Three Ways to Improve Your Video Production

​1.Before you press the record button, I want you to visualize what the final story will sound and look like. What do you see at the end of the road? What type of story do you want it to end up looking like? What kind of lighting do you think will work best? What lenses do you think will help capture the moments the best? Do you need a gimbal for movement, or will you only need a tripod for static shots? These are the things you should be thinking about before the shoot. When I say before I mean a week or so not the day of.

2.Recording great sound is imperative. Without great sound people will tune out. Choosing the right microphones, knowing how to mic the individuals and whether you need to sound dampen the room to rid the reverberation that may occur are all key to great sound for your video.  Use the nat sound to help drive the video piece, and you may want to include some silence in the story if it calls for it. Silence can drive a story just as much as sound can, but it needs to make sense. Great audio will only help improve your video production. Just remember, if the audio is bad the viewer will be more likely to tune out than if the video work is bad. Audio is king.

3.If the subject is not moving the camera shouldn’t be moving. This is an old saying I learned back in my news days. Keep the camera steady. Place it on a tripod, monopod something that will hold its balance. Knowing this rule will allow you to break the rule though too. If you want to show a character in despair for instance and he/she is pacing the halls of a hospital waiting to hear the outcome of their significant other surgery. You could hand hold the camera and move with the subject down the hall and back. This can give an uneasy feeling (shaky video) which will help the audience become more emotionally attached to the scene and hopefully the story. This is just an example though. But during sit-down interviews it is very wise to place the camera on a tripod, so people don’t get dizzy and want to throw up. 

​I hope this information is useful and if so, please share this with someone who can benefit.
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