video errors that you notice time after time after time after, etc…

Do you have a Top 5 Video Pet Peeves List on shooting, editing, composition, continuity and sound?

Many of you read and often share our Videomaker blog; for that we thank you, but heres YOUR chance to participate and get a good discussion going. What are YOUR video error Pet Peeves? Maybe someone will read your words of wisdom and we won’t have to continually take them by the camcorder and lead them to the light.

Tell All: Your gripes, beefs, bellyaches, bleats, carps, crabs, groans, grouses, grumbles, and moans about videographers – amateur or pro – that drive you batty!

Camcorder College is in session; who has the desire to spill his or her guts and set the video world free?

As video editors, shooters, directors or producers: what it is that gets to you the most. Bad composition? Sloppy editing? Boring shots? Lack of understanding simple skills like focus or iris control? What is that makes you cringe when you preview raw footage, or when you sit calmly at home watching TV…

Do local commercials get your goat? How? Why?

Have you looked at someone’s edited “Wedding Epic” and mumbled that YOU could have done a better job at half the price… heck, you’d do it for free just to keep this Bozo from working again?

What about the age-old trap of being invited to dinner only to have to sit through an hour-long production of Little Tommy’s First Piano Recital or The Johnson’s Home Movie Vacation Through 12 Countries of Europe?

What about when you’re in the production shoot: Does the “I pay the bills” ad executive you’re working with make you want to punch out your monitor to keep you from screaming in his ear, “Where did you get THAT idea”?

What would you clue in to the clueless about: Shooting, editing, composition, continuity, using music under, NOT using music under, a plethora of FX, overuse of title colors,T, and styles, (!!) or just plain “Common Sense” production horrors?

Can you really fall back on the old standby: “Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in post,”?

Whats your biggest gripe – Telling the on-camera talent not to wear a white shirt to a scheduled shoot only to have them show up in one anyway? Here’ MY Top 5 Gripes list – what’s yours?:

1. Lines from Nowhere – telephone lines appearing to run through a subjects ears, or telephone poles growing out of a subjects head.
2. Handheld Shakes – a shaky shot that never seems to settle on the intended subject then when it finally does, the shot ends.
3. Background Garbage – all the shooter had to do was move the camera, move the subject or clean up the background, to hide the distracting junk in the background of what could have been a cute video clip.
4. Background Noise – a mic thats not close enough to the subject, or background noise so loud it interferes with the intended sound. Turn off the TV!
5. Self Narration The shooter has to narrate throughout the entire scene, and doesnt shut up.

Come on! Speak to me! Send me your Top 5 Favorite List of Things You Hate list, complete with comments of why they bug you. Maybe SOMEONE out there will hear your words and think, “hey, he’s right! Walking and narrating as I shoot IS a dumb idea.”

Its your turn add to the comments section in this blog, or Tweet it, Facebook share it youve been griping in silence for a long time, lets hear from Videomakers favorite bellyachers about their favorite grumbles. Don’t be cowed, sing it loud… (And next time… I promise no more attempts at painful rhymes!)