Fiona's Handy Camcorder HintsBy Fiona Boneham This is taken from Paper Tiger Television's ROAR!
-Keiko Tsuno, 1971 While you're checking the batteries, run the camera through some tests to make sure the camera is recording and playing back picture and sound cleanly. Take the time to practice those smooth moves you've been thinking about. It's not easy to shoot from the hip, get people's heads in frame, and look casual. Interview yourself in the mirror, take a macro-zoom look at the morning paper, or stalk your pets. Then playback the tape to see where you need more practice. My partner and I love gadgets, so our kit is a chunky bag that houses a bunch of stuff and weighs a ton. I'm a 100 lb. weakling and can carry this thing about as far as the car. I park as close as possible to the action, leave most of the stuff in the car, and grab my camera and a small shoulder-bag that has charged batteries, a spare tape, headphones and a microphone. Never take more equipment with you than you can comfortably handle, and NEVER leave your equipment unattended. Video is a great team activity. I have noticed that when I have to scout locations, keep in touch with what's going on, and interview people all by myself, my camerawork sucks. I like to have someone else find and conduct interviews, freeing me to worry about sound and picture. A second person can watch your back, look for interesting people to talk to, help carry things and if necessary bail you out of jail. Even though you probably won't be seen in your tape, what you are wearing can make a very big difference. Think about what you want to record. If you want to be up on a platform with the press, go under cover. There is nothing like a suit to get you past a police barricade. On the other hand, if you want to mingle with the crowd at a demonstration, you don't need to look like you are from the Wall Street Journal. When we wear our nifty Paper Tiger T-shirts, we are not just making a fashion statement, we're proclaiming our nonnetwork status. We can also be easily identified by people we're meeting and by each other. Of course, you should wear something comfortable that has lots of pockets. Compared to human eyes, video cameras are very limited. They can handle only a small amount of contrast. If you are shooting a dark person against a white wall or a bright sky, the person will be silhouetted. That white wall can be very handy, though, because it reflects light. Put yourself against the wall and show the area behind your subject. This way you will not only get a better exposure, but will also add more depth to the frame and give a sense of location. When outside, try to minimize the amount of sky in your picture: climb on a trash can, get on someone's shoulders or hold the camera above your head (practice this one first). If there is not enough light and it's impractical to change your frame, zoom in and the camera should open up. When using a sungun, try bouncing your light off a wall or a piece of white card to avoid the "deer in the headlight" effect. You can never check your white balance too often. It's very easy to end up with purple people. Outside, you are fairly safe with the preset color balance, but indoors take the time to reset your camera. Everyone has those moments when they think they're rolling and they're not and vice versa. Every time you point your camera at something, ask yourself: "1) Is the record light on in the viewfinder, 2) am I white balanced, 3) am I in focus, 4) is there sound, and 5) what will my next shot be?" Stop occasionally and check playback. If you realize you've been rolling when you don't want to be and you won't miss a great moment, rewind and record over your mistake. It's also a good habit to set up your shot before you start recording. It saves tape, batteries and editing time. A lot of the best camcorder work is hand-held. Often lugging a tripod is just impractical and the time it takes to set up on sticks will lose the moment. However, shaky camera work can be hard to watch. I always find myself watching the camera movement and ignoring the content. No one can hold a shot steady at the full telephoto position. So don't stand at the back of the crowd and zoom in-get up as close as you can. Just as cameras can't see as well as our eyes, they can't hear as well as our ears. Our brain filters out extraneous sound, but the camera mike records it all. The general rule is the closer and louder the better. In a noisy location I usually shout my questions at people g to encourage them to speak up. For interviews you'll ' want an external, unidirectional mike. If shooting on a crowded street, pull your interviewees onto the sidewalk or a side street where it is less noisy. This also has the advantage of being able to show what's happening in the background. If you have a stereo camera, put the external mike in one channel and keep the camera mike on the other. That way, if there is a problem with your mike, you have a back-up. Most camcorders have minijack mike inputs. The plugs aren't very secure-a slight tug can easily pull the jack out enough to cut the mike input, but not enough to make the camera-mike cut in. No matter what kind of mike you are using, leave a tension loop, enough extra cable so that a tug on the microphone won't disconnect it. It is easy to get so involved in what's happening on the little screen in the viewfinder that we forget there's a whole world out there. While you're capturing a cutaway, that quintessential moment you were hoping for might be happening right beside you. Try to be aware of what's going on outside the frame. If you are with someone else, have them keep you informed. Ask them not to grab or yell at you, they'll probably wreck the shot you've been working on for five minutes. A gentle touch on the shoulder and a whisper in the ear will usually do it. The advent of camcorders has made editing more important, because we all shoot so much. Editing can be made a whole lot easier by the addition of a few careful cutaways. A cutaway is a shot used to cover an edit, or illustrate a point. An appropriate cutaway can add meaning to your show, where a jumpcut would be just distracting. An establishing shot of the entire situation is also very helpful, giving the audience a feeling for the event. Use the internal key of the camera to bring up titles or superimpose images. There are a lot of great effects that you can do while you're shooting. If you want to do an in-camera effect later, you can try rescanning, that is, shooting the image off a monitor while adding the effect. It's tempting to turn on the camera, snatch an image and immediately move on to the next shot- until you watch it back in the editing room. The space you want to cover is always a different length than what you have to fill it. Try moves at two or three different speeds and hold on static shots; it is a lot easier to make a shot shorter while editing than to lengthen it. Editing machines need five seconds to rev up so let the camera roll for at least that long before you start any move. Holding on a shot before doing the next move will also prevent your audience from suffering the seasick effect caused by constant zooming in and out, flash pans and tilts. Avoid autofocus; the camera will never make up its mind and will continually readjust the picture. Very annoying. When you have finished shooting a tape, always label it immediately with the subject, date, and tape number. A second person can easily take care of this task and that of marking the batteries when they die. If you plan to edit your material, transfer it right away. Every time you play it, the tape will wear out a little and will soon have visible dropouts (white spots on the picture). Even if you are not going to use it, watch the tape and ask yourself what you did well and what needs work. Make your footage available to other camcorder commandos, because the more we share, the more visible we become, the more engaging our tapes, and the stronger our message. Fiona Boneham is a video editor and member of Paper Tiger Television. |