Tips for Stunning Videography

Tips for Stunning Videography

If you want to go from good to great, it's going to take a lot of time, effort, and humility. Recently I've been rethinking my strategies, striving for better, and learning in public. That post states that part of improving has to do with reviewing work. Additionally letting go of ego and asking what needs to be done better. Simply having a growth mindset and believing you can get better goes a long way, but it's easier to learn from someone who has walked the road. While I myself am still learning, I made a decision to share my knowledge on my blog. So as part of the Life Strategy Guide, here are my tips for stunning videography.

Take Care of The Fundamentals

One of the first tips for stunning videography is to focus on basic little things first. While it may sound simple, videography requires knowledge from many different disciplines. File types, compositions, color, audio, light, and even small things like how to use a camera correctly. Learning how to hold a camera properly, how to change your specific camera's settings quickly, and manage equipment is one of the basic things that anyone can get right.

Here is a quick list of things that you can ask yourself before shooting

• Are my batteries charged? Will they last the shoot?
• Are my camera settings correct?
• Do I have enough storage on my SD Card?
• What is the purpose of this shoot?
• Will I need to capture Audio?

The only reason I'm writing this section is that even an experienced videographer like myself occasionally falters. In my most recent shoot, one of the things I get wrong finally caught up with me. Taking care of lenses is something I've been bad at. I assumed that I'd have enough money to upgrade my camera. Or at least replace a lens at this point in my career. Since I guessed wrong the five years of abuse my poor kit lens has gone through is finally catching up with me.

Take Care of Your Lenses

Use The Right Equipment

The second tip for stunning videography is managing to use the right equipment. Equipment is a never-ending black hole of cost and knowledge, but using the right tool for the job goes a long way. The right lens, camera, mic, or light can raise the production value significantly if used correctly. This also relates to the post-production process as well. It can be really frustrating to work on a system with low CPU Power and RAM.

I only write this because today on the slopes I tried to record snowboarding with a DSLR instead of using the action camera. I'm happy with the DSLR shots while stationary, but for the moving shots, I definitely should have used the action camera. Lesson learned.

Tips for Shooting Stunning Documentary Style Videography

Patience is the key. Slower camera movement zooms, and focus racking can bring a cinematic quality to everyday life. You can of course break this rule if you know you're going to perform a cut to get a different focal length. Another good practice is to hold shots for longer than you think you need to. The trick is to be more deliberate with your actions. Another thing patience gives you is the ability to check if your lens is dirty, if you're rolling, and to confirm camera settings.

Prioritize Getting Good Compositions

While it can be tempting to want to capture everything you can. Today I found that getting comfortable with having subjects pass through or live outside a viewfinder can help with production quality. Focusing on having good compositions over capturing absolutely everything on film can bring a professional edge to your footage. Another trap that we fall into when filming subjects is to always have our cameras on them. It's really easy to get caught up in all the action and lose the ability to see good storytelling opportunities via B-Roll.

Varying focal lengths can help to tell a more complete story without boring the audience. Think about the things you focus on when doing them, give them a really tight shot. Does the area seem larger than life? Perhaps going with a wider lens can make everything seem larger and more epic.

Know When To Direct or Stage Something

When shooting documentary-style footage it's important to know when to be invisible, interact through the camera, and finally give some direction to a host. You have to straddle a fine line between staging something to much or having someone do something multiple times or slightly different to get better shots for storytelling purposes. Sometimes it's good to use the world as a stage.

Example: "Once you make it to the end of the hallway, can you wait for me to go up the stairs before continuing, I want to get the shot of you ascending"

More is Less and Less is More

Shoot way more than you think you need. A whole half day of shooting can sometimes leave you with only minutes of footage for a good solid edit. That being said, if you know you have a really bad shot, delete it as soon as possible. This will save your poor editor time as he goes through assembling your masterpiece.

Tips for Stunning Videography Colors

Learn about color profiles. I shoot in a flat profile for multiple reasons. First of all, I like to learn about colors and how to grade them, second it gives more flexibility in post-correction, and the most important thing is that it preserves dynamic range. In order to make them pop I bring them into davinci resolve and use my limited knowledge of color grading to make the shots more exciting. I have started to edit my colors in SRGB mode on my monitor at night with the lights in the room off. Professional color graders have special paint on the walls and work in complete darkness.

I have no qualms with using the color profiles built into the cameras depending on the purpose of the shoot, control with lighting, and speed. Shooting an interview? Pop that camera into portrait mode for easily appealing skin tones. Shooting nature, use landscape mode for eye-catching vibrant environments. Don't be afraid to add vignettes or just color in post to draw the focus subtly.

Be Proud, But Review and Improve

This post was made because I had spent the whole day shooting and felt really dissatisfied with my results. I'm famously hard on myself and I thought that everything I shot today was garbage. Until I sat down and reviewed it. There is definitely some good stuff I got today, but there is also a host of things I can do better. . .hence this post. Review and improve and always think.

"What are some things I can do better next time."

Much love LBM ?