Gabe Jacobs Blog

I decided to let a good friend of mine, Kevin Stauss, write a post on my blog. He is a guru in video shooting, editing, etc. He was recently featured on a podcast called Discovr in which he demonstrated his vast amount of knowledge about video and video terminology. He has done many short films in which you can see here (under construction at the time) and offers many services such as audio/video editing support, commercials and short films and other special effects. So if you would like any video work done, contact him here.

As for this post, I asked him to give his 5 best tips when shooting video. You never know when you might have that camera in your hand, so you might as well shoot as best as you can when you do. I had to shoot some video for a tennis camp that I worked at a little over the summer and these tips helped me out great. So without further delay, I present Kevin’s tips:

1. Don’t center your shots

When shooting video or taking pictures, you may be tempted to frame your subject in the middle of the image. If you want your shots to be interesting and visually-pleasing, placing your subject off-center will accomplish this. One thing that should be noted, though, is if you’re shooting a person and their body fills up more than you can frame, you should always position their head at the top of the frame, even if it cuts a portion of their hair off.

2. Don’t shoot too close to the edges

Think twice before framing something near the edge of the image. If you’re shooting for DVD, the edges will be cropped off. If you use a higher-end video editing program, such as Final Cut Express, you’ve seen the two boxes on your video (see below). The outer box is the Action Safe area and the interior one is the Title Safe area. As the names imply, you should keep all of the action inside the Action Safe area and keep all titles that you add in your video editor inside the Title Safe box. When burned to a DVD, everything inside these boxes will appear on the TV, but outer portions will be cut off (the area that is cut off is different for all TVs).

3. Use your view finder

Sure, the big LCD screen on your brand new video camera is tempting to use, but you shouldn’t use it if you want to see what you’re actually shooting. The viewfinder has a more accurate view of how your video will look. If that screen is too tempting, make all of your adjustments (white balance, exposure, etc.) using the viewfinder, then switch to the LCD screen.

4. Use two hands

If you have a small camcorder, this one may look a little strange, but your video will be much more stable. On a small, consumer camera, put one hand through the wrist strap and put your other hand underneath the camera. You can do the same for a larger, prosumer camera, but you could hold the focus ring (or right behind the lens/lens hood) instead. While holding the camera, holding your elbows against yourself also drastically stabilizes your shot.

5. Don’t zoom if you don’t have to
It may be the lazy way to get closer to a subject, but don’t do it if you can physically move in on the object. It may not be smooth (unless you’re on a dolly of some sort), but neither is the rest of your footage (if you can move closer to the subject, I have to assume you’re not shooting on a tripod). Many filmmakers prefer to have shakier footage as opposed to nice tripod shots. You could even incorporate both at the same time in a technique called the Vertigo zoom.

(Bonus Tip) The Vertigo Zoom
I have to say one thing before I tell you what exactly this technique is; do not attempt the Vertigo zoom. I’ll tell you what it is, but don’t do it. The Vertigo zoom (named such for Alfred Hitchcock’s usage of it in the film “Vertigo”) is a combination of dollying out and zooming in, or dollying in and zooming out. Both of these tasks must be done at the same time and same speed for it to look correct. Doing so keeps the foreground subject the same size while moving the background closer to or further from the camera.The reason I say not to use it is because it has been attempted many times by independent filmmakers with little success. If it’s not done correctly, it ends up looking terrible. Plus, people often use it the wrong way (ie at the wrong times). Watch “Vertigo” and you’ll see what I mean.

Thank Kevin for these great tips in the comments!

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