Page 12 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 2 #2

7 ON THE ROAD WITH VIDEO

park road and you’ve caught glimpses of great clip time “handles”). If not, then a ten second
scenery but signs warn you to only stop at the rhythm is adequate.
designated pullouts. The pullout has several
vehicles and people wandering all over. A cou- fter the establishing shot, shoot me-
ple of guys with video cameras are sweeping dium to close shots of each significant
back and forth, up and down, zooming in and Aportion. Hold the camera steady like
out over the scene. You can imagine what a a still camera when doing this. For example
dizzying, unsettling experience it would be to after getting the establishing shot, frame the
watch that on a big screen in a living room. distant mountains, stop - frame the valley,
Their narrative might run “Here I was trying stop - and then frame the waterfall. For each
to get …”. With video you don’t have to move shot let the clouds move, the branches wave,
the camera to capture movement. Your au- and the water flow across your frame. When
dience (including you in the future) doesn’t framing try to get some layers of foreground
want to see what the camera did before getting / middle ground / distance. Move your posi-
the shot, they only want to see the clearest, tion to get to more interesting angles and try
best shot, then move for some “bokah” or ob-
on to the next one. So jects in sharp focus with
stop recording while Look for what a blurry background.
zooming, panning is called an establishing In cities, let the traffic
and tilting. shot, which shows the flow, the people pass,
whole context of the scene. and the flags fly in your
urvey the scene This orients the audience to frame. Repeat this tech-
with your eyes the place nique throughout your
Sbefore looking trip and you will have a
through the viewfind- video collection of qual-
er. Choose the best portions of the scene and ity shots. The end result will be watchable
shoot each with a camera held steady. Film- video that reminds you of what it was like to
makers usually look for what is called an es- be there. There are two other benefits to us-
tablishing shot, which shows the whole con- ing this technique. The first comes while trav-
text of the scene. This orients the audience to elling: you economize on tape or card space.
the place and when details are later shown, The second comes when you review your foot-
they can fit them into the established wider age: you spend less time looking at bad shots.
scene they saw earlier. So in our park exam-
ple, your establishing shot would be a wide hrow in some video sweeteners. Even
view of the vista and maybe a little of the wall if you don’t have a good shot, you can
or a sign at the edge of the frame to identify Trecord some interesting audio to mix in
the location. Adding some of your party en- later. I was on the edge of a Hawaiian rain-
joying the view will help establish the spirit of forest at dusk when it was too dark to shoot
your travel group. It is good to run about 10 but the night was alive with wildlife sounds.
seconds for each shot unless something active Get ahead of your hiking party and shoot their
is going on that you want to follow. 10 seconds approach, then drop your camera angle to
allows you and the camera to settle into the ground level as their feet parade through your
shot. If you edit later to 3-5 second clips you frame. Creative experimentation is one of the
have some room to trim (editors call this extra pleasures of shooting video on the road.

nyghtvision magazine Return to Contents volume 2, number 2, summer 2012