IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | (music playing)
| | 00:11 | Filmmaking is my passion because it's one of the most
challenging and rewarding things I think that anybody can try.
| | 00:18 | I've been doing this for 20 years now, and it never
ceases to test the limits of everything I've learned.
| | 00:24 | It's a really special artform that combines a
dozen different crafts and disciplines all into one.
| | 00:29 | It involves aspects of photography, audio
recording, acting, fine arts, music, business,
| | 00:36 | technology, psychology, and more.
| | 00:40 | And that just means that it really requires
some good instruction, study, and practice.
| | 00:45 | I am telling you anybody can do this
if they put their mind and heart to it.
| | 00:51 | This course is Fundamental of
Video: Cameras and Shooting.
| | 00:55 | This will be your no-nonsense boot camp to
get you started shooting your own videos with
| | 01:00 | more consistent and professional results.
| | 01:03 | Now, in this course, we are
going to talk about a lot of things.
| | 01:06 | We are going to talk about lighting
techniques to really help your production shine, and
| | 01:12 | we are going to talk all about video
cameras and how to make them do what they do which
| | 01:16 | is tell your story with pictures and of course,
we are going to talk about action and by action,
| | 01:22 | I mean how to tell your story with movement.
| | 01:25 | And of course, I am going to talk all about
audio and how to make your projects actually
| | 01:30 | sound as good as they look.
| | 01:32 | The whole idea of this course is to give
you a solid foundation in the basics of video
| | 01:37 | filmmaking whether you're shooting a short
personal film, your first documentary, or
| | 01:42 | just a promotional video
for your company or church.
| | 01:45 | Some of the specific things this course
will cover are an overview of the many types of
| | 01:50 | video cameras available and what to look
for when purchasing or renting a camera.
| | 01:54 | We are also going to take a close up look
at the anatomy of a typical high-definition
| | 01:59 | camera and explain what all those
buttons and switches and settings are.
| | 02:04 | More importantly than that, we are going to
break down the basic concepts of those settings
| | 02:08 | control and talk about how each can
be applied to your video storytelling.
| | 02:13 | We will be clearly illustrating many
camera features and concepts you may have heard,
| | 02:18 | but perhaps not fully understood such as
shutter speed which controls how motion is portrayed
| | 02:23 | on video and action shots, and shallow
depth of field which is the focus technique that
| | 02:29 | can really make your work look and
feel much more professional and cinematic.
| | 02:34 | This course will also show you how to
properly use video equipment for best results.
| | 02:39 | From cameras to lights and booms, we are going to
break down the proper way to set them up and use them.
| | 02:45 | I am the author of The Shut Up and Shoot
filmmaking guides, and I've been teaching filmmaking
| | 02:49 | at NYU Film School for the last ten years, and I'm
excited to share this new fundamental course with you.
| | 02:55 | So take notes, listen, and learn as we get ready to
dive into the Fundamentals of Video: Cameras and Shooting.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | Now when most lynda.com titles the exercise
files are projects that you can download to
| | 00:05 | help you follow along.
| | 00:06 | Now this ain't one of those courses, we are
going hands on with cameras, lights, microphones
| | 00:12 | and tripods, so there aren't any
specific projects to follow along with.
| | 00:17 | But I have included a few documents in
the exercise files section of this course.
| | 00:22 | One of those documents is a list of
podcasts that I recommend you check out to help you
| | 00:26 | stay plugged into the latest news
in the world of video production.
| | 00:30 | Another document is a list of film books you
should take a look at to continue to learning.
| | 00:36 | There's also a list of criteria you should
consider when shopping or renting cameras.
| | 00:41 | These documents aren't necessary to follow
with this course, but they will give you some
| | 00:45 | helpful resources to keep learning and
take your filmmaking to the next level.
| | 00:50 | With that in mind let's get started with
Fundamentals of video: Cameras and Shooting.
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| Introducing the subject for the video shoot| 00:00 | Before you get started, you have to
have a great subject to shoot video of.
| | 00:05 | In our examples for this course, I'll be
shooting a promotional video for performing juggler.
| | 00:09 | Let's take a look at the finished project that we
put together from the footage I shot in this course.
| | 00:22 | (male speaker: My name is Mark Wilder,
and I am a professional entertainer.
| | 00:28 | Juggling on a unicycle probably is my favorite thing
to do, just putting those two things together,
| | 00:32 | and when you take a 7-foot-tall unicycle, and
juggle flaming torches, I think that's pretty wild.
| | 00:39 | When I'm performing, I'm really having fun.
| | 00:41 | I mean, I get to play for a living and
people see that, and I think in turn it rubs off
| | 00:46 | on them, and they have fun watching.
| | 00:49 | I think my show is pretty classic
wholesome entertainment that everyone, all ages can
| | 00:55 | really take something away from.
| | 00:57 | Best way to get in touch with me is to go
online and check out my web site, which is
| | 01:02 | wilderjuggler.com, and you can check out some
pictures and some video of me in action, and
| | 01:09 | then you can hit me up and send me an email, and
that will be the best way to get in touch with me.)
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1. Getting Started in VideoLearning the craft of filmmaking| 00:02 | Understand this, filmmaking
is not magic or rocket science.
| | 00:09 | All the crafts and practices
of filmmaking can be learned.
| | 00:12 | Pretty much anyone can be a filmmaker or
even a rocket scientist for that matter, all you
| | 00:17 | have to do is study and learn what the task
involves, then methodically do it step-by-step
| | 00:23 | and keep doing it until you get better at
it, and at the end of the day, you'll have
| | 00:28 | a film or a rocket.
| | 00:31 | Whether or not your first is to takeoff is
another story, but you will be well on your
| | 00:35 | way to success if you study,
practice, and above all else persist.
| | 00:41 | This course is designed to give you the
practical knowledge base and introduce you to the core
| | 00:46 | production skills you'll need to
become a successful digital filmmaker.
| | 00:51 | However, in order to develop those skills and
to really expand that knowledge, I recommend
| | 00:56 | that you also start to use some other
learning resources as well, specifically, I recommend
| | 01:03 | that you study film books.
| | 01:04 | In the exercise files on the page for the
course, you'll find a list of film books I
| | 01:09 | think are particularly good
for those just starting out.
| | 01:13 | Now two other learning resources to
dig into are DVD extras and podcasts.
| | 01:19 | Chances are if you have any DVDs on the shelf,
many of them contain director commentaries
| | 01:25 | and other extras that
detail the filmmaking process.
| | 01:28 | Apart from telling you specifics about how
certain scenes were pulled off, you can learn
| | 01:32 | a lot about how a real crew functions and
how all the elements of a film actually come
| | 01:37 | together from idea to distribution.
| | 01:40 | Keep in mind that some DVD extras are
better than others, but there are definitely some
| | 01:44 | good nuggets of wisdom out there.
| | 01:47 | There are also well over 100 different audio and
video podcast dedicated to the craft of filmmaking.
| | 01:55 | These podcast are all free video and audio
streams or downloads and feature filmmaker
| | 02:00 | interviews, tutorials, call in, Q&As,
news, web sites, and product reviews.
| | 02:06 | What I love most about the audio podcast is
that you can listen to them passively, while
| | 02:11 | you take a jog, do the dishes,
or travel to and from work.
| | 02:14 | It's actually learning
filmmaking in your spare time.
| | 02:18 | Now another resource we'll look into
are local filmmaking organizations.
| | 02:23 | Every major city and many smaller ones have at
least one--if not several--local organizations
| | 02:29 | dedicated to the craft of filmmaking.
| | 02:31 | These organizations typically sponsor panels
and workshops, networking events, screenings,
| | 02:37 | and they may even offer hands-on classes.
| | 02:39 | It's always a good thing to get to
know other filmmakers in your area.
| | 02:43 | You are definitely going to
need help as you get more serious.
| | 02:46 | So a filmmaking
organization is a great place to start.
| | 02:50 | Filmmaking web sites and magazines are also
a great way to keep up with the latest trends
| | 02:55 | and practices of the industry.
| | 02:58 | You can often find in-depth case studies,
equipment reviews, tutorials, and interviews
| | 03:03 | with today's filmmaking movers and shakers.
| | 03:06 | Now everything I mentioned before is great
for laying a solid foundation for filmmaking
| | 03:12 | self-education, however, the only way you're
really going to learn in the end is to actually
| | 03:17 | start applying all of this knowledge to the
craft of filmmaking, and that means actually
| | 03:23 | shooting and helping other
people shoot film and video projects.
| | 03:28 | You have to get up-close
and personal with the process.
| | 03:32 | Now if you're willing to work for free,
there are infinite opportunities to work on other
| | 03:37 | people's film and video crews.
| | 03:39 | Crewing is cheaper and less stressful with
many of the same firsthand learning benefits
| | 03:44 | of working on your own film.
| | 03:45 | More importantly, you will have informal teachers,
and you meet, and have an opportunity to fill
| | 03:51 | out other people you may later want to
recruit to work on your own projects.
| | 03:56 | Production Assistant, Craft Services, and
Boom Operator, are all excellent positions
| | 04:01 | for observation and just learning the
process when you're just starting out.
| | 04:06 | Check your local film organizations, college
bulletin boards, and web sites like Mandy.com
| | 04:11 | or craigslist for fellow
filmmakers looking for crew.
| | 04:15 | However, there's one hands-down most
effective way to learn, and that is actually doing it.
| | 04:23 | Shoot a project, note what didn't work, come back,
review this course, and your other resources,
| | 04:28 | and then go back and shoot another one.
| | 04:31 | Study what you did wrong, go
back and shoot another one.
| | 04:34 | So the process of learning
filmmaking is really quite simple.
| | 04:37 | Study it, then do it,
study it, and do it some more.
| | 04:41 | Now if you're ready to start the studying
half now let's get busy baby, because there
| | 04:45 | is a lot to learn.
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| Exploring types of video cameras| 00:01 | Now I want to talk about the chief tool of the
digital filmmaker, and that's the video camera.
| | 00:08 | Once upon a time the term video camera was
used to just encompass a handful of devices
| | 00:13 | which all had very similar characteristics.
| | 00:16 | But nowadays there are many types of video
cameras at all budget, level, shapes, and
| | 00:21 | sizes, so I am going to start with a quick overview
of the types of video cameras you can choose from.
| | 00:28 | At the bottom of the video camera food chain
are smartphones with built-in video cameras.
| | 00:33 | The iPhone, Android, and some Nokia models
are all examples of smartphones that have
| | 00:39 | built-in cameras capable of shooting HD video.
| | 00:42 | While these are not really suitable for most
people who want to get serious about filmmaking,
| | 00:46 | there is a growing set of tools and apps
designed to help make smartphones perform more like
| | 00:52 | full-size video cameras.
| | 00:54 | In fact, there is actually an entire
movement of cell phone cinema filmmakers out there.
| | 00:59 | However, right now I think cell phones are
probably best suited to projects like experimental
| | 01:03 | films, music videos, and podcasts.
| | 01:07 | Now next on the video food
chain are Consumer Cameras.
| | 01:11 | Consumer Cameras are simple cameras
designed for personal use by nonprofessionals.
| | 01:17 | In general, they're less expensive, somewhere
between $200 and $1,500 and they usually have
| | 01:23 | smaller imaging chips.
| | 01:24 | So the image from most Consumer Cameras is not
nearly as good as an image from a professional camera.
| | 01:31 | Consumer Cameras are also smaller, simpler
to operate and most if not all features on
| | 01:36 | Consumer Cameras are fully automatic.
| | 01:39 | So you often can't manually adjust things like
exposure, audio level, white balance and focus.
| | 01:46 | Another very important difference is that
they don't have XLR audio inputs for professional
| | 01:51 | sound equipment and all
Consumer Cameras have fixed lenses.
| | 01:56 | With the digital revolution of the past decade,
the line between consumer and professional
| | 02:02 | cameras was completely blurred with the new
class of cameras known as Prosumer Cameras.
| | 02:07 | Now these are cameras that mostly have
smaller form factors than the large shoulder mounted
| | 02:12 | cameras used for broadcast TV and big-
budget productions, but they are packed with more
| | 02:17 | than enough image quality and
professional features to do just about any job.
| | 02:22 | The image quality and features available
at the upper end of the prosumer price range
| | 02:26 | of roughly $1500 to $10,000 can often rival that of
big-budget cameras that cost three times as much.
| | 02:34 | Prosumer Cameras vary, but all offer full
manual image control and audio control and
| | 02:40 | most have XLR audio inputs.
| | 02:43 | At the higher end of the scale Prosumer Cameras
can also offer bigger imaging chips, interchangeable
| | 02:49 | lenses and even the ability to feed
timecode in and out for multi camera recording.
| | 02:55 | So when you can do all that it's really hard
to classify the difference between prosumer
| | 02:59 | cameras and so-called professional cameras.
| | 03:03 | Okay, so I said it's hard to classify the
difference between Professional Cameras and
| | 03:09 | Prosumer Cameras, but the one
standout difference for sure is price.
| | 03:15 | Professional Video Cameras cost upwards of $
8,000 and go well up to $50,000 and beyond.
| | 03:22 | So although many features and
characteristics are shared between Prosumer Cameras, there
| | 03:27 | are a few things the most Professional Video
Cameras have in common, the first one is size.
| | 03:34 | Pro Cameras tend to be larger and heavier than
Prosumer Cameras and are typically shoulder mounted.
| | 03:40 | They also have interchangeable lenses, so
you can use prime lenses, swap out different
| | 03:45 | zoom lenses or put on a high-
end telephoto lens if you like.
| | 03:50 | Professional cameras will also allow you
to input timecode for multicam recording.
| | 03:55 | And in general, because of the large imaging
chips, superior color processing and higher
| | 04:01 | quality lenses, the overall image quality
is even better on Professional Cameras than
| | 04:06 | on Prosumer Cameras.
| | 04:08 | Now don't get me wrong, the image quality
is great on many Prosumer Cameras, but the
| | 04:12 | best Prosumer Camera is like a Mercedes whereas a
professional camera is more like a Ferrari or Lamborghini.
| | 04:19 | So both types of cameras are high-performing,
but one class offers the very highest performance.
| | 04:25 | Either way I suspect you'd
probably be happy to drive either one.
| | 04:29 | Now there is another classic camera that I
want to talk about that really blurs the line
| | 04:34 | between Prosumer and Professional Cameras,
and I like to call these Super-Chip Cameras.
| | 04:40 | This newest class of cameras is
distinguished by three factors.
| | 04:43 | First, they all have imaging chips that are
much larger than traditional pro-video cameras
| | 04:50 | which typically have 1/3-inch chips.
| | 04:52 | Instead, Super-Chip Cameras have imaging
chips that are two to three times that size.
| | 04:58 | Secondly, they have interchangeable lenses.
| | 05:02 | And the third distinguishing factor is
the affordability of super chip cameras.
| | 05:06 | So this new breed of camera is jam-packed
with big chips and professional features for
| | 05:12 | much more affordable prices
in the $6,000 to $20,000 range.
| | 05:16 | This includes cameras like the Sony F3, the
RED Camera, Canon's compact but powerful C300,
| | 05:23 | and Panasonic's AF100 camera which is what
we are shooting this course with right now.
| | 05:29 | These new super chip cameras can do just
about everything that traditional pro cameras can
| | 05:34 | do, but they do it for much less cost.
| | 05:37 | If they're within your budget these cameras
are an excellent choice for high-end freelance
| | 05:42 | work, broadcast or feature filmmaking.
| | 05:47 | Now the last class of cameras I
want to discuss are DSLR Cameras.
| | 05:51 | DSLR Cameras are also the new kids
on the block in the world of video.
| | 05:56 | DSLR stands for Digital
Single Lens Reflex camera.
| | 06:00 | These are basically digital photo cameras that
have the added ability to shoot high quality HD video.
| | 06:08 | These cameras have become widely popular in
recent years, because of three outstanding
| | 06:12 | characteristics common to all DSLR Cameras.
| | 06:16 | First off, they had big beautiful imaging chips.
| | 06:20 | Remember, imaging chips are like negatives,
the bigger the chip, the better the images.
| | 06:25 | So DSLR Cameras offer superior image
quality over most Prosumer Cameras.
| | 06:31 | Another outstanding feature of DSLR Cameras
is that they all have interchangeable lenses,
| | 06:36 | which means you'll have much more creative
flexibility and can use really good lenses
| | 06:40 | if you can afford them.
| | 06:42 | And because it's a still camera, the lenses
are smaller and more affordable to buy or rent.
| | 06:48 | However, the biggest factor that's led to the
popularity of DSLR Cameras is their affordability.
| | 06:55 | Basically, at $1,200 to $3,000 gives a lot
of cameras have doubled the image quality
| | 07:01 | at half the price of a
dedicated Prosumer Video Camera.
| | 07:05 | Now on the surface it might seem like DSLR
Cameras are automatically the way to go based
| | 07:10 | on everything I just told you.
| | 07:12 | However, there are also some major
limitations and compromises that come with DSLR Cameras.
| | 07:19 | Firstly, DSLR Cameras are still photo cameras,
first and foremost so they are designed with
| | 07:25 | still photos in mind and
video as an afterthought.
| | 07:29 | Many very useful and important features found even
on low level video cameras are missing from DSLRs.
| | 07:36 | Features such as manual audio control,
zebra stripe to judge exposure, peaking to judge
| | 07:42 | focus, a motorized zoom control are all
nonexistent in the world of DSLR Cameras.
| | 07:49 | The next big shortcoming of DSLR Cameras is
that they don't have XLR audio inputs that
| | 07:55 | allow you to use professional mics and mixes.
| | 07:59 | And the third factor that makes DSLRs tricky
is that they typically have a limited recording
| | 08:04 | time of about 12 minutes per clip.
| | 08:07 | Not cool if you're in the middle of shooting
someone's wedding vows or the big finale of a stage show.
| | 08:13 | Now there are many third-party devices and
workarounds and accessories to help DSLR shooters
| | 08:18 | overcome these shortcomings, but they all add more
cost and complications to DSLR rigs and shooting.
| | 08:25 | So you have to consider the whole package
that comes along with shooting DSLR video,
| | 08:29 | but DSLR Cameras aren't affordable if
sometimes challenging option that have really opened
| | 08:34 | up the world of filmmaking for many people.
| | 08:38 | So that's an overview of the many
types of video cameras available.
| | 08:42 | Now I'll be using and focusing primarily on
Prosumer Cameras in this course, because that's
| | 08:48 | the most popular type of camera used by digital
filmmakers, event videographers, and film schools.
| | 08:53 | However, most of the topics I'll be covering
aren't camera specific, but instead deal with
| | 08:58 | the most important factor in the quality of
your films, and that is knowledge and skills
| | 09:04 | that can be applied to
any camera and any budget.
| | 09:08 | So regardless of your tools, the
principles of focus, exposure and video storytelling
| | 09:14 | are always the same.
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| Knowing what to look for in a camera| 00:01 | The video camera is a major investment.
| | 00:04 | If you are thinking about to purchase, you
want to make sure you get something that's
| | 00:07 | going to serve your needs at
present and well into the future.
| | 00:11 | So there are some basic features that I
recommend you seek out in any camera.
| | 00:16 | You may not be able to get all of these
things at your budget level, but the more you can
| | 00:20 | find in the same camera, the better.
| | 00:23 | So first let's start
with the must-have features.
| | 00:26 | The first criteria that I'd say is a must-have
at this point in time is that any new camera
| | 00:31 | you purchase should be High Definition.
| | 00:35 | Moving forward, everything is going HD in
production and in people's living rooms.
| | 00:39 | So you'd actually be hard-pressed to find a
new camera that only records standard definition.
| | 00:46 | Another thing that has changed is that Mini
DV tapes like this one are going the way of
| | 00:50 | the dodo bird, extinct.
| | 00:52 | Any camera you buy moving forward should shoot on
some type of digital Media Cards like I have here.
| | 00:59 | Now there's nothing wrong with continuing
to shoot on tape for a while longer if you
| | 01:03 | already own a good Mini DV camera, but any
new camera you get needs to shoot on a Media
| | 01:09 | card like the ones I have here.
| | 01:10 | So I am talking about SD Cards, Compact
Flash Cards, SxS Cards--also known as PC Express
| | 01:17 | Cards--or a P2 Card.
| | 01:19 | Those are all the major card formats out there.
| | 01:21 | Now another big must for any
serious video shooting is Manual controls.
| | 01:28 | Most, if not all of the controls on a
typical consumer camera are full auto, which means
| | 01:34 | you can't manually control things like focus,
exposure, white balance, and shutter speed,
| | 01:40 | just to name a few.
| | 01:42 | If you want to shoot good video, you simply
got to be in full control of as many aspects
| | 01:47 | of your image as possible.
| | 01:50 | Now if you are thinking you don't even know what
those things mean, least of all how to control them,
| | 01:54 | no worries, That's exactly what I'm
going to be teaching you in this course.
| | 01:59 | For now just know that any serious
video camera needs to have manual controls.
| | 02:06 | So those are all the must-have
features that I highly recommend.
| | 02:09 | Now I'm going to discuss something that
isn't a must-have, but would be a really valuable
| | 02:13 | to have on a camera, and
that is XLR Audio Inputs.
| | 02:19 | Video is literally only half the story.
The other half of the story is audio.
| | 02:25 | I always preach the importance of paying
attention to audio, because it is often overlooked by
| | 02:31 | amateurs and even many serious filmmakers--
overlooked that is, until it ends up ruining
| | 02:37 | an otherwise great project.
| | 02:40 | Now in order to get good audio, you are
going to need good professional audio equipment,
| | 02:45 | and good pro audio equipment all has one thing
in common, and that is XLR inputs and outputs.
| | 02:54 | Lower quality consumer audio
gear doesn't have XLR inputs.
| | 02:58 | Now the only reason that XLR inputs are not
on the must-have list is because of the popular
| | 03:04 | exception of DSLR cameras.
| | 03:06 | It's okay that your DSLR
camera does not have XLR ports.
| | 03:10 | There are some dedicated workarounds to use
XLR mics with the DSLR cameras that I will
| | 03:16 | talk about more in the audio chapter.
| | 03:18 | Now the final list of features I want to run
through are Very Good To Have if you can get them.
| | 03:24 | So at the top of this
list are Big imaging chips.
| | 03:29 | Imaging chips in video are
the same as negatives in film.
| | 03:32 | It is where the image is actually captured.
| | 03:35 | The bigger the chip, the better your image
just like a negative, and of course, the bigger
| | 03:40 | the imaging chip, the more expensive the camera.
| | 03:43 | So a big imaging chip is a very good
thing to have, if you can afford it.
| | 03:49 | The last scale of feature that I recommend
you look for in a camera is a feature to help
| | 03:53 | you focus, known as Peaking.
| | 03:56 | Peaking is the feature that I'll discuss in
the movie on focusing tools, but know that
| | 04:00 | Peaking makes it much easier to get
crisp, sharp pictures when shooting HD video.
| | 04:06 | It's a hot new feature that more and
more cameras are starting to include.
| | 04:11 | And just a last word about video cameras, I
don't think it's really worth it to purchase
| | 04:16 | a used video camera that's more than say a
year old, because just like computers the
| | 04:21 | technology keeps getting bigger and
better, and the prices keep getting cheaper.
| | 04:26 | So you're best off getting the best video
camera that fits your budget and will grow
| | 04:30 | with your needs and keep
up with the new technology.
| | 04:34 | So I hope all of that helps you find a
camera that serves you well. Happy camera hunting!
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2. Camera EssentialsLearning camera anatomy| 00:05 | I know that the typical video camera can be
pretty intimidating for some people, especially
| | 00:10 | when there are so many
buttons, switches, and dials.
| | 00:13 | So I want to just start off by going
over what some of these things are.
| | 00:17 | While the style and exact combination of
buttons would differ from camera to camera, for the
| | 00:22 | most part all Prosumer video cameras have
roughly the same group of buttons, often in
| | 00:27 | the same general location on the camera.
| | 00:30 | Now I am not going to go over every single
button, but I will cover all the most commonly
| | 00:34 | used buttons, and if you're not sure about
some of the terms and concepts I use in this
| | 00:38 | movie like, Phantom Power or Gain, no worries,
I am going to explain what all of these things
| | 00:44 | are and how to use them
throughout the rest of this course.
| | 00:47 | Right now, I'm just going over where the buttons are
and giving you a short explanation of what they do.
| | 00:55 | Starting with the right side of the camera,
you'll find the hand grip and in the thumb
| | 00:59 | position of the hand grip would be the Record
button, used to Start and Stop the camera when
| | 01:05 | you're ready to shoot.
| | 01:06 | This is also where the camera has a
Power switch to turn it On and Off.
| | 01:11 | If you don't find your Power switch here,
you're likely to find it somewhere on the
| | 01:14 | back of the camera.
| | 01:16 | Right near the record button, you may also find a
smaller button labeled Record Review or Record Check.
| | 01:24 | This button allows you to check the last
shot you recorded on the camera without having
| | 01:28 | to switch to Playback mode first.
| | 01:31 | The zoom control is normally on the top of
the hand grip, right above the Record button.
| | 01:37 | This makes it easy for you to Start, Stop, and
adjust your composition all with just one hand.
| | 01:44 | Another common feature you may find on the top your
camera handle is the little Secondary Zoom Control.
| | 01:50 | This is convenient for pulling off zoom
moves when you're cradling the camera or standing
| | 01:54 | on the left side of the camera
away from the main Zoom control.
| | 01:58 | On many cameras the Primary Zoom control is
pressure sensitive, whereas the Secondary
| | 02:02 | Zoom Control on the camera handle
zooms at a smooth constant speed.
| | 02:08 | Look for a switch that you can also use to set the
speed of the zoom for the Secondary Zoom Control.
| | 02:14 | On most models you'll find a Secondary
Record button located on top of the camera, which
| | 02:20 | may be more convenient
depending on your camera position.
| | 02:23 | Now the location of the external audio switches
does vary a little more than most of the buttons.
| | 02:29 | So I am just going to cover the common
audio buttons you will find and name the various
| | 02:33 | spots you are most likely
to find them on your camera.
| | 02:36 | If your camera has them, the XLR Audio Ports
for plugging in mics and other sound devices
| | 02:41 | will likely be on the right side of the camera.
| | 02:44 | Either on the camera body itself, or they
may possibly be on the little black audio box
| | 02:48 | on or near the top of the handle.
| | 02:51 | And somewhere near the XLR Audio Ports will
be controls for setting the level of the audio
| | 02:55 | signal to either Line/Mic level.
| | 03:00 | On many Panasonic cameras like this one,
the Mic/Line Switch is actually located on the
| | 03:05 | front of the camera.
| | 03:08 | Now let's take a look
over here at the LCD panel.
| | 03:13 | Right here underneath of the LCD
screen, we have some more audio controls.
| | 03:18 | Now these switches are used to select where
the particular audio for an XLR Input is being
| | 03:23 | recorded, Audio Channel 1 or Audio Channel 2.
| | 03:28 | On this camera the switch has another position
that let you choose between the built-in Internal
| | 03:32 | Microphone or the External XLR Inputs.
| | 03:37 | On some other cameras this
will be a separate switch.
| | 03:40 | If your external microphones require power, you
will need to turn on the Phantom Power switch.
| | 03:45 | That switch may be located inside the LCD
panel as it is here, but it also may be on
| | 03:50 | the back of your camera or
right below the XLR Ports.
| | 03:56 | Often found on the left or backside of the
camera are the Audio Level Dials for adjusting
| | 04:00 | the volume of your audio as it's recorded.
| | 04:04 | So now let's talk about some Exposure controls.
| | 04:07 | The Iris or Aperture for controlling exposure
will either be a ring on the lens marked with
| | 04:12 | f-stops, or maybe a more simple wheel control
on the left side of the camera like this one,
| | 04:17 | depending on your particular model.
| | 04:19 | Also near the Lens is likely to be an Auto
Iris button used to turn Auto Iris or Auto
| | 04:24 | Exposure on and off.
| | 04:26 | And about the same spot near the lens will
be a ND Filter Switch which we'll use when
| | 04:31 | it's very bright outside.
| | 04:33 | Similarly, the Focus Control will either be
a ring on the lens or maybe a wheel on the
| | 04:38 | side of the camera.
| | 04:39 | In both cases our Focus or Aperture ring is
preferable to a wheel when choosing a camera.
| | 04:45 | Not far from the Focus Control, you may find
a button or switch to go between Auto focus
| | 04:50 | and Manual focus mode.
| | 04:53 | Right near that you may also
find a button that says Push Auto.
| | 04:57 | This button is for temporarily using Auto
focus when you are in Manual focus mode.
| | 05:02 | The camera will stay on Auto Focus only
for as long as you hold the button in, then go
| | 05:06 | back to Manual Focus when you release it.
| | 05:09 | You should also find a button
labeled Focus Assist or Expanded Focus.
| | 05:14 | This button is to magnify the image on
the camera's LCD screen to help you focus.
| | 05:19 | On this camera it's located on the left side,
but on many cameras this button may be located
| | 05:24 | near the Record button
on the right side as well.
| | 05:27 | Somewhere on the left side of many cameras,
you'll also find a White Balance Select switch.
| | 05:33 | This is a switch you use to choose between Manual,
Auto, and Preset White Balance modes in the camera.
| | 05:39 | Some cameras have a full Auto switch like
this one that will set Iris, Focus, and White
| | 05:45 | Balance to Auto all at once.
| | 05:47 | Remember, if you want to manually adjust any
of those controls--and I think you will most
| | 05:52 | of the time--this switch should stay set to Manual.
| | 05:56 | Located right near the White Balance
Selector is usually a Gain Selection Switch, which
| | 06:01 | typically has three different settings to
help you when shooting in low light situations.
| | 06:06 | The values for the Gain switch can be
usually selected in the cameras Menu, but may also
| | 06:10 | be labeled next to the switch.
| | 06:13 | Also in the panel under the LCD screen, you may find
a button to turn the Color Bars on and off as well.
| | 06:19 | It may simply be labeled Bars as it is here.
| | 06:23 | Another switch or button you should find
somewhere on the left side of your camera
| | 06:26 | will be labeled Zebra.
| | 06:28 | This refers to Zebra Stripes, a camera
function used to help judge exposure.
| | 06:33 | This switch will allow you to turn the
Zebra Stripes on or off and possibly select from
| | 06:37 | different zebra stripe settings.
| | 06:40 | Also under the LCD panel is a
button to select Shutter Speed.
| | 06:44 | There's a lot to talk about Shutter Speed, so make
sure you check out that movie for more about that.
| | 06:51 | On the rear of the camera, you'll
also find a few more important things.
| | 06:56 | Like I said earlier, a lot of cameras will
have the Power Switch on the back, but there's
| | 07:00 | also a pretty good chance that you'll find
Card Slots for media cards in the back of
| | 07:06 | the camera as well.
| | 07:07 | This camera works with P2 cards from Panasonic,
but some models like Sony cameras may also
| | 07:12 | have card slots on the left side of the camera.
| | 07:16 | You'll find ports for the cables you'll
need to transfer footage and send video usually
| | 07:21 | hidden under little flap like this.
| | 07:23 | The location of these ports
varies from model to model.
| | 07:26 | So they could be on the back or right side
of the camera or even on the left side of
| | 07:30 | the camera in some cases.
| | 07:33 | You may have to look carefully, because
they are often hidden below a rubber or plastic
| | 07:37 | flap and blend into the camera body seamlessly.
| | 07:41 | But inside will be ports for any combination
of RCA, Component, USB, or FireWire Cables.
| | 07:49 | Also on the back of the camera you may find
a button or switch to select between Playback
| | 07:53 | mode or Camera mode.
| | 07:55 | Now Panasonic cameras like this one actually
have a little joystick for playback control,
| | 08:01 | but many other camera brands they actually
have the controls on the top to Start, Stop,
| | 08:07 | Fast Forward, and Rewind
footage in playback mode.
| | 08:10 | On many cameras that have a Manual Zoom ring
there is also one importance switch to look
| | 08:15 | for, and that's the Manual Servo Switch.
| | 08:18 | It's in plain side on this camera, but on
many other models it's actually hidden in
| | 08:22 | the bottom of the camera,
near the base of the lens.
| | 08:25 | Servo is just a fancy word for the Zoom mode.
| | 08:28 | So when you're in manual mode, the zoom
is only controlled with the Zoom Ring.
| | 08:33 | When you switch it to Servo mode, the zoom
is automatic and controlled with a Rocker
| | 08:38 | control by the Focus button.
| | 08:41 | So those all are the basic buttons that you are
likely to find on any dedicated Prosumer level camera.
| | 08:47 | Take some time to familiarize yourself
with the locations and play with the different
| | 08:51 | buttons and switches on your
camera and read your manual.
| | 08:55 | If you misplaced your manual or didn't get
one with the rental camera, you can almost
| | 08:59 | always find it online as a
free PDF document download.
| | 09:03 | Now while it may seem like a lot, remember
that once you set up your camera, you are
| | 09:08 | only dealing with a small handful of
buttons most of the time you shoot.
| | 09:12 | So with the little experience and study, using
these buttons and switches will become second nature.
| | 09:17 | I am going to talk a lot more about what most
of these buttons do in many of the other movies
| | 09:22 | in this course, so
definitely check those out as well.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring important camera settings| 00:01 | In this movie I'm going to go over some
important menu settings to check before you shoot.
| | 00:06 | The very first thing I recommend that you
do when you pick up any camera before a shoot
| | 00:11 | is to thoroughly check the menu settings.
| | 00:14 | I know this is by no means the sexiest
part of the camera, but there are some crucial
| | 00:19 | settings in any video camera menu that can
make for some big headaches in postproduction
| | 00:24 | or even during shooting, if you're not familiar with
what your camera is doing to your image under the hood.
| | 00:31 | Most video cameras you will use, including
many at the consumer level, will have a variety
| | 00:36 | of video formats that
you can choose to shoot in.
| | 00:39 | This is a very first setting
you should check in the menu.
| | 00:43 | It's important to know what video format you are
shooting in, because video format will have
| | 00:48 | the greatest effect on the
overall quality of your captured image.
| | 00:52 | Your format is where you're going to
decide three important decisions, Number 1: Your
| | 00:58 | video resolution, what type of video, which
means standard definition or high definition.
| | 01:03 | Number 2: your video frame rate.
| | 01:07 | And number 3: Whether your video
will be interlaced or progressive.
| | 01:12 | So let's look at each of them
and where you should set them.
| | 01:15 | Let's start with the resolution.
| | 01:18 | The first question you're going to ask yourself
is do you want to shoot in standard definition,
| | 01:22 | 720 horizontal pixels by 480 vertical pixels, or
in high definition, which comes in two different
| | 01:31 | flavors: 720HD, which is 1280 horizontal
pixels by 720 vertical pixels; or 1080HD, which is
| | 01:41 | 1920 horizontal pixels by 1080 vertical pixels.
So if you want to get the best video quality,
| | 01:50 | you need to set your camera to the highest video
resolution available under video format in the menu.
| | 01:57 | The video format section of the menu is also
where you're going to choose your frame rate,
| | 02:02 | which is the number of video frames recorded
per second, which will be abbreviated as FPS.
| | 02:08 | Now common frame rates for normal shooting
in the US and Japan are 24 frames per second
| | 02:14 | and 30 frame per second.
| | 02:16 | If you are shooting outside of the US and
Japan, particularly Europe, your camera may
| | 02:20 | be set up with the PAL format,
which runs at 25 frames per second.
| | 02:25 | The frame rate affects the artistic,
aesthetic, and emotional feel of your video.
| | 02:30 | If you look at the same scenes shot with two
different frame rates, 30 frames per second
| | 02:34 | and 24 frames per second, you may
notice a different look to the footage.
| | 02:39 | 30 frames per second looks much more
broadcasty. It is more of a traditional old school video
| | 02:44 | look, whereas 24 frames per second looks more
cinematic, because that's the exact same frame
| | 02:51 | rate that the film is normally shot at.
| | 02:53 | So cameras that shoot at 24 frames per
second have become extremely popular in the last
| | 02:58 | decade, because they most resemble
the more natural look and feel of film.
| | 03:03 | 25 frames per second looks almost the same.
| | 03:07 | You may also see 50 or 60
frames per second in your menu.
| | 03:11 | These settings are used for slow motion or
certain specific broadcast applications, but
| | 03:16 | usually, you want to stick
to 24 or 30 frames per second.
| | 03:21 | So let's take a look, video format and
frame rate are typically paired together in the
| | 03:30 | camera's menu, so your choices
will often be something like this.
| | 03:35 | Now you probably also noticed that video
formats have a little P or an I next to the frame
| | 03:40 | rate or resolution figure.
| | 03:42 | A P stands for progressive
and an P stands for interlaced.
| | 03:48 | Progressive and interlaced video are the two
different methods of video scanning to create an image.
| | 03:53 | The scanning method is also the third
defining aspect of your video format.
| | 03:59 | Interlaced video is created by drawing the
odd numbered lines first and then going back
| | 04:03 | and drawing the even number lines.
| | 04:05 | These two sets of lines are known as fields,
these two image fields combine together to
| | 04:11 | make up each individual
frame of interlaced video.
| | 04:14 | Now progressive video consists of a
single solid frame just like film.
| | 04:20 | So Interlaced video has a more
broadcasting video look and tends to have jagged edges
| | 04:25 | when freeze-framed or slow down, while
Progressive video has a more film like look and looks
| | 04:30 | better when frozen or slowed down.
| | 04:34 | So given a choice, I recommend that you
opt for setting with P for Progressive video.
| | 04:39 | Generally, it's a good idea to shoot at the very
highest quality video format your camera as capable of.
| | 04:47 | Pretty much the only time you switch this
up is if you're going for different look,
| | 04:51 | such as a more nostalgic video look.
| | 04:53 | An important side note that I should also
point out is that if you're ever shooting
| | 04:58 | something that you need to hand over to an
editor or TV station, make sure you check
| | 05:03 | with the people you'll be handing the
video off to before you shoot, so they can let
| | 05:07 | you know which format is best for their system.
| | 05:11 | So video format is the most important setting
to check on the menu before you start shooting.
| | 05:17 | However, there are also many other menu
settings that you may want to adjust on your camera,
| | 05:22 | like white balance or zebra stripes, which we will
be talking about individually later in this chapter.
| | 05:28 | So take the time to become familiar with
your particular camera's menu. You can make your
| | 05:33 | camera a lot more user-friendly when you shoot.
| | 05:36 | Just remember this, the look and quality of
the video starts in the menu with the selection
| | 05:41 | of video format, so always check your
camera's menu to make sure that you are shooting at
| | 05:47 | the desired video format
for your particular project.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding how to focus| 00:01 | Now let's talk about the all-
important subject of focus.
| | 00:06 | A clear and sharp picture is a
hallmark of the professional shooter.
| | 00:11 | Pay constant attention to your focus whenever
you shooting video, regardless of whether you're
| | 00:17 | using a camera that costs $2,000 or $200,000,
or whether you're shooting stills, video,
| | 00:23 | or film. There is still only one way
to do it right, and that's manually.
| | 00:27 | So make sure your camera is in Manual
Focus mode, then follow these simple steps.
| | 00:33 | First, you want to zoom fully into your subject.
| | 00:36 | If your subject is a person, you always want
to zoom into their eyes, not their nose, not
| | 00:42 | their chin, not their outfit, but their
eyes every single time--the window to the soul.
| | 00:48 | Next set your focus by adjusting the focus ring
or focus wheel, whichever one your camera has.
| | 00:55 | Lastly, pull back to adjust your
shot to the desired composition.
| | 01:00 | If you do it this way every single time, you
are now free to zoom and readjust your shot
| | 01:05 | without fear of ever losing focus.
| | 01:08 | As long as both you and your subject stay
in the same position, every shot you compose
| | 01:13 | would be nice and sharp.
| | 01:15 | Now you could adjust your focus while on the
wider medium shot instead of a close-up and
| | 01:20 | still get perfectly good focus.
| | 01:22 | However, the problem with this bad habit
becomes apparent the moment you zoom in closer.
| | 01:28 | More often than not, your shot will go back
out of focus as soon as you try to zoom in.
| | 01:34 | So that's what we always zoom all the
way into the eyes and pull out to recompose.
| | 01:39 | Now you're free to get close-ups, mediums,
and wide shots all from the same position
| | 01:44 | without having to readjust your focus.
| | 01:47 | Now there are also some common focus
hazards that you should look out for.
| | 01:51 | Your chances of shooting something soft focus
increase exponentially when a scene is too dark.
| | 01:57 | It's much harder to focus in low lighting.
| | 02:00 | I'm going to talk about auto focus more in
a later movie, but for now just know that
| | 02:05 | you should definitely avoid using auto focus
like the plague in low lighting situations.
| | 02:11 | Here's another thing to be aware of.
| | 02:13 | The advent of the flip out LCD screen has
definitely made shooting video easier, more
| | 02:18 | versatile, and more creative.
| | 02:21 | But be warned those tiny little LCD screens
can be very hard to see in bright daylight
| | 02:26 | and the resolution is often not adequate to
accurately judge focus, especially on wider shots.
| | 02:33 | When shooting in bright daylight, an inexpensive
LCD hood like this one can be a real lifesaver.
| | 02:39 | If you don't have a lens hood, taping on some
cardboard, cupping your hands, or using the
| | 02:44 | viewfinder instead of the LCD screen are all
workable solutions to allow you to better see your
| | 02:49 | image in bright sunlight.
| | 02:51 | Remember, a crisp sharp image is
only possible when you focus correctly.
| | 02:57 | Scrutinize the focus on camera LCD screens frequently,
and you will lessen your chances of getting burned.
| | 03:04 | Fortunately, most HD cameras have some
special features like Focus Assist and Peaking to
| | 03:09 | make this critical job even easier.
| | 03:12 | I'm going to talk about those special
focus tools in more detail in the next movie.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using tools to achieve better focus| 00:01 | So we've gone over the basics of how to
manually focus and why it's important to get it right,
| | 00:06 | but in reality it ain't always easy to get right,
especially in the high resolution world of HD.
| | 00:13 | So I want to explain the common focus
issues with HD, then run down a list of tools and
| | 00:19 | camera features to help you get your
focus right all the time, every time.
| | 00:24 | So here is the big problem, today's crop
of Prosumer HD cameras give us unprecedented
| | 00:31 | image quality compared to cameras that cost
two to three times as much just a few years ago.
| | 00:37 | We can now shoot crisp, clean HD footage with
720 or even 1080 lines of horizontal resolution,
| | 00:45 | which is more or less double the
resolution of Standard Definition Video.
| | 00:49 | So the resolutions of many Consumer and
Prosumer cameras now rival the image quality of much
| | 00:55 | more expensive cameras.
And that's a lovely thing.
| | 00:58 | However, there is one huge problem that comes
with this brave new world of inexpensive High
| | 01:05 | Resolution HD, and that problem is that even
though the picture is this big, we are still
| | 01:11 | showing with these little teeny-
tiny itty-bitty 3-inch LCD monitors.
| | 01:16 | We got a giant picture but a tiny monitor.
| | 01:19 | We are essentially using a 3-inch picture
to judge on video what would generally be
| | 01:24 | viewed on a 40-inch to 60-inch screen.
| | 01:28 | The end result when you get back home and
view your footage on that big flat screen TV
| | 01:32 | is often an embarrassing number of soft,
fuzzy, and out of focus shots that can make your
| | 01:38 | audience seriously wonder if you were
even looking at the image when you shot it.
| | 01:43 | This is a particular problem with most DSLR
cameras which have even more resolution and
| | 01:49 | an even smaller LCD screen
than most dedicated video cameras.
| | 01:54 | So what I want to do is talk about
three solutions to this common problem.
| | 01:59 | One thing I would recommend adding to your
kit once you've got your basic camera and
| | 02:03 | sound packet squared away is a decent monitor.
| | 02:07 | The bigger the better to judge image quality,
but for many jobs--especially projects with
| | 02:13 | a limited crew and a lot of mobility--a
small battery-operated portable monitor about 7
| | 02:18 | to 15 inches is more practical.
| | 02:21 | These portable monitors can be mounted directly
onto camera's hot shoe or to a camera support rig.
| | 02:28 | They're considerably better than just relying
on the camera's LCD screen for judging focus,
| | 02:33 | a dirty lens, and noise from
Gain, just to name a few things.
| | 02:38 | Now I know that some of you are ballin' on
a budget like me, and the additional cost of
| | 02:43 | a monitor may not be something you can afford for
while after you just bought a decent camera and audio gear.
| | 02:49 | Not a problem.
| | 02:51 | There are some practical down and dirty
solutions that will allow you to better judge your image
| | 02:56 | and hold off on spending more money.
| | 02:58 | Yes, a professional video monitor will have
more advanced features such as BNC Connectors,
| | 03:04 | Color Bars, a Hot Shoe Mount, et cetera,
but it is by no means the only solution here.
| | 03:10 | With the proper cable, a regular old HD
flat screen TV, portable color TV, or even an inexpensive
| | 03:17 | little portable DVD player like this one,
can be made to serve as production monitors.
| | 03:23 | Just about anything with the video screen
that has a component HDMI or RCA Input Jack
| | 03:29 | will work as a makeshift monitor.
| | 03:32 | Now if you go this route, it's highly preferable
that to display BHT, if you're actually shooting
| | 03:37 | High Definition, but I think even at 10-inch
standard definition image is better to help
| | 03:42 | you judge your overall image quality than the
tiny LCD screen found on most Prosumer cameras.
| | 03:49 | So now let's talk about another solution to
help you judge focus when shooting HD, and
| | 03:54 | that is Focus Assist.
| | 03:57 | Focus Assist--also known as Expanded Focus
on some cameras--is a simple camera feature
| | 04:03 | to help you better judge focus.
| | 04:05 | When you activate the Focus Assist or Expanded
Focus feature, it will magnify the image on the
| | 04:11 | LCD screen, making it easier to tell
if your shot is actually in sharp focus.
| | 04:16 | Now this magnification
only occurs on the LCD screen.
| | 04:20 | This magnified image is never recorded to
camera and will also not be seen on an external
| | 04:26 | monitor, just the camera's LCD screen.
| | 04:29 | Now Focus Assist and monitors are helpful
for using your naked eyes to judge focus,
| | 04:35 | but I think there's an even greater and
more reliable tool that helps you keep your HD
| | 04:39 | image in crisp sharp focus,
and that is called Peaking.
| | 04:44 | When you activate Peaking on a camera, it
shows a colored outline around everything
| | 04:49 | that's in sharp focus.
| | 04:50 | So instead of squinting and scrutinizing
over a giant HD image displayed on a little LCD
| | 04:56 | screen, all you have to do is look for the
very visible colored outline around your subjects.
| | 05:02 | As you shift focus from one object to another,
the Peaking line shift as well, allowing you
| | 05:07 | to instantaneously tell exactly which part of
your image is in sharp focus at any given time.
| | 05:14 | Overall, Peaking is more reliable and faster
than using your naked eye, and it allows you
| | 05:19 | to more easily shoot on the
go without an external monitor.
| | 05:22 | However, just like most camera image control
features, Peaking does not perform well in low light.
| | 05:29 | So in low light situations, as usual,
you're going to be on own your own.
| | 05:32 | But hey, you can't have everything, right?
And as a side note, even if your camera doesn't
| | 05:37 | have Peaking, they now make portable
monitors like this one that have Peaking built-in.
| | 05:42 | So the point to take away is that it's very
difficult to get the focus right on a High
| | 05:47 | Resolution image with nothing more than
your naked eyes and the camera LCD screen.
| | 05:53 | A larger External Monitor, Focus Assist,
and Peaking are all camera tools and features
| | 05:59 | that can make it considerably easier to judge
and get the right type of hyper accurate focus
| | 06:05 | that's absolutely critical to
high definition video production.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Knowing when to use auto focus| 00:01 | So let's talk about autofocus for a minute.
| | 00:03 | If you're only used to shooting video with
Consumer cameras or your iPhone, you may be
| | 00:08 | used to relying on autofocus.
| | 00:09 | It's a habit that I recommend you break as soon as
possible if you want to shoot professional-looking video.
| | 00:17 | The reason I recommend avoiding it most of
the time is because autofocus is simply not
| | 00:22 | reliable under many shooting situations.
| | 00:25 | Specifically, autofocus is all
but useless in low light situations.
| | 00:30 | Also, if you have other people or objects
that cross in the foreground of your subject or
| | 00:35 | that are positioned as part of your shot,
the camera's autofocus may choose to focus
| | 00:40 | on those people or objects in the foreground,
instead of the actual person or thing you
| | 00:44 | want it to focus on.
| | 00:46 | The autofocus may also hunt for different subjects
to focus on as people in the frame shift slightly.
| | 00:53 | Understand this, the people
that made your camera are very smart.
| | 00:58 | The camera itself, however, is as dumb as a brick.
| | 01:01 | It only does what we tell it to do manually
or what it's been programmed to do, and that
| | 01:06 | program is pretty simple, focus on
whatever is dead center of the lens.
| | 01:10 | This can present all kinds of problems in
normal shooting situations since your subject
| | 01:15 | isn't necessarily the center
of the shot at any given moment.
| | 01:20 | So manual focus is definitely what you
want to do most, if not all of the time.
| | 01:25 | However, that doesn't mean that you don't
ever want to use autofocus. It does have its
| | 01:29 | uses and sometimes maybe the only
realistic way to pull off certain shots.
| | 01:35 | So when are you going to use
autofocus? Here are a few scenarios.
| | 01:39 | Scenario #1, when there's a tricky camera
move, you need to pull such as a dramatic
| | 01:44 | flyby, it is difficult to maintain your
composition, move fast with the camera and not trip all
| | 01:49 | at the same time, so autofocus will probably be
your best option to get this type of tricky shot.
| | 01:56 | Scenario #2: Certain pan or tilt moves maybe
easier to pull off with autofocus if the subject
| | 02:02 | at the end of the move is
significantly closer or farther from the camera.
| | 02:07 | In good lighting conditions you camera may
adjust faster and smoother than you can manually.
| | 02:13 | Scenario #3: Is running guns shooting.
| | 02:16 | Running guns shooting is basically when the
conditions are so hectic and dynamic that
| | 02:20 | you're lucky just to get a decent shot with
good audio, because there are so many other
| | 02:24 | things to worry about.
| | 02:25 | If you're acting as cameraperson, director,
and audio person all the same time shooting
| | 02:30 | a fluid or chaotic situation, it's a
great time to hit the autofocus button.
| | 02:36 | So all told, those of the three scenarios
where I think you will find autofocus most useful.
| | 02:42 | Basically, any time your subject matter is
changing rapidly or it's particularly tricky to adjust
| | 02:47 | the focus under the circumstances
is a good time to use autofocus.
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| Shooting with shallow depth of field| 00:03 | The term Shallow Depth of Field refers to
the visual effect where your subject is in
| | 00:08 | sharp focus, but the background and
foreground are soft focused or vice-versa.
| | 00:14 | It's a very pleasing and dramatic cinematic
effect that goes a long way to making video
| | 00:19 | look more like film, which more
naturally has a Shallow Depth of Field.
| | 00:23 | The term Depth of the Field simply refers
to how much or how little of the picture in
| | 00:29 | front of and behind the subject is in focus.
| | 00:32 | I'd like to tell people to think a Shallow
Depth of Field has an invisible plane of focus,
| | 00:37 | may be one to two feet thick
between the camera and the background.
| | 00:41 | As you turn the Focus Ring that plane of focus
stays the exact same size, but it shifts position
| | 00:47 | closer or further away from the camera so
that whatever is in that area is in sharp
| | 00:52 | focus, but everything before
or after it remains blurry.
| | 00:57 | In addition to simply looking cool, using
Shallow Depth of Field keeps your audience's
| | 01:01 | attention focused on the subject
and blurs out distracting backgrounds.
| | 01:07 | When you're directing, you aren't just directing
talent in camera, you're directing the audience's
| | 01:12 | attention to the most important
thing at any given moment in time.
| | 01:17 | Shallow Depth of Field is a great technique
to literally make you audience focus exactly
| | 01:22 | where you want them to.
| | 01:24 | Shifting focus between foregrounds subject
to a background subject using Shallow Depth
| | 01:29 | of Field is known as Racking Focus.
| | 01:32 | It's important story telling device for
filmmakers to reveal new information, introduce a character
| | 01:37 | or shift the audience's attention.
| | 01:40 | A Rack Focus Move is also a great way to
open a scene or just add a little visual poetry.
| | 01:46 | So now that you know what Shallow Depth of
Field is, the big question is how you get your
| | 01:52 | camera to do it? Contrary to popular belief,
even inexpensive Consumer cameras can achieve
| | 01:57 | a Shallow Depth of Field
look under the right conditions.
| | 02:00 | The key is knowing the main ingredients to
get Shallow Depth of Field, which are: Imaging
| | 02:05 | Chip size, Focal length, Aperture, and the Distance
between the subject, the camera, and the background.
| | 02:14 | Let's start with one of the easiest ways to get
more Shallow Depth of Field, and that's Focal length.
| | 02:20 | Long telephoto lenses have much more
Shallow Depth of Field than wide lenses.
| | 02:24 | So you want to shoot with a telephoto lens.
Or in the case of zoom lenses, you want to
| | 02:29 | zoom all the way in to you
maximum telephoto setting.
| | 02:33 | Leave your lens at its max telephoto setting
and simply move your camera closer or further
| | 02:38 | away to get the desired composition,
whether it's a close-up, medium, or wide shot.
| | 02:45 | The next thing you want to manipulate is your
Aperture, the lower your f-stop, the more Shallow
| | 02:50 | Depth of Field you can get.
| | 02:52 | If you open up your Aperture to low f-stop
such as F 1.6 or F 2.4, you can get dramatic
| | 02:59 | Depth of field versus
shooting at higher f-stops.
| | 03:02 | When possible, using ND Filter or increasing
your Shutter Speed slightly, will allow you
| | 03:08 | to shoot at a lower f-stop than normal.
| | 03:11 | We're going to talk more about both Shutter
Speed and the ND Filters later in this chapter
| | 03:15 | so you know how to work with both of those.
| | 03:17 | Another important factor to achieving
shallow depth of Field is Distance. If your subject
| | 03:23 | is right up against the wall or very far from the
camera, it is much more difficult to get the effect.
| | 03:28 | The closer the camera is to your subject and
the farther your subject is from the background,
| | 03:33 | the more Shallow Depth of Field will be.
| | 03:37 | Used in combination with the telephoto lens
or fully-zoomed-in lens and an Open Aperture,
| | 03:42 | this is a sure-fire recipe for
cinematic Shallow Depth of Field.
| | 03:47 | Now the final factor that affects Depth of Field is
determined by the Size of your camera's Imaging Chip.
| | 03:53 | The bigger the imaging chip,
the more Shallow Depth of Field.
| | 03:57 | CCDs, or Imaging Chip, are the actual
electronic gizmos that capture an image in video.
| | 04:02 | Most DSLR cameras have very large chips,
compared to dedicated video cameras.
| | 04:07 | So DSLRs naturally have a much more Shallow
Depth of Field, even with medium and wider lenses.
| | 04:14 | Typical chip sizes for Prosumer video
cameras are a quarter-inch, third-inch, and half-inch.
| | 04:19 | So, video cameras with a third-inch imaging
chip or larger, have a more shallow and cinematic
| | 04:24 | Depth of Field, than models
with a smaller quarter-inch chip.
| | 04:28 | So those are all the primary factors that
affect how shallow your Depth of Field is
| | 04:32 | the more of them you can use at the
same time, the greater the effect will be.
| | 04:37 | Don't overdo it, but apply it just enough
and in just the right places, and you'll be
| | 04:42 | creating your own visual
video poetry in no time at all.
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| Understanding exposure| 00:03 | Even though today's DV cameras are more
capable than ever of shooting decent images in low
| | 00:08 | light, the simple rule still applies that
the more light you have to work with, the
| | 00:14 | better the image you can capture on video.
| | 00:16 | More light gives you more control over
exposure, focus, depth of field, and the flexibility
| | 00:23 | to shoot with more filters.
| | 00:24 | A properly exposed image should clearly
show all the visual details in your scene.
| | 00:31 | Pay particular attention to the pattern on
the pavement, the fountain, the subject's
| | 00:37 | face and the light and dark areas of the frame.
| | 00:41 | Now here's the same scene overexposed. Notice
how the details of the building in the background,
| | 00:46 | the pavement, our subject's face, and
fountain are all lost to overexposure in this scene.
| | 00:52 | Here is the same scene, yet
again, this time it's underexposed.
| | 00:58 | In this shot we lose the details in the
shadows and the darker area to the scene, particularly
| | 01:03 | the trees, the subject's hair and
the bottom half of the fountain.
| | 01:08 | And here it is one last time properly
exposed so you can see the difference.
| | 01:13 | Now as you can tell, the big issue with the
bad exposure--whether it's over or under-exposed--
| | 01:19 | is that crucial visual information is
lost when we don't have a proper exposure.
| | 01:25 | So a good exposure is absolutely
essential to controlling your video images.
| | 01:31 | Now let's talk about the whole chain of events
that leads to getting a good exposure in your camera.
| | 01:38 | Factor #1: Light.
| | 01:40 | The very first thing we need to get an
exposure is light, whether it's sunlight, fluorescents,
| | 01:45 | incandescent bulbs, or candlelight, we need a
healthy source of light to illuminate our scene.
| | 01:51 | Remember, we can always easily deal with excess
light, but not having enough light is an issue
| | 01:58 | that's much more problematic.
| | 02:00 | We'll talk about both of these scenarios a
little later, but for now let's continuing
| | 02:05 | examining how light gets into a camera
and is captured to help create an exposure.
| | 02:11 | Factor #2: Is the Focal length of your lens,
generally, the longer and more telephoto the
| | 02:17 | lens, the more light it takes to pass all the
way through and create an acceptable exposure.
| | 02:23 | The more shallow or wider the lens, the
less light it takes to pass through and create
| | 02:28 | an acceptable exposure.
| | 02:29 | In the case of a zoom lens, you can adjust it
to be wide or telephoto, by zooming in and out.
| | 02:37 | When you zoom all the way in, your lens is
longer, when you zoom out, the lenses shorter.
| | 02:43 | You can't see this change of lens length
because it happens internally right in here.
| | 02:48 | Factor #3: Aperture settings.
| | 02:51 | When light enters a glass at the front of
the lens, it must go through the aperture
| | 02:55 | before it gets into the camera.
| | 02:58 | The Aperture, also known as Iris, is the
adjustable opening on the lens that controls the amount
| | 03:03 | of light allowed into the camera.
| | 03:06 | The more the aperture is open, the more light is allowed
to pass through the lens, the brighter the image will be.
| | 03:12 | And conversely, the more the aperture or
Iris is closed, the less light will be allowed
| | 03:18 | to pass through the lens,
the darker the image will be.
| | 03:21 | So when you hear the terms fast or slow used
to describe a lens, it's really a description
| | 03:26 | of how easily light passes through the lens.
| | 03:29 | So-called Slow lenses require more
light to get a good exposure, while Fast lenses
| | 03:36 | are more desirable and more expensive,
because they don't require as much light.
| | 03:41 | So, Fast lenses are friendlier in low
light situations and more versatile.
| | 03:46 | Not all lenses are created equally, but
generally speaking, telephoto and zoom lenses are slower
| | 03:52 | and wide and short prime lenses are faster.
| | 03:55 | Factor #4: Is the Image Chip.
| | 03:58 | Now you have heard me talk a lot about
imaging chips before, that's because it's really the
| | 04:03 | heart of the camera.
| | 04:05 | Once the light passes through the barrel
and Aperture of the lens, it lands on the all
| | 04:10 | important imaging chip, which is where the image
is actually electronically captured in the camera.
| | 04:16 | Remember, as I said many times before, the imaging
chip is to video what the negative is to the film.
| | 04:22 | It's the electronic surface where light is
captured and translated into a digital image.
| | 04:28 | And just like with the negatives, the
bigger the imaging chip, the more light it captures,
| | 04:33 | the brighter the image.
| | 04:34 | So smaller imaging chips like those found
in consumer cameras aren't nearly as good
| | 04:39 | in low light situations as much bigger
imaging chips, like those found in the DSLR
| | 04:45 | cameras, which can capture decent image
with much less light, because they have a much
| | 04:50 | larger surface to gather light.
| | 04:53 | So those are the four primary factors that
affect how bright or dark your image will be.
| | 04:58 | Now we'll take a look at how we can control
and manipulate some of these settings to get
| | 05:02 | the best exposure possible.
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| Using neutral density (ND) filters to correct overexposure| 00:01 | In this movie I am going to
discuss a tool known as the ND Filter.
| | 00:05 | ND stands for Neutral Density.
| | 00:08 | Neutral Density Filters are gray or
colorless filters that cut down the intensity of the
| | 00:13 | light in your shot but do not
change the actual color of your image.
| | 00:17 | So it's color neutral.
| | 00:19 | All it does is reduce the
brightness of the image across the board.
| | 00:23 | In the very simplest terms, I like to
think ND Filters as sunglasses for your camera.
| | 00:29 | Whenever it's too bright out,
you should use an ND Filter.
| | 00:33 | This means just about anytime you are
shooting outside in daylight, you pretty much always
| | 00:38 | need an ND Filter on a bright sunny day, but
believe it or not, you will usually want to
| | 00:42 | use an ND Filter even on overcast rainy days,
because daylight is much brighter than normal
| | 00:48 | light levels indoors.
| | 00:51 | That's why the scene outside the window of most
interior shots is often overexposed and blown out.
| | 00:57 | Now ND Filters are commonly built
into many dedicated video cameras.
| | 01:01 | You will usually find the ND Switch on the left side
of the camera somewhere near the back of the lens.
| | 01:07 | The ND switch will probably have at
least three settings like Off, ND 1, and ND 2.
| | 01:13 | The higher the number after ND, the
more brightness the filter will cut down.
| | 01:18 | Now some models may also be marked with
settings like 1/4th, 1/16th and 1/64th.
| | 01:23 | These settings refer to how much total light
the lens is letting in, 1/4th of the normal
| | 01:28 | amount of light, 1/16th of the
light, or 1/64th of the light.
| | 01:34 | Regardless of how it's marked, the ND Filter
still does the same thing, which is cut down
| | 01:39 | light in a bright scene.
| | 01:42 | The lower ND settings are good for
overcast days when the scene is just blowing out a
| | 01:45 | little bit, and you need to use higher ND
settings for when your scene is really bright.
| | 01:53 | So think of clear sunny day at noon or shooting
in the daytime when there is snow on the ground,
| | 01:57 | or even a sandy beach.
| | 02:01 | Most DSLRs and some Consumer video cameras
may not have any built-in ND Filters, which
| | 02:07 | isn't a big deal, because you can also get
ND Filters as stand-alone camera add-ons.
| | 02:13 | The simplest and most affordable of these
are Screw on Filters, which screw on to the
| | 02:18 | front of your lens.
| | 02:19 | So check to see if the lens on your camera
has little threads on it just like this, if
| | 02:24 | so, then it will take a Screw-on Filter.
| | 02:26 | To find out what size filter your camera takes,
then you want to look on the lens for filter
| | 02:32 | thread size, which is marked on
this one right here on this side.
| | 02:37 | It's going to be expressed in millimeters,
so in this case mine says 77 mm.
| | 02:43 | Another type of ND Filter you can use is a
Matte Box Filter which is a square filter
| | 02:49 | designed to be used in Matte Box.
| | 02:51 | A Matte Box is a camera accessory that goes on
the front of your lens that's used to prevent
| | 02:56 | flayer from the sun and
hold various types of filters.
| | 03:00 | Matte Box Filters are generally more expensive than
Screw on filters, but they serve the same purpose.
| | 03:06 | In either case, there are different types
of External ND Filters that are distinguished
| | 03:11 | by how many stops of light they cut down.
| | 03:14 | Common ND Filters used for video are 0.3,
0.6 and 0.9, which respectively cut down
| | 03:20 | 1, 2, or 3 stops of light.
| | 03:24 | These pretty much cover the range of what
you will need for any typical situation.
| | 03:29 | Now you may be wondering why use an ND Filter
when you can just close Iris all the way down
| | 03:33 | to control in over-expose scene? Closing
your Iris all the way down to a F11 or F16 will
| | 03:40 | work to control exposure most of the time.
| | 03:42 | However, you'll probably lose your ability
to still adjust your exposure up or down as
| | 03:47 | you shoot different subjects.
| | 03:50 | Another big reason to use an ND Filter is
that it allows you to shoot at a much wider
| | 03:54 | f-stop, like F2, which will give
you a more Shallow Depth of Field.
| | 03:59 | Shallow Depth of Field looks more cinematic
and helps them secure distracting backgrounds.
| | 04:05 | Of course, we talked all about Shallow Depth
of Field in an earlier movie in this chapter.
| | 04:10 | Lastly, another common type of ND
Filter is the Graduated ND Filter.
| | 04:16 | Graduated Filters only have the
filtration effect, on one half of the filter.
| | 04:21 | Graduated Filters are used just to keep the
sky from blowing out, but allow the rest of
| | 04:25 | your image to be exposed as normal, since the sky
is often much brighter than the rest of the image.
| | 04:32 | Graduated Filters are great for maintaining
the details of clouds and a clear blue sky
| | 04:37 | while not underexposing
darker subjects in your frame.
| | 04:41 | So I think it's pretty clear now that ND
Filters are a basic necessity for shooting outdoors
| | 04:46 | and controlling your
Exposure and Depth of Field.
| | 04:50 | Whether they are built-into your camera or
adding on, they are vital tool that you will
| | 04:54 | want to use most of the time to control
your image when shooting outdoors in daylight.
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| Using zebra stripes to accurately judge exposure| 00:00 | Now let's talk about a major feature
that can help you better judge exposure.
| | 00:06 | It's very easy to misjudge exposure on a
little 3-inch LCD screen, especially when shooting
| | 00:12 | in daylight. Lucky for you,
there are Zebra Stripes.
| | 00:16 | Zebra Stripes are camera functions that help
you judge exposure by superimposing vibrating
| | 00:22 | diagonal stripes on the
overexposed part of the image.
| | 00:26 | These stripes are only seen on your camera's
viewfinder or LCD screen and are never recorded
| | 00:33 | to tape or even seen or an external monitor.
| | 00:36 | Zebra Stripes, like Anthony Artis, are your
friend. We're both here to tell you when you're
| | 00:42 | doing something wrong and help
you correct it before it's too late.
| | 00:47 | To set your Zebra Stripes, look for a button
on your camera that says Zebra and turn it on.
| | 00:53 | On most cameras this button can be found on
the side of the camera, usually near the switches
| | 00:57 | for Gain, Peaking, or White Balance.
| | 01:01 | On this camera the Zebra button is
on the panel under the LCD screen.
| | 01:07 | To make sure your Zebra Stripes are setup
properly, check your camera's menu for Zebra function.
| | 01:15 | Set the Zebra Stripes function to 100%.
| | 01:21 | Now, whenever you point the camera at anything
that's more than 100% of the acceptable video
| | 01:28 | level, in other words,
overexposed, you'll know without guessing.
| | 01:33 | You usually don't want to close down the
lens to get rid of all the Zebra Stripes in the
| | 01:38 | image, there should still be some Zebra
Stripes on the natural highlights in the image, such
| | 01:43 | as lights, dazzling jewelry, the sun,
shiny objects, oily skin, et cetera.
| | 01:49 | Where you don't want to have a significant
number of Zebra Stripes is on your subject's
| | 01:54 | face or important details in the frame.
| | 01:57 | If there are Zebra Stripes on your
subject's face or on important details of the image,
| | 02:02 | try these common remedies.
| | 02:04 | First, you could try stopping down your
lens. Just lower your Aperture and f-stop at 2.
| | 02:10 | This will work find when you have a
lot of Zebra Stripes on your subject.
| | 02:16 | You could also use a ND Filter. Your camera's
built-in ND Filter will work to cut down the
| | 02:21 | brightness of the scene
with Zebra Stripes throughout.
| | 02:25 | But often your overall scene will be exposed
perfectly except the sky, which is much brighter
| | 02:31 | than everything else in the frame.
| | 02:33 | If you're only getting major Zebra Stripes
on the sky, than a graduated ND Filter that
| | 02:38 | cuts down the brightness on one half or one
third of your frame, may be the best solution.
| | 02:45 | The third solution you could
try is to just recompose the shot.
| | 02:49 | If you don't have a graduated ND Filter or
the time to switch to one, keep it low-tech
| | 02:54 | and just recompose your shot so
we see less of the overexposed area.
| | 02:59 | Instead of shooting with the sky or white
wall as your background, reposition the camera
| | 03:04 | so that you have something darker in the
background of your shot that won't overexpose so much.
| | 03:10 | Zebra Stripes are simple
tool to help you judge exposure.
| | 03:14 | I recommend you get into the habit of
using Zebra Stripes every time you shoot.
| | 03:19 | Your naked eyes are not the best judge of
exposure, but Zebra Stripes a much more reliable.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using gain to artificially brighten an underexposed shot| 00:04 | So we know that your camera's aperture is
the primary control for exposure, and the ND
| | 00:09 | Filters can be used to deal with overexposure.
However, what about when the scene is too
| | 00:14 | dark and underexposed? Well, that's
where the Gain function comes in.
| | 00:19 | The term Gain can be a little bit confusing
in video, because there are two types of Gain
| | 00:25 | in digital video, Audio Gain and Video Gain.
| | 00:29 | In the world of video, the term
Gain is just a fancy word for level.
| | 00:33 | So when you hear the word Gain, it just refers
to digitally boosting the light or sound levels.
| | 00:38 | Both are measured in
units called decibels or dB.
| | 00:42 | In this movie, I am just focusing on Video Gain.
| | 00:45 | If your image is still too dark after fully
opening up your lens, it's time to turn on
| | 00:50 | your camera's Gain function.
| | 00:52 | Your camera's Video Gain function allows you to
get a better exposure in low light situations.
| | 00:59 | It's a way of artificially brightening the
image, and that's the keyword here, artificial.
| | 01:04 | You aren't really letting more light into
the lens like you would if you open your
| | 01:08 | iris or lowered your shutter speed.
| | 01:10 | Those are both organic ways of boosting your
exposure that physically allow more light into the lens.
| | 01:16 | Gain, however, is a camera feature that
electronically boosts your exposure.
| | 01:20 | This is an important distinction
because it has one very big drawback.
| | 01:25 | The big downside to using Gain is that it
introduces video noise, and just like it sounds,
| | 01:32 | the noise that comes along with
using Gain is not a good thing.
| | 01:36 | It's essentially grainy video
static that degrades your image.
| | 01:40 | It's a permanent part of the recorded picture that cannot
be removed in post, so what you see is what you will get.
| | 01:48 | Most Prosumer cameras have Gain settings
that increase by increments of 3 dB and run the
| | 01:53 | range of 0 dB--which is no Gain--to 18 dB,
which will be very grainy and degraded.
| | 02:00 | The higher you turn up the Gain,
the noisier your picture will be.
| | 02:04 | This is especially noticeable in the
blacks and darker colors in the image.
| | 02:08 | So whenever you can, you always want to try a
more organic way to increase your exposure first.
| | 02:14 | This means making sure your iris is fully
open, adding more light to scene if possible,
| | 02:19 | and perhaps even lowering your shutter speed
down a notch, which I'll explain more in the
| | 02:23 | Shutter Speed movie.
| | 02:25 | The fact that Gain degrades image doesn't
mean that we don't want to ever use a Gain,
| | 02:30 | that's not at all what I am telling you.
| | 02:32 | The reality is that in many situations
such as shooting night exteriors, music venues,
| | 02:37 | or dimly lit wedding halls, Gain is the only
thing that will allow you to capture a decent image.
| | 02:43 | The trick is to never use a decibel more of
Gain than what you need to get a decent exposure.
| | 02:48 | I'd like to tell filmmakers
to think of Gain like salt.
| | 02:52 | Sometimes you will absolutely need it to make
something taste good, but if you use too much,
| | 02:57 | you can ruin your food completely.
| | 02:59 | So use Gain whenever you
need it, just don't use too much.
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| Choosing the right shutter speed| 00:01 | When I first started in video, shutter speed
was one of those terms that I heard many times
| | 00:06 | but honestly never knew exactly what it
meant, or more importantly, what it was for and how
| | 00:10 | I could apply it to my own video projects.
| | 00:13 | So let me make it plain for you.
| | 00:15 | The primary purpose of manipulating your shutter
speed is to control how motion is portrayed in a scene.
| | 00:22 | In other words, how the moving things and
people look on video, normal, the way our
| | 00:27 | naked eye sees it, blurry, or
sharp, strobe-like, and surreal.
| | 00:33 | To best understand shutter speed, think of a
still film camera that actually has a little
| | 00:37 | mechanical shutter or door that opens and
closes to expose each frame of film for a
| | 00:43 | given amount of time, such as 1/48th
of a second or 1/1000th of a second.
| | 00:47 | The thing you need to understand is when you
are working with video, these rules of shutter
| | 00:53 | speeds still apply exactly the same
to each individual frame of video.
| | 00:57 | So there are two key principles to
understand when it comes to shutter speed.
| | 01:04 | Principle #1, the longer the shutter stays
open, the more motion is captured in the frame,
| | 01:10 | the more an object moving
on screen will be blurred.
| | 01:14 | Principle #2, the longer the shutter stays
open, the more light the frame is exposed
| | 01:19 | to, which means the
brighter the picture will be.
| | 01:22 | Conversely, the shorter your shutter speed, the
less light and motion are captured on each frame.
| | 01:28 | Once you've got this basic concept down, you
can start to apply it to the all-important goal
| | 01:34 | of telling your visual story in new and creative
ways that complement, manipulate, and play with motion.
| | 01:41 | For normal shooting, where you want things
to look natural, like your naked eye, your
| | 01:45 | shutter speed should be set
to double your frame rate.
| | 01:48 | So if you are shooting at 24 frames per second, you
should set your shutter speed to 1/48th for normal motion.
| | 01:55 | If you're shooting at 30 frames per second
you should set your shutter speed to 1/60th
| | 02:00 | for normal motion, et cetera.
| | 02:03 | Remember to adjust your exposure after
changing shutter speeds, since your exposure will be
| | 02:07 | noticeably different.
| | 02:09 | Although shutter speed also affects other
aspects of your image, namely Exposure and
| | 02:14 | Depth of Field, its primary use is to control how
motion is portrayed in each frame of video, sharp or blurry.
| | 02:22 | Now another way the filmmakers can use shutter
speed is to achieve a specific stylistic look.
| | 02:29 | You've probably already noticed from the
previous example that when you shoot a really high
| | 02:33 | shutter speed, the video can look
choppy, overly shot and strobe-like.
| | 02:38 | This effect could accent a high action scene.
| | 02:40 | You might remember the style from movies like
Saving Private Ryan or the Zombie Movie 28 Days Later.
| | 02:46 | On the other end of the spectrum, if you
shoot with an unusually slow shutter speed, your
| | 02:51 | video can look more blurry,
dreamlike or hallucinogenic.
| | 02:55 | Remember, these are stylistic choices, so
you would really only use these when they
| | 02:59 | complement the visual story you are telling.
| | 03:03 | The primary purpose of shutter speed is to
control how motion is portrayed in video,
| | 03:07 | but the secondary purpose
is to manipulate exposure.
| | 03:10 | It's a standard practice for many videographers
to lower the shutter speed one or two settings
| | 03:17 | below normal, so instead of shooting with
a shutter speed of 1/48th, when shooting at
| | 03:21 | 24 frames per second, they might instead set
the shutter speed to 1/32 or even 1/24, if they
| | 03:27 | were feeling really wild and crazy.
| | 03:30 | This means that each frame of video is
exposed longer and therefore brighter.
| | 03:35 | Now unlike using Gain, lowering your shutter
speed naturally lets more light into the lens.
| | 03:40 | So it's like being able to shoot a full
stop below your camera's lowest f-stop without
| | 03:45 | any video noise side effect.
| | 03:47 | Because it's only a notch or two down from
your normal shutter speed setting, this technique
| | 03:52 | only has a minimal effect on motion
that results in slightly more image blur.
| | 03:56 | So you just have to be a little slower
with moves like pans and tilts. So that's it.
| | 04:02 | Shutter Speed is a very useful control to
manipulate motion, get a stylistic look, boost
| | 04:07 | exposure, or shoot better footage to
freeze frame and slowdown and post.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding color temperature| 00:01 | In order to understand how to use your
camera's White Balance function, you have to first
| | 00:06 | understand the very important
concept of color temperature.
| | 00:11 | So in this movie I am going to break it down
quickly before I show you how to white balance.
| | 00:16 | So here's all you really need to know
about color temperature to get started.
| | 00:20 | All light has its own
particular color temperature.
| | 00:23 | Color temperature affects what color
that light will look like on video.
| | 00:27 | So, different light sources, such as sunlight,
fluorescent lights, and light from incandescent
| | 00:32 | bulbs all appear as different colors on camera
because they all have different color temperatures.
| | 00:39 | Daylight is generally bluish.
| | 00:41 | Fluorescent light bulbs, particularly older ones, tend
to be greenish, and fire and candlelight are both very red.
| | 00:48 | The reason it doesn't look that way to our
naked eye is that we have built-in auto white
| | 00:52 | balance, so most light
appears white to our eyes.
| | 00:56 | However, video cameras see
the light as it truly is.
| | 01:00 | So we have to always make sure we tell our
camera how to make the light look white in
| | 01:04 | any scene, and this process
is called White Balancing.
| | 01:09 | Your camera's White Balance function
compensates for the variations in color temperature by
| | 01:14 | making the dominant colored light appear as
normal white light regardless of its true color.
| | 01:20 | When a camera has not been properly white
balanced, sunlit scenes look hideously blue
| | 01:25 | or indoor scenes look horribly orange.
| | 01:29 | Color temperature, just like air
temperature, is measured in degrees.
| | 01:33 | However, instead of degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius,
color temperature is measured in degrees Kelvin.
| | 01:40 | You don't really need to know a
lot about this except the basics.
| | 01:43 | Dome lights for indoor use are ideally near
3200 degrees Kelvin but can fall in a wide
| | 01:49 | range of the color spectrum.
| | 01:52 | Dome lights designed to match daylight
color are ideally near 5600 degrees Kelvin.
| | 01:58 | Written out, these color temperatures would
appear as 3200K for interior light or 5600K
| | 02:04 | for Daylight on a bulb,
LCD display, or camera menu.
| | 02:09 | Of course, as I already said, both indoor
and daylight vary from room to room, depending
| | 02:14 | on the particular light source,
and Daylight varies by time of day.
| | 02:18 | During sunrise or sunset, color
temperature will be much warmer.
| | 02:22 | So these numbers are just a quick go-to standard,
if you are in a hurry or just really unsure.
| | 02:28 | White balance--which we'll get into in the
next movie--is a crucial feature that allows
| | 02:33 | your camera to adjust to the exact
color conditions of the situation.
| | 02:38 | If you have a camera with manual white
balance--which I highly recommend that you do--then
| | 02:42 | you never have to be
unsure about color temperature.
| | 02:46 | So whether the scene is actually 2200K, 3700K,
or 6000K, you'll be right on the money every
| | 02:53 | time you manually white balance.
| | 02:55 | So those are all the basics of color temperature and
why you need to properly white balance your camera.
| | 03:00 | In the next movie I am going to discuss exactly how
and when to white balance your camera in detail.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| White balancing a shot| 00:00 | So in the previous movie I explained the
concept of color temperature and why it's
| | 00:05 | important to white balance.
| | 00:07 | If you don't understand exactly what color
temperature is, you should watch that movie
| | 00:11 | first, because the concept of color temperature
and the function of white balance go hand in hand.
| | 00:17 | Now in this movie I am going to discuss
exactly how and when to white balance your camera.
| | 00:24 | Most cameras have built-in preset functions
for daylight and indoor white balance and
| | 00:29 | fairly reliable auto white balance functions.
| | 00:32 | These functions are sometimes indicated by
a little light bulb symbol for indoor light
| | 00:36 | at 3200K or a little sun
symbol for daylight at 5600K.
| | 00:42 | In the case of auto white balance, you're
likely to see ATW or Auto WB somewhere on the screen.
| | 00:50 | You can use the factory presets or auto
white balance if it's more practical, but if you
| | 00:55 | want the best results, then you need to
learn the white balance the way the pros do, and
| | 01:00 | that's full manual baby.
| | 01:02 | So the first real question is when should
you white balance? Essentially, you want to
| | 01:08 | always white balance anytime the lighting
condition changes, such as you move from indoors
| | 01:15 | to outdoors or vice-versa.
| | 01:17 | The sun is now lower in the sky than when
you first started shooting or you turned on
| | 01:22 | some overhead fluorescent
lights that went on before.
| | 01:25 | If you even think the lighting conditions
may have changed, you should re-white balance
| | 01:29 | your camera just to be sure.
| | 01:32 | There is no such thing as over white balancing.
| | 01:36 | The worst you can possibly do is
correct the colors in your image.
| | 01:39 | So when in doubt, do it again,
it only takes a few seconds.
| | 01:44 | First, we have to put the
camera in manual white balance mode.
| | 01:48 | Somewhere on the left side of many Prosumer
cameras, you'll find a white balance select switch.
| | 01:53 | This is the switch you use to choose between
different white balance modes in the camera.
| | 01:58 | On many cameras it's generically labeled as A,
B, and Preset, which will allow you to select
| | 02:03 | between Manual, Auto White
Balance, and Preset White Balance.
| | 02:08 | Consult your camera manual to see
exactly which setting is for which mode.
| | 02:13 | On most cameras, you can go into the menu
and assign whether the A and B switches are
| | 02:17 | Manual or Auto White Balance.
| | 02:20 | On this camera, I set A to Auto White Balance and B
to Manual, so I am covered for all shooting situations.
| | 02:26 | So I am going to put this into the B position.
| | 02:29 | Now I'm ready to manually
white balance my camera.
| | 02:33 | Step 1: first, you want to hold a
white card in front of your subject.
| | 02:36 | A large sheet of foam core board will work,
but a standard bright white piece of paper
| | 02:41 | like the back of a script would do the job
just fine, even a crisp clean white T-shirt
| | 02:46 | will also do the job in a pinch.
| | 02:48 | However, you want to avoid using off-white
and cream colored paper to white balance.
| | 02:54 | Step 2: make sure that your white card is
in the exact same light as your subject.
| | 03:00 | Step 3: adjust your framing so that the
shot is filled with just the white card.
| | 03:07 | Step 4: adjust your exposure so that it is
not over or underexposed but just right.
| | 03:14 | If your exposure is off, your white
balance will likely be off as well.
| | 03:18 | Step 5: make sure your camera is in Manual
White Balance mode as we discussed earlier.
| | 03:25 | Step 6: push the White Balance button, which
is typically found near the front of the camera
| | 03:30 | on most Prosumer camera models, and voila!
You have just white balanced your camera.
| | 03:37 | Now, there's one important note to keep in
mind when using colored gels and professional
| | 03:42 | lighting gear, you want to remember to always
white balance before adding any colored gels
| | 03:47 | to your light, or your white
balance will not be correct.
| | 03:50 | We'll be talking about colored gels
when we get into the lighting chapter.
| | 03:54 | So to review, you want to manually white balance
your camera any time the lighting condition changes.
| | 04:02 | Just as with focusing, we want to white balance
manually for maximum control over our image whenever possible.
| | 04:08 | However, as you'll discover with
experience, this ain't always possible.
| | 04:14 | Sometimes you will be in a situation where the
lighting conditions are changing so frequently
| | 04:17 | or unpredictably that it's simply not practical to
stop and manually white balance your camera each time.
| | 04:24 | For example, if you were shooting while
going from indoors to outdoors or vice-versa, or
| | 04:29 | if you are following someone on a walking
toward their business, you may be traveling
| | 04:33 | through rooms lit by tungsten,
fluorescent and daylight at any given moment.
| | 04:37 | For these types of fluid situations, I
recommend using Auto White Balance so that your camera
| | 04:42 | adjusts to each situation as it arises, and you can
just focus on getting the shot and keeping it moving.
| | 04:49 | The bottom line is whether you white
balance manually or automatically, it's important
| | 04:54 | that you always make sure your camera is
showing the scene as it looks to your naked eyes or
| | 05:00 | in the way you want it to look artistically.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Moving the CameraChoosing the right tripod| 00:01 | The most important part of your camera
package apart from the camera itself is your tripod.
| | 00:07 | Smooth pans and tilts and nice even zooms are best
accomplished with a good professional quality tripod.
| | 00:14 | And on a practical note, using a tripod is much easier
on the back and knees than shooting handheld all day.
| | 00:20 | Your hands can be free to write, signal an
assistant, or swap out media cards.
| | 00:24 | You can also tilt or pan smoothly across the scene,
or just chill and relax a little when the
| | 00:30 | action is stationary.
| | 00:31 | And a quick word of advice before I jump in
here, cheap plastic consumer level tripods
| | 00:37 | are far more trouble than
they're worth when it comes to video.
| | 00:40 | They simply won't do the job, and you are
eventually going to end up spending more money
| | 00:44 | to buy a professional quality tripod or you
are going to suffer through one box camera
| | 00:48 | move after another.
| | 00:50 | So don't even think about these.
| | 00:52 | Similarly, tripods designed for still
photo use, are also not suitable for video.
| | 00:58 | Now yes, they are going to hold a camera
still just fine, however, they were not meant for
| | 01:02 | the type of smooth fluid camera moves that we
need to make whenever we are shooting video.
| | 01:08 | So now that we've cleared up what we don't
want in our tripod let's talk about what we
| | 01:13 | do want in a tripod.
| | 01:15 | So here are the four key
characteristics that we want to look for in a tripod.
| | 01:19 | Number 1 is weight capacity.
| | 01:22 | Make sure your tripod is rated
to handle you camera's weight.
| | 01:26 | Don't forget the extra weight that your
camera might take on when you count in batteries,
| | 01:30 | camera lights, or external monitors and rigs.
| | 01:33 | Even if you have a smaller camera, it's always
nice to have a tripod that can handle a little
| | 01:38 | more weight than your specific camera so that
it will grow with you as you add accessories
| | 01:42 | to your kit and move on to
bigger and better cameras.
| | 01:46 | The other thing you want to look for in a
tripod that I have already put on the camera
| | 01:49 | right here is a quick release plate.
| | 01:52 | Now a good professional tripod, just like this
one I have right here, will have a quick release
| | 01:57 | plate so that you can quickly get
the camera on and off of the tripod.
| | 02:03 | So it stays attached to the camera during
shooting, but then whenever you need to pull
| | 02:06 | it off, you can quickly pull it right back off.
| | 02:09 | Whenever you need to go handheld or move the
camera, this item is a must for unpredictable
| | 02:14 | documentary and event video production.
| | 02:17 | The other thing you want to look
for in a tripod is a fluid head.
| | 02:21 | Any tripod that you shoot
with should have a fluid head.
| | 02:25 | Fluid head tripods are made just for film
and video work, they are especially designed
| | 02:29 | for the ultra smooth pans and tilts
that we need to do when filmmaking.
| | 02:34 | Fluid head tripods with video are more expensive
than still photo tripods, but they are necessary
| | 02:40 | and worth it to pull off
professional quality camerawork.
| | 02:44 | Now the fourth thing to look for
are pan and tilt tension knobs.
| | 02:49 | This is another feature that you are going
to find in a professional quality tripod.
| | 02:52 | It's a tension knob just like this one right
here that allows you to adjust the tilt tension
| | 02:58 | up-and-down, and then similarly we have a
pan tension knob located underneath here that
| | 03:04 | adjusts the resistance when I
am moving from left to right.
| | 03:07 | So those are the four key things to look
for whenever you are investing in a tripod.
| | 03:12 | Now let's talk about how
we actually use a tripod.
| | 03:16 | Now a good video tripod only has three
simple but crucial functions, and that is to hold
| | 03:21 | a shot perfectly still, to pull off the
pan move--which is any movement left or right--
| | 03:26 | or to pull off the tilt move--
which is any motion up or down.
| | 03:30 | If your tripod has one, you also want to use
a spirit bubble, also known as the leveling
| | 03:36 | bubble, on the back here, to make
sure that your tripod is leveled.
| | 03:39 | But if you are pressed for time or if you
are working with a tripod that doesn't have
| | 03:42 | a level bubble, just make sure you
carefully check your frame against the horizon line
| | 03:47 | or the horizontal lines on the floor or ceiling.
| | 03:50 | Also make sure that you don't get into the
bad habit of using your tensions to lock down
| | 03:56 | your tripod or using your locks to
adjust the tension of your tripod.
| | 04:01 | If you do either of those things, you are
probably going to shorten the life of your tripod.
| | 04:06 | Now apart from standard tripods like this
one right here, another tool that you might
| | 04:10 | want to also consider and have maybe even
an addition to your tripod is a monopod.
| | 04:15 | Monopods are great anytime you need
to travel light or stay on the go.
| | 04:19 | It's just like a tripod
except it only has one leg.
| | 04:22 | So monopods are practical for shorter shots and
doing a lot of quick setups in a short amount of time.
| | 04:29 | And lastly, I am a very big
believer in a tool is as a tool does.
| | 04:34 | So one thing I want to point out here even
though we have all these tools available to
| | 04:38 | us is that basically you
can use anything for a tripod.
| | 04:43 | A tripod is as a tripod does, and in this
case, I could have a sandbag, sitting on top
| | 04:49 | of a stationary surface, I could use a mailbox,
I could use a desk with a pile of books, the
| | 04:54 | trunk of a car, basically anything that will
allow you to get a steady shot can be used
| | 04:59 | as a down and dirty
makeshift tripod when necessary.
| | 05:03 | So, simple solutions to everyday filmmaking
problems are all around you when you use your imagination.
| | 05:10 | So whether you use a tripod, a monopod, or
if you have to find a more creative solution,
| | 05:15 | know that steady shots and smooth moves will
help your videos look and feel more professional
| | 05:20 | and the tool that will help you get the
steadiest shots and the smoothest moves is a tripod.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding camera moves| 00:01 | Okay, in this movie I'm going to go over some
common camera moves and give you some advice
| | 00:05 | on how you can best execute and use
camera moves to better tell your visual story.
| | 00:10 | A static, stationary camera is a
sure way to bore your audience.
| | 00:15 | Camera moves like pans, tilts, and zooms go
a long way to make your videos look much more
| | 00:21 | dynamic and interesting.
| | 00:23 | These moves are most often done from a
tripod, but you can also pull them off handheld.
| | 00:28 | So let's start with one of the
most basic camera moves, a pan.
| | 00:32 | A pan move is any movement of the
camera from left to right or right to left.
| | 00:37 | It's a perfect way to shift the focus of
your scene from one subject to the next, to show
| | 00:41 | reactions to the main character or to
just transition into or out of a scene.
| | 00:47 | So let's talk about executing a pan move now.
| | 00:51 | Before we start, we are going to check
to make sure our tripod isn't locked down.
| | 00:55 | Then we are going to adjust
the pan tension on the tripod.
| | 00:59 | The tension controls the amount of resistance,
so if you want a really fast pan move, you
| | 01:04 | want to loosen the tension some, and if you
want a more slow and deliberate pan, you'll
| | 01:08 | probably need to tighten the pan tension.
| | 01:11 | Let's go through the three steps to pan.
| | 01:14 | Step 1: focus up and adjust your
composition to your desired starting shot.
| | 01:21 | Step 2: nice and easy, use the tripod handle
to smoothly move the camera from one side
| | 01:27 | to the other until you
land on your desired end shot.
| | 01:33 | Step 3: adjust the focus as
necessary on your end shot.
| | 01:37 | And voila! You've got yourself a pan.
| | 01:41 | Now let's talk about tilt moves.
| | 01:43 | Tilt moves are basically the same as pans,
only instead of moving left or right, a tilt
| | 01:48 | move is a move up or down.
| | 01:50 | So it's tilts a camera on the tripod.
| | 01:55 | Just like with the pan, the first thing we
are going to do is adjust the tension on our
| | 01:58 | fluid head tripod so that our tilt is at the
right speed with the right amount of resistance
| | 02:03 | for the weight of our
camera and our own comfort level.
| | 02:07 | So now let's go through the steps for tilt move.
| | 02:11 | Step 1: focus up and adjust your
composition to your desired starting shot.
| | 02:17 | Step 2: nice and easy, use the tripod handle
to smoothly move the camera up or down until
| | 02:24 | you land on your desired end shot.
| | 02:30 | Step 3: adjust the focus as
necessary for your end shot.
| | 02:37 | So that's a tilt move, pretty much the
exact same as the pan move but up and down.
| | 02:41 | So these are all pretty simple moves,
but now let's talk about zoom moves.
| | 02:46 | Whether you are zooming in or out, there one
constant, your move has to be smooth like butter.
| | 02:52 | That means it should be
slow, steady, and controlled.
| | 02:56 | This means you absolutely need to be familiar
with the sensitivity of your particular camera
| | 03:01 | zoom control, because these
controls are often pressure sensitive.
| | 03:05 | So the lighter you press, the slower the
move, the harder you press, the faster.
| | 03:10 | The key to getting smooth zooms, whether fast
or slow, is to maintain the exact same amount
| | 03:16 | of pressure on the rocker control all the way
through the move, and that's all there is to it.
| | 03:22 | So those are the simplest explanations
when it comes to the three basic camera moves,
| | 03:27 | but there are actually a few more variables
that come into play that we'll also need to
| | 03:30 | take into consideration if we
want to get the best results.
| | 03:33 | So I am going to give you three quick tips to
help you pull off better camera moves every time.
| | 03:40 | Tip #1, decide your end shot ahead of time.
| | 03:44 | Just like writing a script, if you start
out not knowing exactly where you're going to
| | 03:48 | end up, it's a lot harder to get there.
| | 03:51 | So a big part of any camera move is knowing what
your end shot is going to be before you start the move.
| | 03:58 | Even if you're shooting a live documentary
scene, scan the scene with your eyes and find
| | 04:03 | the logical end shot for your move.
| | 04:05 | For example, if you were tilting up let's
just say on a guy, a logical end point might
| | 04:11 | be the top of his head.
| | 04:12 | However, you may decide that the move will
work better in editing for your story if you
| | 04:17 | keep tilting past the
top of his head to the sky.
| | 04:20 | I suggest doing your pan
and tilt moves both ways.
| | 04:25 | Stopping with the subject in the frame and
continuing past your subject to give yourself
| | 04:29 | more options in the edit room.
| | 04:32 | Tip #2, practice your move just
like a golf swing or free-throw.
| | 04:37 | Nobody just steps up to the golf tee or the
free throw line in the basketball court and
| | 04:42 | just goes for it right away. Instead, they take
a few practice strokes. They line up the shot.
| | 04:47 | Well, what we need to do, the same exact
things when we are behind the camera, because doing
| | 04:52 | a few practice moves before you hit the record
button will greatly improve your odds of getting
| | 04:57 | a good move the first time out.
| | 04:59 | In the case of zoom moves, if your camera
has a zoom scale on the screen, use it to
| | 05:04 | precisely plan your starting and ending shot so
that you can always end on the same composition.
| | 05:10 | Making it a habit to practice your camera
moves before you hit the record button will
| | 05:14 | save you media space and time in editing,
sifting through five bad camera moves to find
| | 05:20 | the one move that eventually worked.
| | 05:22 | Tip #3, adjust your focus and
composition for the end shot as you go.
| | 05:28 | Now if your end subject is at a different
distance than your starting subject, chances
| | 05:32 | are you are going to need to adjust your focus
as well as your composition in order to maintain
| | 05:37 | a good and consistent shot.
| | 05:39 | This is especially true when
you're zoomed all the way in.
| | 05:42 | This is another great reason to practice
your move ahead of time, so you can figure out
| | 05:46 | exactly how much you'll need to push in, pull
out, or adjust your focus before you get there.
| | 05:53 | Now you can always just complete the move and
adjust your shot at the end, but it definitely
| | 05:57 | looks smoother and more professional if you
can adjust your frame and focus simultaneously
| | 06:02 | as you make your move.
| | 06:04 | Now moving the camera, focusing, and
zooming all at the same time can definitely be a
| | 06:09 | tricky feet to pull off,
especially if you want the experience.
| | 06:13 | So one thing you can try is using autofocus
and auto exposure for these type of tricky
| | 06:17 | camera moves so that all you have to do is move
your camera and adjust your composition as you go.
| | 06:24 | So those are the basic camera
moves you can execute from a tripod.
| | 06:28 | These three moves can also be accomplished
handheld, but I'll talk about handheld shooting
| | 06:32 | more in another movie in this chapter.
| | 06:35 | Now there are many reasons to move your
camera at different points, but know that camera
| | 06:39 | moves always work best if there is
a story-driven-reason to make them.
| | 06:43 | Remember, practice makes perfect, so get
familiar with your camera's controls and tripod and
| | 06:49 | think and plan it through beforehand,
and you'll get smoother moves every time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mastering hand-held shooting| 00:02 | So I already discussed the importance and
advantages of using a tripod to get steady shots.
| | 00:07 | But there is a flipside to every argument,
and the flipside to using a tripod is going
| | 00:13 | handheld, which has its own unique advantages.
| | 00:16 | A potential downside to using a tripod is
that a video full of all rock-steady shots
| | 00:21 | can often become boring and formal.
| | 00:24 | Handheld camera work, on the other hand,
can be much more personal and subjective.
| | 00:29 | When shooting handheld, you can quickly
change positions to cover the action in a dynamic
| | 00:33 | scene as it shifts.
| | 00:36 | This means you can quickly change
positions to cover the action from a reverse angle,
| | 00:39 | or another subject's point of view, and you'll have
greater options to get creative with camera moves.
| | 00:45 | Going handheld allows you to really shoot
for the cut and capture more dynamic scene
| | 00:50 | by grabbing full coverage from
multiple angles in a short amount of time.
| | 00:55 | A nimble and skilled camera person can
easily make it seem like there were three cameras
| | 00:59 | recording any given event, with
a little forethought and hustle.
| | 01:04 | Sure, anybody can handheld
a camera to shoot a scene.
| | 01:08 | But if you want to do it and actually have
it look steady and professional, you got to
| | 01:13 | do it right. So let's go over
some basic handheld technique.
| | 01:16 | It's not complicated, but you do have to
remember these three things whenever you shoot.
| | 01:21 | The first thing that you
want to do is go full wide.
| | 01:26 | Then I want you to forget
that this zoom control exists.
| | 01:28 | Your fingers aren't going to touch it anymore.
| | 01:31 | If you want to get a medium or close-up
shot just move closer or further away from your
| | 01:36 | subject to adjust your frame.
| | 01:38 | The reason you want to shoot handheld with
your lens's widest zoom setting is to minimize
| | 01:43 | shake from moving the camera.
| | 01:46 | Handheld shots with the lens zoomed in are
much harder to control and will always look
| | 01:50 | much shakier than wide handheld
shots, which help mask the movement.
| | 01:55 | The next thing you want to do is keep your
elbows braced against your body to brace the camera.
| | 02:01 | Notice how my elbows are
acting as a natural brace.
| | 02:04 | It's also much easier on the
arms over a long day of shooting.
| | 02:08 | This is much steadier and
easier to hold than this.
| | 02:13 | Now the other thing to keep in mind is that your
right-hand is always going to be holding the camera.
| | 02:18 | So you want to use your free hand to steady
your camera work or to steady the camera itself
| | 02:23 | by grouping the lens, or just
supporting the camera body from beneath.
| | 02:27 | Lastly, you want to find a comfortable
stance and lower your center of gravity slightly
| | 02:32 | as you twist left or right to follow the action.
| | 02:37 | So that's basic handheld technique.
| | 02:39 | Remember, go full wide, brace
your elbows, and steady the camera.
| | 02:45 | Now many Prosumer cameras also have a feature
called Optical Image Stabilization, sometimes
| | 02:51 | called Steady Shot.
| | 02:53 | Look for a button or a camera menu
item that says OIS or SteadyShot.
| | 02:58 | This is an internal feature on the camera that
helps to reduce the shakiness of handheld camera work.
| | 03:03 | Now don't confuse Optical Image Stabilization
or SteadyShot with Steadicam, which is a very
| | 03:09 | expensive and advanced
professional camera stabilization device.
| | 03:13 | You can't just turn on Optical Image
Stabilization and run down the street with your camera and
| | 03:18 | expect a steady image.
| | 03:19 | However, Optical Image Stabilization will help
make crappy camera work a little less crappy.
| | 03:25 | So use it whenever you go handheld
and turn it off when you're on a tripod.
| | 03:30 | So we just went over the basics of
traditional handheld camera technique you want to use
| | 03:34 | most of the time, but what about those
special situations and occasions when you want to
| | 03:39 | get a little funky with it.
| | 03:40 | Well, I'll show you some other
handhelds techniques for that.
| | 03:44 | Another very steady way to
handheld the camera is called Cradling.
| | 03:48 | If you use this position, you'll want to
angle your LCD screen up so you can see it.
| | 03:53 | You may want to occasionally switch to a
cradle position to give your arms a break.
| | 03:57 | This is also a good position to use for
projects that call for an active high-energy Music
| | 04:02 | TV or Sports TV stock camera work, which
generally requires you to move back and forth a lot,
| | 04:08 | tilt the camera and make slight and quick
adjustments to the frame as you shoot live.
| | 04:14 | Cradling is also a good handheld position to use
to shoot shorter subjects and people who are seated.
| | 04:20 | Now if you ever want to get a quick overhead
shot, you can raise a camera over your head
| | 04:24 | for more dramatic overhead angle on the scene.
| | 04:27 | Tilt the LCD screen down to make sure
you're on a fairly wide shot, and try to hold the
| | 04:32 | camera as steady as possible.
| | 04:34 | This is a position you may also have to resort to, to
shoot over crowds when you get blocked out of the action.
| | 04:40 | It's also good for shooting over
obstacles such as cars and fences.
| | 04:44 | This is a position you're generally only
going to be able to hold steady and comfortably
| | 04:48 | for a short period of time.
| | 04:49 | So don't plan on shooting a five-minute
scene or performance with this position.
| | 04:53 | If it's going to be longer than 30 seconds or so,
best to find a better position to catch the action.
| | 04:59 | Now the flipside of the
overhead position is going down low.
| | 05:03 | Again, adjust your LCD screen accordingly,
sit, kneel, bend down, or crouch walk and move
| | 05:09 | closer or further from your
subject to frame up your shot.
| | 05:13 | The down low position is good
for creative point of view shots,
| | 05:16 | to show anonymous legs and feet as people
move past the camera, or to rest on the ground
| | 05:21 | or floor for dramatic wide shot with
an interesting foreground perspective.
| | 05:27 | Down low is also a fun position to try for
dancing subjects and certain sport scenes.
| | 05:32 | So those are all of the traditional handheld
techniques that you can use to add a little
| | 05:36 | more life or movement to your projects.
| | 05:39 | Most projects will benefit from some
combination of handheld and tripod shooting.
| | 05:44 | Your choice of handheld versus tripod
camera work should be motivated by the situation
| | 05:49 | and story you want to tell.
| | 05:51 | Whatever handheld method you use, just remember to go
full wide and steady the camera as much as possible.
| | 05:58 | With good technique and practice, your
handheld work will improve significantly over time.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Audio EssentialsFive sound rules to live by| 00:05 | Sound is one of the least appreciated
but most important parts of filmmaking.
| | 00:10 | It's as much a part of telling your story,
as the cinematography, art direction, or acting.
| | 00:16 | And if you screw it up, the
audience won't forgive you.
| | 00:20 | They'll forgive a blurry shot, a boom mic in
the frame, they'll even let a weak performance
| | 00:24 | slide, but no one will forgive
bad sound. It's simply too annoying.
| | 00:29 | It's very time consuming and difficult if not
impossible to fix most sound mistakes made on location.
| | 00:37 | The hard truth is that it's much more
difficult to get good and consistent audio than it is
| | 00:42 | to get good and consistent picture.
| | 00:44 | Audio simply takes more knowledge,
time, and attention to get right.
| | 00:50 | So in this movie, I'm going to give you five
basic rules that will help you avoid the most
| | 00:54 | common mistakes that lead to bad audio.
| | 00:56 | First, I am going to start with my personal
Five Sound Rules To Live By, which is a quick
| | 01:02 | crash course in audio best practices.
| | 01:05 | Then in the rest of this chapter I'll get
into more specifics about choosing a mic,
| | 01:09 | recording levels, and booming.
| | 01:12 | Once you know and understand the rules of
filmmaking, you'll learn exactly when and
| | 01:16 | how you can bend them to your will.
| | 01:18 | Personally, I wake up in the morning
and break three film rules just for fun.
| | 01:22 | Some rules were meant to be broken.
| | 01:24 | However, the following were not.
| | 01:27 | Break these rules at your own risk.
| | 01:31 | Rule #1, get the
microphone as close as possible.
| | 01:36 | The most basic rule for recording dialog is to
get the mic as close to the action as possible
| | 01:42 | without being in the shot, the closer the
mic, the better the quality of the recording.
| | 01:47 | This is why boom mics will
often end up creeping into scenes.
| | 01:51 | The sound person was trying to get as close
as possible and accidentally allowed the mic
| | 01:55 | to enter the frame.
| | 01:56 | The sound person should always confirm the
frame line with the camera person before shooting
| | 02:01 | starts to avoid this problem.
| | 02:04 | Rule #2, always use headphones, always.
| | 02:09 | There are a wide variety of things that
can ruin your sound that can only be heard by
| | 02:13 | listening to your audio with
professional quality over the ear headphones.
| | 02:18 | Simply watching sound levels on a meter or
relying on your naked ears will not reveal
| | 02:22 | any of the following: A cable
clunking against the boom pole.
| | 02:27 | (male speaker: Or just go out to the street
and give it a shot.)
| | 02:29 | Air conditioner noise.
| | 02:31 | (male speaker: More than one juggler in an act,
there's more possibilities for--not just for comedy,
| | 02:34 | but you have more stuff in the air, so it's a lot more visual.)
| | 02:39 | Wireless interference.
| | 02:41 | (male speaker: It's fun to get people of all ages
from the audience to come and participate in the show.)
| | 02:46 | A distant plane.
| | 02:48 | (male speaker: When you jump up onto the unicycle
and you're juggling fire way up in the air--)
| | 02:52 | A loose microphone.
| | 02:54 | (male speaker: I have different routines
that involve different age groups--)
| | 02:57 | Excessive street noise, et cetera.
| | 03:00 | (male speaker: But it's very important, I think,
to be able to adapt and do shows one night maybe
| | 03:05 | in a bar and another night at a kid's birthday party.)
| | 03:08 | Rule #3: monitor the
sound levels from the camera.
| | 03:13 | If you're using a mixer, you should monitor
the sound being recorded by the camera, as
| | 03:18 | opposed to only monitoring
the sound coming from the mixer.
| | 03:22 | Now the sound could come out of the mixer
perfectly but still be ruined by bad levels
| | 03:27 | or other settings on your camera.
| | 03:30 | Many mixers have a setting to
monitor sound from the camera.
| | 03:33 | The bottom line is to always listen to the
sound from its final recording destination,
| | 03:39 | regardless of whether you run
through a mixer or other sound equipment.
| | 03:44 | Rule #4, scout your locations for sound.
| | 03:48 | It is vital to carefully observe every
location inside and out for any source of noise or
| | 03:55 | sound problems that could
interfere with your shoot.
| | 03:58 | Murphy's Law, whatever can go wrong will go
wrong, is always in full effect when it comes
| | 04:03 | to location shooting.
| | 04:06 | If you don't take sound into full
consideration when location scouting, or even worse, if
| | 04:11 | you haven't observed your location beforehand,
you're personally inviting Murphy's Law to
| | 04:15 | wreak further havoc on your shoot.
| | 04:18 | Always think about sound in addition
to those beautiful images in your head.
| | 04:23 | So do that cool director thing with your
hands framing up the shot, but then cup your ears
| | 04:28 | and listen to your location.
| | 04:32 | Rule #5, always record room tone.
| | 04:37 | Recording room tone or wild sound or
atmosphere or whatever you want to call it is simply
| | 04:41 | recording the natural sound of any location.
| | 04:45 | That's all the little buzzes, hums, birds, traffic,
background noises that often go unnoticed in production.
| | 04:53 | The purpose of recording room tone is to
smooth out audio inconsistencies in editing.
| | 04:58 | This comes into play if you discover
background noise elements that you had no control over
| | 05:02 | or failed to notice when you were shooting,
such as air conditioners or refrigerators
| | 05:06 | are present in certain
takes, but not on other takes.
| | 05:10 | You'll need to restore that particular noise
for certain shots in order for them to sound
| | 05:15 | the same as the other shots when
edited together in the same scene.
| | 05:19 | The procedure is simple, during a break or as
soon as the picture is wrapped, have everyone
| | 05:24 | on location be silent and freeze where they are.
| | 05:27 | Meaning, no packing or adjusting equipment,
no nothing, for at least one full minute while
| | 05:32 | the sound recorders captures the natural
ambient sound of the location that will save your
| | 05:38 | butt in the editing room.
| | 05:41 | And a final note, room tone should be
recorded with the same mic that was used to record
| | 05:46 | dialog at that location.
| | 05:48 | So now let's take a look at editing
situation that calls for room tone.
| | 05:52 | Listen to the audio inconsistencies
in the background noise of this scene.
| | 05:57 | (male speaker: I think my show is a bit of a spectacle.
Expect to see something outrageous, wild, and high energy.
| | 06:05 | A grown man making a fool out of himself,
that's how I like to describe it.)
| | 06:09 | Did you notice how the subtle background
noise dropped out on the second shot and called
| | 06:13 | more attention to the edit? Now listen to
it again after room tone has been inserted
| | 06:19 | to smooth out the problem.
| | 06:22 | (male speaker: I think my show is a bit of a spectacle.
Expect to see something outrageous, wild, and high energy.
| | 06:30 | A grown man making a fool out of himself,
that's how I like to describe it.)
| | 06:34 | Ah, you like that one, right? Much smoother
and less noticeable, even though we counter
| | 06:39 | intuitively added background noise.
| | 06:42 | So now you can see the importance of remembering
to record room tone at every location you shoot.
| | 06:48 | It's a simple but very valuable production
procedure that can save your butt in the editing room.
| | 06:54 | So those are my five sound rules to live by.
| | 06:57 | If you follow these rules, really more
like laws of good audio, you'll greatly lessen
| | 07:02 | your chances of ruining a project with bad
audio and more importantly, your work will
| | 07:07 | start to rise to a more
professional level consistently.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the types of microphones for video shooting| 00:02 | In this movie, I'm going to give you an
introduction to the wonderful world of microphones.
| | 00:07 | But before we can get into the various types of
microphones, we need to have a clear understanding
| | 00:12 | of how each type of mic records audio,
otherwise known as the mic's pickup pattern.
| | 00:18 | Think of pickup pattern the same
way you think of various prime lenses.
| | 00:21 | Each type of lens, wide, telephoto, or normal,
capture the certain amount of the scene visually,
| | 00:27 | where each type of mic pickup pattern, Cardioid,
Hypercardioid, or Omni, captures audio in a different way.
| | 00:34 | So let's break down each of those patterns.
| | 00:37 | First up, we're going to
talk about Omnidirectional mics.
| | 00:40 | The word omni means all in Latin, so Omnidirectional--
or omni mics for short--are mics that pick
| | 00:47 | up sound equally in all directions.
| | 00:49 | So that means sounds coming from the rear,
the sides and the front and the back are all
| | 00:54 | heard equally prominent on the soundtrack
regardless of which direction they are coming from.
| | 00:59 | Now because of this lack of focus, most Omni
mics are pretty much only suited to recording
| | 01:04 | ambience and the general sound of the
location without emphasizing any particular person
| | 01:09 | speaking or source of sound.
| | 01:12 | The one big exception to this rule are Omni
Lavalier mics, which I'll explain more in a minute.
| | 01:18 | Now next up we have Cardioid mics.
| | 01:21 | Cardioid comes from the
Latin word cardio, meaning heart.
| | 01:25 | On Cardioid mics audio is
captured in a heart-shaped pattern.
| | 01:30 | So anything within the range of that pattern
is picked up nice and clear, and everything
| | 01:34 | outside of that pattern
tends to fall off a little bit.
| | 01:38 | So they are much less prominent.
| | 01:39 | Cardioid mics typically have about a 1-5
foot range, so they are often used as handheld
| | 01:45 | mics placed on a podium or
used to record instruments.
| | 01:50 | Now let's talk about a mainstay of film
production, and that's Hypercardioid mics.
| | 01:56 | Hypercardioid mics more commonly referred
to as shotgun mics, have a very tight and
| | 02:01 | focused pickup pattern that's similar to that
of Cardioid mics but much more focused and narrow.
| | 02:08 | Hypercardioid mics diminish sound from the
sides and the rear and they are really focusing
| | 02:13 | on sounds only of what they are pointed at.
| | 02:17 | Because of this Hypercardioid or Shotgun
mics are great for isolating a subject's voice
| | 02:22 | from a noisy or crowded environment.
| | 02:25 | If you can only get one mic, I recommend you
make it shotgun mic because they're the most
| | 02:29 | versatile and practical for
recording dialog in a variety of situations.
| | 02:35 | So those are all of the basic pickup
patterns you'll encounter, but now let's talk about
| | 02:40 | the different types of microphones
that fall under those categories.
| | 02:44 | There are four basic types of microphones
considered for most video productions, Boom
| | 02:49 | mics, Handheld mics,
Lavalier mics, and Wireless mics.
| | 02:54 | Now each one of these mics has unique advantages
and drawbacks depending on the specific production
| | 02:58 | situation you're in.
| | 03:00 | So first let's talk about Boom mics.
| | 03:02 | Boom mics are mics mounted on a boom
pole which is held by boom operator.
| | 03:08 | Although you can use any type of mic that will
fit on a boom pole, Shotgun mics or Hypercardioid
| | 03:13 | mics which have a very directional pickup
pattern are most often used on Boom poles.
| | 03:18 | Boom mics are handy for run and gun
shooting when you may have multiple or spontaneous
| | 03:22 | interview subjects, and also when your subject
is very active and you don't have a wireless LAV.
| | 03:28 | Now I personally avoid Boom mics for interviews
because it can be very distracting to interview
| | 03:34 | subjects; however, if you can mount your boom
mic on a stationary mic stand or boom holder
| | 03:39 | it's much less distracting for the person
in front of your camera for an interview.
| | 03:43 | Now let's move on to Handheld mics.
| | 03:47 | So the term handheld mic I
think is pretty self-explanatory.
| | 03:51 | These are mics that are passed around an
audience on talk shows or used by reporters on location
| | 03:55 | to do man on the street
interviews, news, and live events.
| | 03:58 | They are simple and easy to use, and apart
from that, they are also good for speakers
| | 04:03 | on stage and open talking
forums such as town hall meetings.
| | 04:07 | Handheld mics typically have a cardioid
patterns, but shotgun mics can also be used handheld
| | 04:13 | especially when shooting in noisy environments.
| | 04:17 | Now the next type of mic I
want to discuss are Lavalier mics.
| | 04:21 | Lavalier mics, also known as lav mics for short--
they may also be referred to as lapel mics
| | 04:25 | because the way they are commonly placed,
or plant mics because they are easily hidden
| | 04:30 | or planted in the scene.
| | 04:31 | The Lav mic is the mainstay of documentary,
corporate and reality production, especially for interviews.
| | 04:38 | These tiny mics easily mount on a shirt, lapel,
or tie, and they do an excellent job of picking
| | 04:43 | up a speaker's voice.
| | 04:45 | A hardwired lav mic is valuable
for recording formal interviews.
| | 04:49 | These tiny unobtrusive mics are out of sight
and out of mind, which makes for better, more
| | 04:54 | natural interview with a
more comfortable subject.
| | 04:57 | Many lav mics, including wireless lavs are
actually omnidirectional, which seems counterintuitive
| | 05:03 | based on what I just told you a minute ago,
but because of how close they are to the throat
| | 05:08 | and chest cavity where the sound is being
generated, the speaker's voice actually sounds
| | 05:12 | more prominent than a shotgun mic in many cases.
| | 05:15 | In fact, I'm wearing a wireless lav
mic right now for this presentation.
| | 05:20 | Lastly let's go ahead and
talk about Wireless lav mics.
| | 05:24 | Now wireless mics are an indispensable
part of any serious documentary sound kit, but
| | 05:29 | it can also come in handy for
narrative or other types of production as well.
| | 05:34 | Now each wireless mic unit
features one mic and one receiver.
| | 05:39 | The most common units come with the lav
mics like this; however, if you're using a unit
| | 05:44 | with an XLR input or plug-in transmitter
like this one, you can use it to make boom mics,
| | 05:50 | handheld mics or just about anything--
mixers, whatever you name it wireless.
| | 05:55 | The big advantage of going wireless is that
your subjects are free to move about, run,
| | 05:59 | perform, give a demonstration, juggle flaming
torches, or do just about anything completely
| | 06:05 | unhindered by wires or cables.
| | 06:08 | With the wireless lav mics it's also considerably
easier to get candid interviews and intimate footage.
| | 06:15 | Your subjects essentially forget that they
are wearing a wireless mic because it's so
| | 06:18 | small and unrestricted.
| | 06:21 | This means a less guarded subject and
more candid and honest footage for you.
| | 06:25 | Using a good wireless unit, the most intimate
moments can be recorded from a distance, word
| | 06:30 | for word with crystal-clear sound even when
your subject is behind closed doors, whispering,
| | 06:36 | or in complete darkness.
| | 06:38 | For most new filmmakers the big deterrent
to using wireless mics like these is price.
| | 06:43 | At $500 to $4,000 on up, good
wireless units aren't cheap.
| | 06:49 | Similarly, rental rates
are also going to be higher.
| | 06:52 | And a word to the wise, cheap VHF wireless
units aren't worth the trouble as most will
| | 06:57 | get way too much interference from radios,
walkie-talkies, and other wireless audio signals.
| | 07:03 | If you go wireless, stick with UHF models, and
don't be cheap. It won't pay off in the long run.
| | 07:09 | So those are all the basic types of
mics you'll want to consider when shooting.
| | 07:13 | Again, if you can only get one mic, I'd
make it a Boom mounted shotgun mic, because it's
| | 07:19 | the most versatile for
narrative or documentary work.
| | 07:22 | Now unlike video cameras, a good professional
microphone won't become obsolete anytime soon
| | 07:29 | and will easily last you a
decade or longer with good care.
| | 07:33 | So when purchasing any type of mic, I
recommend going for the best quality and brand you
| | 07:37 | can afford, and you should get your
money's worth for a long time to come.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up microphones for a video shoot| 00:01 | So we've talked about the various types
of microphones and mic pickup patterns.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'm going to talk about how to
hook up the mics and adjust your audio settings.
| | 00:12 | Microphones can also be divided into the more
broad categories of condenser and dynamic mics.
| | 00:18 | The difference between the two is that
condenser mics require power and dynamic mics do not.
| | 00:25 | Condenser mics electronically capture and
reproduce sound so they need some power to operate.
| | 00:30 | This power can sometimes be provided by a
small battery in the mic or by an external
| | 00:35 | battery power supply, but it's most typically
supplied through a camera or mixer via the XLR cable.
| | 00:43 | When mic power is provided by a camera or
other audio device, it's called Phantom Power.
| | 00:49 | Any camera or audio device with XLR inputs
will also have a switch or setting to turn
| | 00:54 | phantom power on when you
need it or off when you don't.
| | 00:58 | Note that most shotgun microphones and loud
mics will be condenser mics that require phantom
| | 01:03 | power, which brings me back to dynamic mics.
| | 01:07 | Now unlike condenser mics, dynamic mics
actually have a thin membrane inside the mic head that
| | 01:13 | records sound based on vibrations transmitted
from the membrane, and most notably, dynamic
| | 01:19 | mics do not require power.
| | 01:22 | So whenever you are using a dynamic mic, you
want to make sure that phantom power is turned
| | 01:26 | off on your camera or sound device.
| | 01:28 | Now, when it's time to record audio, the very
first thing we need to do is physically connect
| | 01:34 | the mics to the camera.
| | 01:36 | Professional mics and sound
gear all use XLR connectors.
| | 01:40 | So you're going to need some XLR cables.
| | 01:42 | Now 15 to 25 feet is a good length for XLR
cables for most jobs, and remember, you can
| | 01:48 | always string cables together when
necessary to make longer lengths.
| | 01:52 | The XLR cable has a male and a female end.
| | 01:55 | The female end plugs into the microphone,
like so, and the male end plugs into the camera.
| | 02:04 | When you plug the mic into the camera, there
are a few settings or switches you are going
| | 02:08 | to want to check right away.
| | 02:10 | The first thing you will need to figure out is
whether or not you need power for your microphones.
| | 02:15 | Remember, condenser mics require
phantom power and dynamic mics do not.
| | 02:21 | Another type of mic that doesn't require
power are mics that already have their own power,
| | 02:26 | such as wireless mics or mics that
use an external battery power supply.
| | 02:31 | If you plug in a mic and you get no audio
signal at all, there is a good chance that
| | 02:35 | it's a condenser mic
that requires phantom power.
| | 02:38 | So remember to check whether the
Phantom Power switch is turned on or off.
| | 02:43 | Now the Phantom Power switch is usually
located right near or under the XLR audio inputs,
| | 02:49 | but it is also sometimes found on the back
of the camera, or like it is on this model,
| | 02:55 | inside the LCD Panel.
| | 02:57 | The Phantom Power switch may be labeled as
Phantom, just PH for short, or often your camera's
| | 03:03 | Phantom Power switch will
be labeled +48V for volts.
| | 03:09 | So look for a switch labeled Phantom, PH,
or +48V, and turn it on or off as necessary.
| | 03:16 | The next switch to check is the Mic Line
setting which is often located right near the Phantom
| | 03:22 | Power switch, or like it is on this camera,
it might be located right near the XLR port.
| | 03:29 | The Mic Line setting tells the camera the
type of audio signal you're feeding into it.
| | 03:34 | A Mic Level signal, which is a proper
setting if you are plugging in a microphone, or a
| | 03:39 | Line Level signal, which is a stronger type
of signal that many mixers, instruments, or
| | 03:44 | other sound devices may send out.
| | 03:46 | The basic rule of thumb here is that if
it's a mic, it's going to be set to Mic Level,
| | 03:51 | and if you are plugging in anything other than a mic,
it's probably going to be set at the Line Level.
| | 03:57 | Don't worry about this too much because
it's very easy to figure out even if you don't
| | 04:00 | know because only one
setting will sound correct.
| | 04:04 | If you choose the wrong setting, your audio
will either be very faint and barely audible
| | 04:08 | or it will be horribly loud and over-modulated.
| | 04:11 | Either you've got a 50-50 chance of
getting it right the first time and 100% chance
| | 04:16 | of being able to tell when
you're on the wrong setting.
| | 04:19 | Now some cameras, such as consumer cameras or
DSLR cameras like this one right here, don't
| | 04:25 | have XLR inputs. Instead, many of these
cameras have a little mini stereo audio input just
| | 04:31 | like the jack on your MP3 player or laptop.
| | 04:34 | Now with these type of cameras, you have three
basic options for using external microphones.
| | 04:40 | First, you can use any number of external
adapter boxes that allow you to plug in XLR
| | 04:44 | audio cables, then convert and feed the
signal into your camera's mini stereo input.
| | 04:50 | Beachtek and Juicedlink are both
popular brands of XLR to mini audio adapters.
| | 04:56 | Another approach to this problem could be
to purchase lower quality microphones that
| | 05:01 | are already hardwired with a little mini
stereo cable that feeds directly into your camera.
| | 05:07 | These are lower quality than professional
XLR mics, but much better than the mics that
| | 05:11 | come built into your camera from the factory.
| | 05:14 | The third way to go that would allow you to
feed professional mics directly into one of
| | 05:18 | these cameras is to use simple
XLR to mini stereo adapter cables.
| | 05:23 | Now because a mini stereo input doesn't
supply power, if you go this route, you can only
| | 05:29 | use dynamic mics or you could still use a
condenser mic if you also use an external
| | 05:35 | power supply with its own battery
or a mixer or preamp to supply power.
| | 05:42 | Hooking up the cables and getting your audio
settings right is probably the most complicated
| | 05:46 | and frustrating aspect of recording audio.
| | 05:49 | If you're getting no sound or extremely
distorted or soft audio, it will almost always be because
| | 05:55 | of a single switch is on the wrong setting.
| | 05:59 | Review this movie again if you need to, and
with a little practice and experience you'll
| | 06:03 | be able to hook up cables and
avoid common audio issues much faster.
| | 06:08 | But note that once you finally have your
cables plugged in and mic settings correct, the job
| | 06:13 | of recording good audio
gets much easier from there.
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| Using a boom microphone| 00:01 | In this movie I am just going to give
you a few pointers on boom mic technique.
| | 00:06 | While it's not rocket science, there are
certain very important things to keep in mind.
| | 00:11 | So let's go over three
important booming principles.
| | 00:15 | The first principle is to get your mic as close to
the action as possible without getting in the shot.
| | 00:21 | To do this, you want to make sure that you
know your frame line, or the imaginary line
| | 00:25 | that marks the top of the shot.
| | 00:29 | Lower the boom until it just enters the shot,
then slowly begin to raise it up until it's clear.
| | 00:39 | Now look out of the tip of the boom pole and
make a mental note of the bottom of the mic
| | 00:44 | and find something in the room or scene that
you can use as a visual reference point, such
| | 00:49 | as a clock or mark on the wall, so that every
time your mic goes below that visual reference
| | 00:54 | point, you'll know it's in the
frame without even seeing the shot.
| | 00:59 | The second principle is to keep the boom mic
on axis, which just means make sure that it's
| | 01:06 | always pointed directly at the person or
source of sound that you want to record.
| | 01:11 | Much more often than not, mics used for
booming are going to be shotgun mics that only focus
| | 01:16 | on sound in the direction they are appointed at.
| | 01:19 | So it's crucial that the mic always stay
pointed at the mouth of the person speaking.
| | 01:24 | If the subject moves, then the
mic should move to follow them.
| | 01:29 | When a shotgun mic is not pointed directly at
the subject speaking, it's known as being off-axis.
| | 01:35 | When a mic is off-axis, the volume and
quality of the audio falls off noticeably.
| | 01:40 | So think of your mic as a mouth-tracking
laser beam, and wherever your subject's mouth is
| | 01:46 | it's always a direction you
should keep it pointed at.
| | 01:49 | (male speaker: --a lot more visual to be seen. There's more
stuff in the air, and there's more comedic possibilities.)
| | 01:53 | The third principle to keep in mind with
booms is what to do when you have more than one
| | 01:59 | person speaking in a scene.
| | 02:01 | The answer is simple, give the mic a gentle
twist to stay on axis with whoever is speaking
| | 02:06 | at any given moment.
| | 02:09 | (male speaker: Yeah, this is actually a juggling torch,
and it's designed to juggle while it's on fire.)
| | 02:13 | If the two people speaking, start cross-
talking too quickly to follow, simply play the middle
| | 02:18 | until it becomes apparent that only one
person is speaking at that particular moment.
| | 02:23 | (male speaker: Well, it has a--it's wrapped in metal.
The dowel's metal. And this is a kevlar wick.)
| | 02:28 | (male speaker: Oh, kevlar, like bullet-proof vests?)
| | 02:30 | (male speaker: Right, exactly.)
| | 02:32 | One other simple boom tip is to spiral your
XLR cable around the boom pole at the ends,
| | 02:39 | middle, and top to keep it from clanking
against the boom pole or dipping down into your shot.
| | 02:45 | Hair ties like these with little plastic balls
on the end just like girls wear in elementary
| | 02:50 | school are excellent accessories
for quickly securing sound cables.
| | 02:55 | So that's pretty much it. Just a few
simple but important tips to keep in mind.
| | 02:59 | One: hold the boom as close as possible
without getting it in the shot, two: always keep your
| | 03:06 | mic on axis like a mouth-tracking laser beam,
three: twist the boom to cover each person
| | 03:13 | speaking in a conversation, and four:
secure those loose cables.
| | 03:19 | And that's it. Bada bing, bada boom.
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| Setting proper audio levels| 00:01 | Crisp clean sound can only be achieved by
recording at optimal levels. You can use a
| | 00:07 | great mic or boom as close as you can get,
but if you're not mindful of where the Audio
| | 00:12 | Level Meter should be on your LCD screen,
you may still screw up your audio in the end.
| | 00:18 | Now before I jump in too deep, note that
some cameras like the one I'm using here, don't
| | 00:23 | actually show decibel or dB
indicators on the display.
| | 00:26 | Instead, they just have a generic digital
meter that rises and falls and turns red at
| | 00:31 | the far right end whatever
the audio over-modulates.
| | 00:35 | In the rest of this movie as I talk about
specific values, keep in mind that if your
| | 00:39 | camera's meter has low and high level
picking markers like this camera, the low-end mark
| | 00:44 | is -20 dB and the high-end mark is -12 dB.
| | 00:49 | Now if your Level Meter has no markers at
all, you should pretty much just eyeball the
| | 00:54 | meter and try to keep your
levels just right of center.
| | 00:58 | So where should your levels be? I've got six
words for you baby, the super happy fun sound zone.
| | 01:05 | So what is the super happy fun sound zone, and
how can you get there? Allow me to pontificate.
| | 01:12 | On digital cameras and digital sound equipment,
you want the levels to peak at around -12 dB.
| | 01:20 | (video playing)
| | 01:24 | That is to say the meter should just
kiss -12 dB at the highest point of speech.
| | 01:31 | On analog devices that have peaking needles
instead of digital meters your levels should peak at 0.
| | 01:37 | (video playing)
| | 01:40 | It's okay if during quieter reflective moments your
levels take a small dip near the lower end of the scale.
| | 01:47 | (video playing)
| | 01:51 | And it's also okay if doing animated
storytelling and normal laughter they briefly jump a little
| | 01:56 | over the ideal peaking level.
| | 01:58 | (male speaker: My favorite thing to juggle? Ha! Probably--
probably juggling flaming torches on the tall unicycle.)
| | 02:05 | What you're primarily concerned about are
loud bursts of laughter, shouting, quiet whispers
| | 02:11 | or very soft-spoken comments.
| | 02:13 | Basically, anything that lingers in what I
like to call the red zones of death at either
| | 02:19 | end of the audio scale.
| | 02:21 | The red zone of death is
where audio levels go to die.
| | 02:25 | If you try to fix low levels and post by simply
boosting the volume, you will also be boosting
| | 02:30 | the level of any background noise and hiss.
| | 02:33 | (male speaker: Yeah, up in San Luis Obispo I perform
almost every Thursday night at their farmers' market,
| | 02:33 | which is a weekly street fair.
| | 02:42 | Yeah, up in San Luis Obispo I perform almost
every Thursday night at their farmers' market,
| | 02:47 | which is a weekly street fair.
| | 02:49 | Over-modulated audio, meaning audio that's
recorded too loud, is distorted and unintelligible.
| | 02:56 | (male speaker: Well, probably I'd have to say the most
outrageous part of my show is the finale, where I hop up
| | 03:02 | on a 7-foot-tall unicycle and juggle flaming torches.)
| | 03:06 | Badly recorded audio is
almost always unfixable in post.
| | 03:12 | Now let's final it naturally sharp loud sounds,
gunshot to slam door, et cetera, just kiss
| | 03:17 | this red zone for a quick moment, but
anything more is definitely going to be problematic.
| | 03:23 | So that's where you don't want your levels.
Instead, you want your audio to party in the
| | 03:28 | super happy fun sound zone, between
-20 dB and -12 dB, that's a good stuff.
| | 03:36 | This is the area on the scale where crisp,
clean audio is recorded. You'll have much
| | 03:41 | more flexibility to raise or lower
these healthy audio levels in post.
| | 03:46 | Now in closing, let's talk about
how to properly ride your levels.
| | 03:50 | The term riding levels just means
adjusting your sound level during recording.
| | 03:55 | Don't make the novice mistake of constantly
adjusting your levels for every minor fluctuation
| | 04:00 | and sound. Most people's conversation and speech
fluctuates some volume to a predictable degree.
| | 04:01 | (male speaker: Did you get a good breakfast today?)
| | 04:06 | So try to set your levels while people
carry on with normal conversation or rehearsing
| | 04:11 | there lines rather than
doing the old, mic check 1-2-3.
| | 04:15 | This will make it easier to hone in on
subject's natural speech pattern and volume levels.
| | 04:20 | Now I'd typically like to ask people a few
questions about what they had for breakfast
| | 04:24 | and lunch, or ask them to run through part
of the scene just to get them talking normally
| | 04:27 | for good minute or so.
| | 04:32 | (male speaker: I did. I had a bagel with
cream cheese and some OJ. Powered up.)
| | 04:37 | (male speaker: Excellent. Right on.
So, how long have you been juggling?)
| | 04:41 | (male speaker: I've been juggling--actually,
not too long. Just about 2 & 1/2 years.)
| | 04:44 | If you've done your sound check right, you
should only have to adjust your levels sparingly
| | 04:49 | during most recording.
| | 04:50 | Pay attention to what's being said and the
tone of the conversation so you can anticipate
| | 04:56 | when things are going to get softer or louder.
| | 04:59 | And that's about it. Don't forget that on
video cameras you want your audio to peak
| | 05:04 | in the area between -12 dB and -20 dB.
| | 05:08 | So use your ears and your eyes when you
are recording audio to listen to the sound and
| | 05:12 | watch the levels, and you'll be much more
likely to avoid nasty audio surprises in the
| | 05:17 | edit room, and more importantly
you'll have super happy fun sound.
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|
|
5. Lighting EssentialsWorking with lighting instruments| 00:01 | Lighting instruments come in all shapes,
sizes, and budget levels from large professional
| | 00:06 | film lights that cost thousands of dollars to
simple household units that cost less than $20.
| | 00:11 | But believe it or not, either can be just
the right light to make your scene shine.
| | 00:16 | It's not about the instrument, but it's
about the effect that it has on your scene.
| | 00:21 | So now I'm going to just run through a list of
the most common types of lighting instruments
| | 00:24 | and accessories that you'll want to do
just about any kind of lighting setup.
| | 00:29 | So let's start with the different types of
lights starting with the Fresnel light right here.
| | 00:33 | So right here I have a Fresnel light, so
these are lights that have special focusable glass
| | 00:38 | lenses that make the light more concentrated and
also a little softer than without the Fresnel lens.
| | 00:44 | Using a knob in the back, the light beam can be
focused into a narrow spotted or broader flooded beam.
| | 00:51 | Next to that we have the open-face light.
| | 00:55 | Open-face lights don't have a glass
lens in the front like the Fresnels.
| | 00:58 | Instead, they have open-face
reflectors that focus the light from a bulb.
| | 01:03 | Most models will also have some type of
control to slightly shift the position of the bulb
| | 01:07 | to be closer or further from the reflector,
which will affect the intensity of the beam
| | 01:12 | by spotting or flooding it
just like with the Fresnels.
| | 01:14 | For safety, you should always have a
screen or a scrim in front of an open-face light
| | 01:21 | just in case the bulb breaks.
| | 01:24 | Now moving over here, we have one of my
favorites, and that is the China ball.
| | 01:28 | China balls, otherwise known as Chinese lanterns,
are inexpensive but very effective paper lighting
| | 01:34 | units that come in a variety of sizes.
| | 01:37 | You can pick them up at
any local lighting store.
| | 01:40 | China balls are highly portable since they weigh
next to nothing and they collapse completely flat.
| | 01:45 | They create beautiful soft warm light using
nothing more than a standard household light
| | 01:49 | bulb and a socket unit.
| | 01:52 | China balls are probably best for medium and
close-up shots and a great choice for interviews,
| | 01:56 | especially when you need to travel light.
| | 01:59 | To make them even more useful, I always
like to use the household dimmer with my China
| | 02:03 | ball, so I get the intensity
just right every time I shoot.
| | 02:07 | Now moving over to here, we
have the fluorescent light.
| | 02:11 | Fluorescent lights are also commonly referred
to as Kino Flos after the most popular brand.
| | 02:16 | They're relatively lightweight and
they cast lots of soft, even light.
| | 02:20 | Best of all for guerillas, they require
much less electricity than tungsten lights.
| | 02:25 | You can get fluorescent bulbs that are
daylight or tungsten balance for indoor use.
| | 02:31 | Now over here, we have LED lights which are
the newest kid on the block in the world of
| | 02:35 | film and video lighting.
| | 02:37 | LED lights have become very
popular in the last few years.
| | 02:41 | They come as small camera lights like this
one, and they also can come in much bigger
| | 02:45 | units that mount on a light stand.
| | 02:48 | LEDs are priced for
several defining characteristics.
| | 02:51 | Number one, they draw much less
electricity than tungsten and even fluorescent lights
| | 02:56 | and they can be easily powered by battery.
| | 02:59 | Number two, the bulbs don't get hot, so they
don't put out nearly as much heat and they're
| | 03:04 | much safer for location use.
| | 03:06 | Number three, LED light bulbs last much
longer than tungsten or fluorescent bulbs.
| | 03:12 | And number four, they're dimmable and
they put out a lot of soft even light.
| | 03:17 | Really, the only downside to using
LED lights is that they aren't cheap.
| | 03:21 | Even this tiny little camera
light right here cost us $300.
| | 03:25 | Now moving on over here,
we have the practical light.
| | 03:29 | A practical light is basically any location
light fixture that's actually used to supply
| | 03:34 | all or part of your lighting setup.
| | 03:37 | Desk lamps, halogen floor lights, track lights,
and more all make excellent practical lights.
| | 03:42 | A practical light can serve as your key,
you fill, your hair, or even background light
| | 03:47 | depending on its position and brightness.
| | 03:50 | And don't forget, you can often aim, bounce,
diffuse, gel, and put dimmers or black wrap
| | 03:56 | or higher wattage bulbs on most practical lights the
same as you would any professional lighting instrument.
| | 04:02 | Using existing lighting should really always
be one of the first options you consider since
| | 04:06 | it's natural and requires a
little or no extra setup time.
| | 04:11 | Now the lights themselves are the most
important part of your kit, but with your kit is by
| | 04:15 | no means complete if all you
have are lighting instruments.
| | 04:19 | You also need a variety of standard
accessories to control your lighting.
| | 04:24 | The simple act of turning on a light is not
lighting anymore than hitting the Record button
| | 04:28 | can be called filmmaking.
| | 04:30 | If you're not in control of
your lights, you're not lighting.
| | 04:34 | You need to also use a variety of
accessories to make sure your light goes exactly where
| | 04:39 | you want it and nowhere else.
| | 04:41 | So let's take a look at the lighting goodies I
have on the table here that help us control our light.
| | 04:46 | First off let's look at the common Flexfill
reflector which is used to just reflect light right here.
| | 04:54 | So this one has a gold side, also has a white
side right there, sometimes they come in silver
| | 04:59 | so you can get them in a variety of colors.
| | 05:01 | This one is actually interchangeable.
| | 05:03 | So that's how a Flexfill reflector used to
reflect light, often used for a bounce light as well.
| | 05:09 | In addition to that, we
have the reflector umbrella.
| | 05:14 | Now reflector umbrellas are nifty devices
that mount onto the front of an open-face
| | 05:18 | light instrument to cast a much
softer, broad, and evenly-diffused light.
| | 05:24 | Reflector umbrellas work
great to create fill light.
| | 05:26 | They can also be used as a soft key light.
| | 05:29 | Now if you ever want to impress paying
clients on a gig, break out the reflector umbrellas.
| | 05:34 | These are great for making
everything look Hollywood.
| | 05:35 | And if you do that, make
sure you charge them 20% extra.
| | 05:39 | Now another important thing you want
to have is heavy-duty extension cords.
| | 05:44 | I recommend that you have at least one
of these for every light in your kit.
| | 05:48 | Now standard skinny extension cords just
won't cut it for professional film lights which
| | 05:53 | use much more power than
conventional household lamps.
| | 05:57 | Now one counterintuitive thing that you do
want to note is that the lower the gauge number
| | 06:01 | on the cord, the more
power it can handle safely.
| | 06:05 | So check the cable or the package for the gauge
number whenever you're buying extension cords.
| | 06:12 | Next up we have dimmers.
| | 06:13 | Now this is one of the most valuable
lighting accessories that you can have in your kit.
| | 06:17 | A dimmer allows you to quickly and easily adjust
the intensity of any light that you plug into it.
| | 06:23 | This is going to save you immeasurable
amounts of time, moving lights, adjusting scrims,
| | 06:28 | and fussing with ND gels.
| | 06:30 | If you're using household dimmers, make sure
that any lights you plug into them don't exceed
| | 06:35 | the maximum wattage listed on the dimmer.
| | 06:38 | And as a side note, you want to always white
balance your camera after your dim a key light
| | 06:43 | since dimming lights will also often
affect the light's color temperature as well.
| | 06:50 | Now another very important accessory you'll
want to have right from the go are lighting
| | 06:54 | gels and diffusion to help control and manipulate
the intensity, color, and quality of your lights.
| | 07:01 | Now these are so important that I'm going
to be going over them in detail in another
| | 07:05 | movie in this chapter.
| | 07:09 | And right here, we have barn doors.
| | 07:13 | Barn doors are the first line of defense
to get your light to shine where you want it
| | 07:17 | and to create shadows where you want them.
| | 07:20 | By adjusting the barn doors into different
configurations, you can make a slash a light
| | 07:24 | on a wall, make the light fall on a single
character on the scene, or light the background
| | 07:28 | without lighting your subject.
| | 07:30 | Barn doors are absolutely essential.
| | 07:35 | Another important thing to have
along the same line is black wrap.
| | 07:39 | This is extra heavy-duty aluminum foil coated
in a heat-resistant black paint to absorb light.
| | 07:45 | A few good sized sheets on this handy
material will always serve you well.
| | 07:50 | It's primarily used to control and
shape light much like barn doors.
| | 07:54 | However, black wrap is much more flexible
as you can attach it to the barn doors and
| | 07:59 | mould it into any shape you desire within
seconds to quickly adjust your lighting on
| | 08:03 | the fly and to keep it from
hitting certain parts of the scene.
| | 08:10 | Snoots mount onto the front of a light to give you
a spotlight effect by narrowing the size of beam.
| | 08:16 | They're useful for pinpointing key lights,
highlighting props, and tabletop work.
| | 08:21 | If you don't have a snoot, you can pretty
much use a piece of black wrap to the same
| | 08:24 | effect and make your own
snoot any shape you like.
| | 08:29 | And down here on the end we have the flag.
| | 08:33 | Now the flag is a piece of heat-resistant
black cloth attached to an open frame just
| | 08:37 | like black wrap flags are used to block
light from shining where it's not wanted.
| | 08:41 | A piece of cardboard at a safe distance
from anything that cast a shadow could also be
| | 08:46 | used to flag out light.
| | 08:49 | And last but not least, we have C47s.
| | 08:53 | These are standard lighting tool for decades
otherwise known as common wooden clothes-pins.
| | 08:59 | These are the most practical and inexpensive
means of attaching gels and diffusion material
| | 09:04 | to the edge of barn doors, and I'm going to
be talking more about these in detail in the
| | 09:08 | movie on lighting gels.
| | 09:11 | So all of these are just some of the most
important lighting gadgets and doodads that
| | 09:15 | you'll need to effectively
use lighting to tell your story.
| | 09:19 | Learn them, use them, love them!
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding lighting concepts| 00:01 | Now before you can dive deeper into the
subject of lighting and talk about light placement,
| | 00:07 | instruments, and gels, you have to first
understand a few things about quality, intensity, and
| | 00:13 | color temperature of lights.
| | 00:15 | So let's lay the foundation for the rest of this
chapter to follow by going over these concepts.
| | 00:21 | The first thing I want to
talk about is Intensity.
| | 00:24 | Light Intensity just refers
to the brightness of the light.
| | 00:27 | There are number of things that affect the
intensity of light source, such as distance
| | 00:32 | from the subject, size and power of the bulb and
how close the bulb is to a reflector, et cetera.
| | 00:38 | Using certain gels will also
cut down on light intensity.
| | 00:41 | So I'm just going to demonstrate what that
looks like right here, so I'm going to use
| | 00:44 | a Spot Flood knob to make this light more
instance, so as I turn up the intensity you
| | 00:49 | can see it gets a lot brighter and hotter
right there in the center, and as I turn it
| | 00:53 | back down, that's a little bit better.
| | 00:57 | So sometimes you're going to need to turn
that up, sometimes you're going to need to
| | 00:59 | turn it down, but we're always going to want to
be aware of how intense or bright our light is.
| | 01:05 | Next let's talk about the
color temperature of lights.
| | 01:08 | I already covered the topic of color
temperature and depth in the color temperature movie of
| | 01:12 | this course, so make sure you look at that
movie first if you haven't already, but just
| | 01:16 | to boil it down again, all different light
sources have their own color temperature which
| | 01:21 | affects how they will look on video.
| | 01:24 | There are variety of lighting gels that can
help us mimic, correct, or change color temperature
| | 01:29 | at certain light sources. We'll be
discussing those later in this chapter.
| | 01:33 | But let's take a look right now at a daylight
balance light, so I'm going to turn this off
| | 01:38 | and turn on a Kino Flo, right here, we
just balanced for daylight, and you can see
| | 01:42 | that that color temperature is very different
than what we were balanced for which was tungsten,
| | 01:46 | so everything here looks really blue.
| | 01:48 | So that is a basic concept of
color temperature visualized for you.
| | 01:52 | I'm going to turn back on all of the light.
| | 01:55 | Lastly let's talk about the
qualities of hard versus soft light.
| | 02:01 | The concept of hard and soft light can best be
explained by simply showing you the difference.
| | 02:06 | Now right now we're
looking at hard light on Mark.
| | 02:09 | Hard light is light that comes from a single
small light source such as a bare and frosted
| | 02:14 | bulb, a spotlight, or the
mid-day sun in a clear sky.
| | 02:19 | Rays of hard light are crisp, cash sharp
clearly defines shadows, and look much more harsh when
| | 02:25 | shined directly on people's faces.
| | 02:27 | Hard light actually highlights
imperfections of the skin and emphasizes the details of
| | 02:32 | texture of whatever it's shining on.
| | 02:34 | So now I'm going to switch it over to soft
light, which Mark is going to be much happier
| | 02:38 | about when we do that, so I'm going to turn
off the hard light and turn on the soft light.
| | 02:43 | So in addition to being easier on his eyes
it's also easier on the viewer's eyes, because
| | 02:48 | it compliments the skin.
| | 02:50 | Soft light on the other hand is generated
by broad and diffused or spread out sources
| | 02:55 | of light such as light reflected off of a
white wall or bounce board or daylight from
| | 03:00 | the sun on a cloudy overcast day.
| | 03:03 | When hard light is bounced off of another
surface or shines through something translucent
| | 03:08 | first, it becomes soft light.
| | 03:10 | Now translucent material is anything that
lets some but not all of the light pass through.
| | 03:15 | Hard direct rays of light spread out and become
indirect light when they pass through translucent
| | 03:21 | material. Because rays of soft light don't
hit subjects directly, they flatter the face
| | 03:27 | by softening the texture of the skin in
minimizing blemishes and imperfections.
| | 03:32 | Soft lights also help hide and
mask the details of surfaces.
| | 03:36 | Now let's take a minute to
compare hard and soft light.
| | 03:41 | Again pay attention to the difference in the
quality of the shadows in the texture of the skin.
| | 03:46 | Now to be clear there is not really a right
or wrong choice when it comes to hard versus
| | 03:50 | soft light, just a right or wrong
choice for the story you want to tell.
| | 03:54 | If I was shooting a gritty crime drama that
had a scene featuring my main bad guy at his
| | 03:58 | desk, hard light would be a good choice.
| | 04:01 | On the other hand, if I was shooting a promo,
inviting new members to a church, I think
| | 04:05 | soft light will be much more appropriate.
| | 04:08 | Your lighting choices, just like every
choice in filmmaking, should be guided by a story.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a four-point lighting setup for a scene| 00:01 | Now in this movie we are just going to
go over the basics of 4-point lighting.
| | 00:05 | So I am going to explain to you what the
four lights are in 4-point lighting, and we are
| | 00:09 | going to talk a little about their
positioning and some other things to keep in mind when
| | 00:13 | we are setting up these lights.
| | 00:14 | So first, a couple of ground rules before we
jump into 4-point lighting, anytime you're
| | 00:20 | doing this type of lighting set up, and
that is first thing that I need to have set up
| | 00:24 | is a camera, before I even open up my lighting kit
or take out any lights at all, I set up my camera.
| | 00:29 | Now why is a camera the first thing that I am
going to set up for a lighting setup?
| | 00:33 | Because my naked eyes are telling me nothing at
all about what the camera is actually seeing.
| | 00:39 | Remember, that there are settings such as the
shutter speed, the exposure, white balance,
| | 00:44 | all of these things are going to dramatically
affect how my image is actually going to look.
| | 00:48 | So the first thing I set up is a camera to make
sure that I am looking at what the camera sees.
| | 00:52 | You cannot effectively do lighting with just your
naked eyes, you've got to be able to see that monitor.
| | 00:56 | So if you do have a monitor or even a TV
onset that you can plug the image into to get a
| | 01:02 | bigger image, that's always
going to better if you can do that.
| | 01:05 | So camera is the first thing to set up.
| | 01:06 | Another ground rule when we are doing lighting
set up is that I need to have a person to light.
| | 01:11 | It's ideal if it's my subject. That's not
always practical sometimes. The subject is
| | 01:15 | not available, or sometimes if you're doing a
documentary you don't want somebody sitting
| | 01:18 | around for half-an-hour, an hour while you set
up lights, getting nervous, things like that.
| | 01:23 | So if I don't have much subject, or it's
not practical to have my subject, I want to
| | 01:27 | have somebody, anybody, another crewmember
sit in that chair during that lighting process.
| | 01:31 | So I need a lighting stand-in. You
cannot just light an empty chair.
| | 01:35 | It's going to be pointless if you're
going to have to readjust everything later on.
| | 01:38 | So I've got my subject, I am
fortunate enough to have Mark available here.
| | 01:41 | So he is sitting in the chair, waiting to
be lit, and for me to work my lighting magic.
| | 01:46 | So those are the two key things that I am
really going to need as a subject and the
| | 01:49 | camera set up before I get started with lighting,
and we'll talk about a few more rules as we go along.
| | 01:55 | Other important consideration, before
we start turning on lights is safety.
| | 01:59 | A few basic safety things you want to keep
in mind, the lights are very large, they get
| | 02:04 | very hot very quickly.
| | 02:06 | So I want to have some heavy-
duty leather work gloves.
| | 02:11 | Again nothing special, you don't have to
get $50 fancy grip gloves, but just some nice
| | 02:16 | thick leather work gloves
available in any hardware store.
| | 02:19 | You can pick them up in
any big-box store, whatever.
| | 02:23 | ISOTONERs that you got for
Christmas are not going to cut it.
| | 02:26 | So make sure you've got something
heavy-duty in leather, very important.
| | 02:30 | In addition to that, extension cords.
| | 02:33 | We only want to use heavy-duty extension cords.
| | 02:36 | It's a same kind of extension cords you
use for power tools, power saws, drills,
| | 02:40 | that kind of thing, you want to have those
kind of heavy-duty extension cords. We do
| | 02:44 | not want to have those cheap Dollar Store
cords that you use for the Christmas lights.
| | 02:48 | Those are not going to cut it for professional
film light, so only heavy-duty extension cords.
| | 02:53 | Two other very important safety points we
want to talk about, and that is we don't
| | 02:57 | want to place our lights
close to anything flammable.
| | 03:00 | So you want to keep your lights 2 to 3 feet
away from sofas, drapes, anything like that
| | 03:05 | that can catch on fire, people's costumes
obviously, so always be conscious of those
| | 03:09 | kind of things. And then a very important
one that people sometimes easily overlook, and
| | 03:13 | that is that we never want to cover up the tops
of the lights or the heat vents around the light.
| | 03:18 | This is where the heat
escapes from a lighting instrument.
| | 03:20 | So if anything is placed immediately on top
of it, like black wrap or gels or some other
| | 03:25 | material, could definitely be a fire
hazard and can also end up ruining your light.
| | 03:29 | So we want to avoid all of those things that
always keep that safety in mind, and in addition
| | 03:34 | to that when you are dealing with stands
for your light, you want to put--you know, make sure
| | 03:38 | that they are heavy enough stands to hold
the type of light at it is that you have.
| | 03:41 | So let's move over here to our first
light right here, which is our key light.
| | 03:46 | Now the key light just like it sounds is our
main or most important light that we are going
| | 03:52 | to be using on our subject.
| | 03:53 | So whether you are doing 4 point, 3 point,
2 point or even 1 point lighting, you are
| | 03:58 | always going to have the key light no matter what,
because without that we really don't have any lighting.
| | 04:03 | So before I turn on my key light, there is a
very important thing I want to say in industry
| | 04:08 | term, and that is striking, so striking is
letting people know onset particularly my
| | 04:11 | subject, that's in the line of fire that hey,
I am about to turn on a very bright light,
| | 04:16 | it is very uncomfortable if you are not expecting
a light and suddenly this bright light shoots on.
| | 04:22 | So I want to let them know that I am striking,
and I also like to take the added step of
| | 04:25 | putting my hand in front of the light just so
that it's a little bit easier on his eyes.
| | 04:29 | So I am going to let him know striking, and
I am going to turn that light now right now
| | 04:33 | and ease my hand away, so making life a
little bit easier for Mark there, and you could see
| | 04:38 | what the key light is doing,
it's the main light on him.
| | 04:40 | It's hitting his face.
| | 04:42 | Coming up from a slightly higher angle and
also noticing I am coming not directly on
| | 04:48 | from the front, and I am not coming
directly from this side but about somewhere in the
| | 04:52 | middle between the two of those.
| | 04:53 | Now the key light could be placed all the
way on the side, could be placed all the way
| | 04:56 | in the front, but there is two things
I want to keep in mind if I do that.
| | 05:00 | The more I move to the front, the more I
tend to flatten out the face which is generally
| | 05:04 | something I don't want to do and lighting them
always trying to preserve that three-dimensional
| | 05:08 | feel as much as I can.
| | 05:10 | So I don't want to
really flatten out the face.
| | 05:12 | The only exception to that rule is if
somebody has a large nose that I want to make less
| | 05:17 | prominent, then I would light them and shoot
them more from the front, but other than that,
| | 05:20 | I am pretty much going to
be coming from the side.
| | 05:23 | Now I want to be careful not
coming too far from the side.
| | 05:27 | If I move my key light too far to the side,
then I am going to get some very undesirable
| | 05:31 | shadows on the face particularly across the
nose, and I can kind of show you what that
| | 05:35 | would look like if I did
without moving the light.
| | 05:37 | I am just going have Mark turn his head, so
if you turn your head to the left there, Mark,
| | 05:40 | a little bit, so you can start to see what
his nose shadow does there, definitely becomes
| | 05:44 | very distracting, not very
attractive to do it that way.
| | 05:47 | So I am going to turn it back this way, so
we can see his head, some face right there,
| | 05:51 | and notice that the nose shadow just falls
in that natural little divot, that's the
| | 05:55 | ideal position for that nose shadow so that
the shadow naturally just falls on that side.
| | 05:59 | So that is our key light.
| | 06:00 | And I am going to go ahead and turn our key
light off, right now--actually, I am sorry.
| | 06:04 | I am going to leave my key light on, and I
am going to go over here and set up our fill
| | 06:08 | light, so that's our main light.
| | 06:10 | But now notice what we have gone on because
we have only a single light right here, we
| | 06:15 | still have kind of a good deal of shadow,
it's a little dramatic right here.
| | 06:18 | If I wanted doing dragnet on TV or something
like that, I don't want this harsher look,
| | 06:23 | nothing wrong with that if you
like the look, then go with it.
| | 06:26 | But in general, we want to
fill in some of those shadows.
| | 06:29 | So this piece of material right here is
called Foamcore, it's a material used commonly
| | 06:34 | in lighting which you can also find it
in any art supply store called Foam Core.
| | 06:39 | You can also use a piece of poster board
basically any stiff white surface piece of cardboard,
| | 06:44 | you can even use a pizza box if you
wanted to, all of it will reflect light.
| | 06:48 | So a tool is as a tool does, and in
this case I am using a piece of foamcore.
| | 06:52 | And what this is going to do is just fill
in those shadows somewhat in the side of his
| | 06:55 | face, so I am going to take it away just to
look at it when I bring it in, see what's
| | 06:59 | happening on the shadows here, under the bottom of
this chin I take it away, and there it is back in.
| | 07:05 | So I am going to go ahead and place this in
place, right about here, and I just happened
| | 07:10 | to have a little special vise-grip clamp
here on a C-stand, but obviously if you don't
| | 07:15 | have these tools at home, it's not a big
deal, you can just prop your reflector up
| | 07:19 | on a chair or however you can jerry-rig it, doesn't
matter, a little bit of tape will hold it in place.
| | 07:24 | The important thing is that it stays in place,
and it's still, whether or not you have
| | 07:28 | these special tools or not.
| | 07:29 | So that is our fill light.
| | 07:32 | Now I am saying Fill Light, and obviously
this is not a light, and it's perfectly okay.
| | 07:36 | A lot of time, more often they are not in
the industry, we actually just use a reflector
| | 07:39 | because that's all you need, it's easier
to set up, and it doesn't draw any electricity
| | 07:43 | or require you to have
another lighting instrument.
| | 07:45 | However, there is nothing wrong and plenty
of people do, also use a lighting instrument.
| | 07:50 | Now if you do use a lighting instrument for
your fill light, very, very important, you
| | 07:55 | want to make sure that that fill light is
not as bright as a key light, or else you
| | 07:59 | really have two key lights.
| | 08:00 | So you either want to back that light off
a little bit, or there are other steps that
| | 08:04 | you can take to make it a lot less intense,
but that fill light shouldn't be anywhere
| | 08:07 | nearly as intense as a key light, just enough
to fill in the shadows right there on the side.
| | 08:12 | So whether you use instrument but a little
bit of bounce board is probably the easiest
| | 08:16 | thing that we can use with that.
| | 08:18 | So that is our key light and our fill light
filling in the shadows right there, and notice
| | 08:23 | how it's preserving the mentality of his face.
| | 08:25 | But now I am going to move on to my
favorite light which is a Hair Light.
| | 08:30 | Before I move into the Hair Light, I am
going to do something very important though, and
| | 08:33 | that is that I am going
to cut off the key light.
| | 08:36 | Why am I cutting off the key light? This is
a very important step to me because I always
| | 08:40 | tell people to set up your light one at a time.
| | 08:43 | Now why do you want to set them one at a time?
Because you want to see exactly what each
| | 08:48 | light is doing. So I want to make sure
that my key light is not being contaminated by
| | 08:54 | my hair light, maybe the hair
light softness belong to the face.
| | 08:57 | So later on when I look into the frame,
when I have my final shot set, if there is any
| | 09:00 | kind of issues or funky shadows, I need to
be able to quickly analyze and fix what those
| | 09:05 | issues are or in this case by simply
turning off this light, I am probably going to do
| | 09:09 | a large deal to avoid
those issues to begin with.
| | 09:12 | So I am just going to turn off the key light,
voila, and I am going to take a walk
| | 09:18 | back over here to my hair light.
| | 09:20 | Now the hair light, what's I am about to
turn on is what's called a--it's also
| | 09:25 | known as Glamour Light, but I am going ahead
and turn that light back on, the hair light
| | 09:29 | is also know as a Back Light, also know as
a Kicker, all different variations of the
| | 09:34 | same thing, but they are all sort of this
main and primary purpose which is to separate
| | 09:39 | your subject from the background, and again
just by adding that little rim of light on
| | 09:43 | one side is also adding a little more
three dimensionality to the image right there.
| | 09:48 | This is also what I'd like to call a
glamour light, it's a glamour light, something you
| | 09:52 | are going to see, if you see any of your
favorite starlets in the movies, anytime you see a
| | 09:56 | close up I guarantee you, almost every
single time you will notice that they have a very
| | 10:00 | prominent hair light that gives them this
nice glow and really highlights the hair.
| | 10:04 | But the purpose of it in the image is to really
help separate your subject from the background.
| | 10:09 | So that's our hair light.
| | 10:10 | This is also a light that I would add
another step to that we are going to get to later,
| | 10:14 | and that is that I would also color this
light with a little bit of gel, so I might
| | 10:18 | add a little hint orange, a little red, blue,
something like that just to add a slight little
| | 10:23 | accent of color in there, but we are not
going to deal with that stuff for now, we are just
| | 10:26 | going to set the light.
| | 10:27 | So I am going ahead and turn our hair
light back off and move on to our fourth light,
| | 10:32 | another important light that is often
overlooked, and that is the background light.
| | 10:36 | So we have the key light and the fill
light and the hair light, everybody talks about
| | 10:41 | 3-point lighting, but honestly most of the
time I am lighting and most people I know
| | 10:45 | we are actually doing 4-point lighting, why?
Because the fourth very important area is the background.
| | 10:50 | So I am going to go ahead and turn on the
background light, and we can see what that
| | 10:54 | does, and it does exactly like the name says
is it lights the background behind your subject.
| | 11:00 | Now this area is very important.
| | 11:01 | Why am I saying this light is important?
Because a big part of visual storytelling, especially
| | 11:05 | if you are talking about documentary or
reality type subject matter--even narrative for that
| | 11:09 | matter, doesn't really matter--is the
setting that's part of telling your story.
| | 11:14 | So if I have a bookcase behind the subject
or the living room or anything else that's
| | 11:18 | revealing something about that character that's on
screen, then I want to make sure that's illuminated.
| | 11:22 | Now in this case, we are just in the studio,
so I am using a white wall, but I am still
| | 11:26 | using this to an effect that tell my story.
| | 11:27 | I am basically forming this little aura or
spotlight kind of effect around Mark, who
| | 11:32 | is a performer, and I think this is a very
fitting effect for him, and again another
| | 11:36 | step that I am going to take later on is
that I am going to add a little bit of color gel
| | 11:39 | to this to add a little
more splash of personality.
| | 11:42 | So I am going to add in just a
little bit of gel in there to color it.
| | 11:45 | So what I have done right there is you will
notice that there is a circular effect around
| | 11:48 | him, this light unfortunately does not make
a perfect circle in and of itself, so I have
| | 11:53 | that material I told you about earlier, a
Black Wrap, and I just have it around the edge of
| | 11:57 | the light, not covering up the heated vents
here, forming a nice neat little circle just
| | 12:02 | give me that effect right there.
| | 12:03 | So what we are going to do now let's go
ahead and turn all of our lights on, now that
| | 12:06 | we set them one at a time and see
what they all look like together.
| | 12:09 | So let's go ahead and turn o the hair light,
right there, giving us a little rim, going
| | 12:15 | to step back over here, and now I am going
to turn on my key light, and there we have it.
| | 12:23 | That's our 4-point lighting set up, you
can see its got nice dimensionality to whose
| | 12:27 | face we don't have any crazy shadows or
anything else, and then later on, don't forget with
| | 12:31 | the hair light as well as with the background
light I can add a little bit of color in there
| | 12:36 | if I want and start painting the scene. But
that my friends, is your basic 4-point lighting setup.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using corrective gels| 00:01 | Now in this movie, I want
to talk about lighting gels.
| | 00:05 | Lighting gels are an essential
accessory to have for any lighting kit.
| | 00:09 | They allow you to get much more bang for
your buck when it comes to lighting by allowing
| | 00:13 | you to change color temperature,
color, and the quality of light.
| | 00:17 | So I am going to demonstrate what a couple
of these gels do, but first we got to talk
| | 00:21 | about how we apply a gel to a light.
| | 00:25 | So I am just going to raise this light up
here and pull a little piece of gel right here.
| | 00:29 | Now lighting gels, by the way, come in very
large sheet. You don't usually need that large a
| | 00:33 | sheet if you have small gel, so you want
to take one of those large sheets and cut it
| | 00:37 | into a piece that's small enough and
appropriate for the size of your particular light.
| | 00:42 | And we are going to use these state-of-the-art
filmmaking tools that I have right here, known as C47s.
| | 00:47 | I don't know if you are familiar with these
in the world of filmmaking, but they are also
| | 00:52 | known as common wooden clothes-pins.
| | 00:55 | So these are available in any Discount
Store, Kmart, Wal-Mart and things like that.
| | 00:59 | You can go and still find
bags of wooden clothes-pins.
| | 01:02 | Very important that they be wooden and not
plastic for obvious reasons, and when you
| | 01:06 | use the wooden ones, you want to place
them to the very edge of the barn door.
| | 01:10 | So we are going to clip our gels all the way
back here, if you do that, the gel will end
| | 01:14 | up melting on to your barn door.
| | 01:16 | So make sure you clip them on
to the edges so that's our C-47s.
| | 01:19 | I am just using two right here, if you are
feeling little anal or things are flopping
| | 01:24 | out of place, you can always use two more
wooden clothes-pins right down the bottom
| | 01:28 | to hold that in place.
| | 01:29 | So that is our C-47s, and that's how we are
going to attach them when we are on the set
| | 01:34 | in the real world, however,
because I am just demonstrating for you.
| | 01:37 | I am just going to be showing you gels and
these big gels frames, so I can quickly put
| | 01:40 | them up in front of the
light and then take them away.
| | 01:43 | Now this is one of the most essential gels
and the most essential gel in my opinion,
| | 01:48 | that you are going to have,
and that is diffusion.
| | 01:51 | Diffusion is used to make hard light soft.
The notable characteristic about the fusion
| | 01:57 | is that it's frosted, not clear, so any type
of frosted gel that you see is basically going
| | 02:02 | to be used for diffusion.
| | 02:04 | Now what is the main purpose of
this? It is to soften hard light.
| | 02:07 | What is the benefit of that? Is that
it's very flattering to facial features.
| | 02:12 | What it does is it softens hard shadows, and
it softens the surface texture on the face.
| | 02:18 | So if I put this up in front of the light
right here, you can kind of see what that's
| | 02:22 | doing right there, there
it is in, there it is out.
| | 02:25 | Notice the quality of the shadow, the nose
shadow, how sharp that shadow is versus the
| | 02:30 | diffusion in there and also particularly
take notice of the texture of the skin as I take
| | 02:34 | it away and put it in there.
| | 02:36 | So any type of texture on people's skin, wrinkles
blemishes anything like that are greatly diminished
| | 02:41 | and softened, when they are using
anything like this type of diffusion.
| | 02:45 | In addition to that, you also have the added
benefit of softening hard shadows that might
| | 02:50 | come from your key light.
So that is Diffusion.
| | 02:54 | Notable thing about diffusion is that it
comes in different thicknesses, so you can have
| | 02:58 | diffusion, it's almost very thin, it's almost
clear, and you can also have diffusion that's
| | 03:03 | really thick is a lot
thicker than this and very frosted.
| | 03:07 | One thing to note about all these gels I am
showing you, diffusion included is that they
| | 03:11 | all takeaway a certain amount of light, so
you are going to need to compensate for that.
| | 03:16 | So this light has a certain brightness now,
but whenever I put the gel up in front of
| | 03:19 | it, it's going to takeaway a certain amount
of light, I can compensate for that by either
| | 03:23 | intensive, making my beam more intense, so
I can spot the light a little bit more, or
| | 03:29 | I can move the light a little bit closer to my subject,
or I can open up my Iris if that will work for me.
| | 03:33 | So that's Diffusion Gel.
| | 03:35 | Another gel I want to show you
is ND or Neutral Density Gel.
| | 03:40 | Now ND or Neutral Density Gels are very
much the same as ND Filters on the camera that
| | 03:46 | we talked about earlier in this course, and ND
Gels are used to just cut down the intensity
| | 03:52 | of the light, the intensity
or brightness, as all these do.
| | 03:55 | A very important thing about this as well
as the Diffusion Gel I showed you earlier
| | 04:00 | is that neither ND Gel or
Diffusion affects color temperature.
| | 04:04 | So these don't change the color temperature.
| | 04:06 | Now ND Gels come in various shades of gray,
from light gray to dark gray, and they are
| | 04:11 | graded in strengths from 3, 6, and 9.
| | 04:14 | 3 being the lightest, 9
being one of the darkest shades.
| | 04:17 | So if I go ahead and put this up in front
of the light, all you are going to see what
| | 04:20 | this does is it cuts the intensity of the light.
| | 04:23 | So I am taking it way, it's not changing the
softness of the light just the intensity right there.
| | 04:28 | So our shadow is just as hard as it was before,
but the intensity of the light, the brightness
| | 04:34 | of the light is diminished, so that's used to
take the bright lights down. So this is ND 3.
| | 04:38 | Let's take a look at ND 6.
| | 04:40 | ND 6 Gel, we are going to go ahead and pop
up there, and there is ND 6 Gel, you can see
| | 04:47 | that that makes the scene very dark.
| | 04:49 | So obviously, this ND Gel is way more than
I would need for a scene like this, but I
| | 04:53 | would use this if I had a light that was
causing a real hotspot, or that was very bright on
| | 04:59 | my subject, then I would use a darker ND Gel.
| | 05:01 | Now when are you going to use the stronger
gels? Basically, when you have a stronger light.
| | 05:05 | So if I had a bigger, stronger light with more
wattage, then I would need a stronger ND Gel.
| | 05:10 | Now these type of gels are the ND and Color
Correction Gels, all come in different strengths
| | 05:15 | that are marked by fraction, so one-eighth,
one-quarter, half and full, full being the
| | 05:20 | darkest and one-eighth being the lightest, when
you are talking about the other types of gels there.
| | 05:25 | So those are the different strengths.
| | 05:27 | So right here, I am just going to show you
these, because we don't have the proper conditions
| | 05:30 | set up here in the studio, but
this is a color temperature blue gel.
| | 05:34 | Now color temperature blue, more commonly
called CTB by its initials, is used to convert
| | 05:40 | 3200-degree Kelvin. 3200-degree Kelvin as you guys will
recall is the color temperature for indoor light.
| | 05:48 | So what this is used is to change the
tungsten light like this to look more like daylight.
| | 05:53 | So when would I use this situation? I
would use this if I was shooting in a room that
| | 05:57 | has sunlight coming into it, and I
wanted to supplement the sunlight.
| | 06:01 | So if my subject is lit by sunlight, then
I would use one of these gels and put that
| | 06:05 | over the light, and that would make my tungsten
light, which would otherwise look orange match
| | 06:09 | the bluish quality of the
daylight and make it all look natural.
| | 06:12 | I could also use this in the
studio to make daylight artificially.
| | 06:17 | So there are many ways that I can use a CTB gel.
It's a very useful one to have, color temperature blue.
| | 06:23 | And then next gel that I
want to show you guys is CTO.
| | 06:27 | This is the opposite of the CTB Gel.
| | 06:30 | CTO Gel, or Color Temperature Orange Gel, is
used to make daylight balanced light match
| | 06:36 | tungsten color temperature.
| | 06:38 | So if I had a daylight balanced light, such
as Kino Flo or HMI, then I would use this type
| | 06:44 | of gel to make that match the indoor
light if I were using other tungsten lights.
| | 06:48 | So sometimes you want to mix different types
of lights together, and that's perfectly fine,
| | 06:52 | but you want to make sure that you have the
right type of correcting gel to make those
| | 06:56 | lights work together.
| | 06:58 | Another useful purpose of this type of gel
right here is if you have a really big sheet
| | 07:03 | of this gel, you could
actually tape it into a window.
| | 07:06 | So if I had a pretty tight shot on an
interview--let's say I had Mark in a close up, and I
| | 07:10 | had a window behind him, and I had tungsten
lights in that scene--well, I could use this
| | 07:14 | CTO Gel to make the daylight outside of that
window look natural and white, that will also
| | 07:19 | match my tungsten light.
| | 07:20 | So another great use of CTO Gels can also
be used to warm up the skin tones as well.
| | 07:26 | Another type of gel, the last I want you to
tell about is what I like to call Party Gels.
| | 07:32 | Now Party Gels are just like they sound,
these are just the fun gels, they come in every
| | 07:36 | color of the rainbow and they are really
used just to paint a scene, to tell a story.
| | 07:40 | So basically they are used to add color
wherever you want to add a little bit of color.
| | 07:44 | The most common usage for them often to accent
the hair, we want to add a little bit of highlight
| | 07:49 | to the hair, if we want to use something that's
orange, we can also use it to change the color
| | 07:54 | of the background to match
or contrast your subject.
| | 07:57 | So I am going to have my assistant Nick just
hold an amber gel up in front of the light,
| | 08:01 | and you can see what that does to the
background, take it away again Nick.
| | 08:04 | So there is without, there it is with, and
so using one of these party gels, you can
| | 08:08 | see that I could easily change the background
to any color I wanted, red, blue, green, whatever
| | 08:14 | is going to work for my particular scene
and the particular story that I want to tell.
| | 08:18 | So, party gels are great to have
on hand for a variety of purposes.
| | 08:22 | So we've established that lighting gels come
in a multitude of colors and types, but those
| | 08:28 | are just some of the most common ones you
will need to pull off any type of video project,
| | 08:33 | whether we're talking documentary,
narrative, or something in between.
| | 08:37 | Now if you can only get a few gels to start
out with, the three most valuable gels that
| | 08:42 | I think you should have in your kit,
are diffusion to soften hard light.
| | 08:46 | CTB or Color Temperature Blue, to match tungsten
lights to daylight, and ND Gel to cut down light intensity.
| | 08:54 | Without gels to change the quality, intensity,
and color temperature of lights, your lighting
| | 08:59 | kit isn't nearly as useful.
| | 09:01 | So if you are renting or investing in a
light kit, make sure you also have some gels to
| | 09:05 | make that kit do what it does, which
is to help tell your story visually.
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ConclusionShooting for the edit| 00:02 | Now to finish, I just want to touch on some
topics and practices that will make it easy
| | 00:06 | for you to tell your story through editing.
| | 00:09 | Editing is all about choices, what you show,
what you don't show, how long you leave it
| | 00:14 | on the screen, what shots you
put before and after it, and more.
| | 00:19 | Editing is part of post production, but the
job of editing actually begins when you're
| | 00:23 | shooting your project, because that's when
you make the choice of what to shoot and how
| | 00:28 | long to hold the shot.
| | 00:29 | Well, if you decide you need a close-up to
make a particular scene work, but you didn't
| | 00:34 | actually shoot a close-up, that's a production
decision that actually affected your editing process.
| | 00:40 | So whenever you're shooting a scene, you
can't just think of the camera, you have to also
| | 00:45 | think and shoot with how the
scene will actually be edited in mind.
| | 00:49 | There is a term for this in
filmmaking, it's called Shooting for the Cut.
| | 00:54 | Shooting for the Cut means getting a
variety of good shots with different compositions
| | 00:58 | and vantage points that will allow you to
easily cut together an edited scene with a
| | 01:03 | wide variety of choices.
| | 01:06 | My goal when shooting a scene is to leave as many
choices open to cut a scene as practically possible.
| | 01:12 | In order to have good choices,
I have to have good coverage.
| | 01:17 | Now the term coverage refers to the variety
of shots you use to visually tell your story.
| | 01:22 | Apart from just breaking up the monotony of
a single long camera shot, getting more shots
| | 01:27 | or additional coverage will provide plenty
of opportunities to cut away from your main
| | 01:32 | shot in the editing room.
| | 01:34 | This makes it easy to condense time and
work around problem shots and technical mistakes.
| | 01:41 | With good coverage, an editor can easily
condense interviews, events, and demonstrations down
| | 01:46 | to a smooth few minutes to tell a story that
is visually dynamic and conveys the maximum
| | 01:53 | amount of information in a minimal amount of
time, using the visual language of filmmaking.
| | 01:59 | One of the very important shots that's easy to
overlook in production is the Establishing Shot.
| | 02:05 | It's an important shot, because it's
traditionally the opening shot of your scene.
| | 02:10 | Establishing shots are often wider exterior
shots, an office tower, a subject entering
| | 02:15 | the room, street signs on the city corner,
a city vista, are all examples of typical
| | 02:21 | establishing shots.
| | 02:23 | However, establishing shots could also be
as tight as a sign, a bird in the bush, or
| | 02:29 | any other shot that gives your audience some
sense of the general flavor of the location.
| | 02:34 | These shots just orient the audience for a
few seconds and let them know where we are
| | 02:39 | before we start right into a scene.
| | 02:42 | Often, instead of a single shot, you would
actually start with an establishing sequence
| | 02:47 | or string of establishing shots,
generally going from wide shots to closer shots.
| | 02:53 | Now that we've let the audience know where
we are with an establishing shot or two, we're
| | 02:57 | ready to insert a Master Shot.
| | 02:59 | A Master Shot is usually a wide shot that
covers all or most of the main action in the scene.
| | 03:05 | If three characters are sitting at a table,
then my master shot would include all three.
| | 03:10 | If a juggler was packing his trunk, then my
Master Shot would be from a good angle where
| | 03:15 | I can see the juggler's face, the contents
of the trunk, and some of the general setting.
| | 03:20 | The Master Shot is your conservative all-purpose
safety shot that you can always cut to when necessary.
| | 03:25 | It's a most important shot
you want to get every time.
| | 03:30 | In addition to the Master Shot, you also want to
get shots that punch in a little closer on the action.
| | 03:36 | So typically after showing the
Master Shot, we would cut to Medium Shots.
| | 03:40 | Medium Shots generally frame from the waist
up, bringing the audience in closer to show a
| | 03:44 | subject's clothing, gestures, and body language.
| | 03:48 | Finally, you want to make sure that you
also get intimate with some close-ups.
| | 03:53 | Close-up Shots range from the chest and
shoulders up and are often used to capture dialog, show
| | 03:58 | expressions, and otherwise bring your
audience close to the character or object on screen.
| | 04:04 | Apart from intimacy, close-up direct the
audiences to specific details and actions on screen.
| | 04:12 | To help smoothly edit your scene and condense
time, you'll need to insert completely different
| | 04:17 | shots during the editing process that will
allow you to cut away from one part of the
| | 04:21 | scene, so you can cut to
another shot of the same scene.
| | 04:24 | These shots are called Cutaways.
| | 04:28 | Cutaways are generally individual shots of
anything relevant to your interview or location.
| | 04:33 | Most often they are close-ups, but medium
and wide shots can also work, a family picture
| | 04:38 | on the wall, your subject's nervous hand gestures,
the trophy case behind them, the scene nearby,
| | 04:45 | anything that captures a character of your
location, says something about your subject,
| | 04:49 | communicates more info about the scene, or
helps you tell your story more effectively
| | 04:54 | will make for a good cutaway.
| | 04:57 | So let's look at how cutaways come in handy.
| | 05:00 | Let's say I'm editing an interview, and I
want to cutaway from a comment that was 10
| | 05:04 | minutes into my interview directly to another
comment that was actually three minutes later.
| | 05:09 | Well, I can just edit those two shots together
back-to-back, but that would result in what's
| | 05:14 | called a jump cut, because elements of the
shot would jump from one position to another.
| | 05:19 | (male speaker: When you take a 7-foot-tall unicycle
and juggle flaming torches, I think that's pretty wild.
| | 05:24 | When I'm performing, I'm--)
| | 05:27 | It's a little jarring for the audience.
| | 05:29 | Now let's see it again with a
quick cutaway inserted in the middle.
| | 05:33 | (male speaker: --flaming torches, I think that's pretty wild.
When I'm performing, I'm really having fun.
| | 05:38 | I mean, I get to play for a living.)
| | 05:41 | Much nicer. You see how smooth that was?
| | 05:45 | Cutaways allow you to much more easily use
all the coverage you got by making it easy
| | 05:49 | to switch between two different angles, jump
around in time, or just cover up mistakes like
| | 05:55 | a camera bump or audio edit.
| | 05:58 | Similar to cutaways, another thing you want
to think about that will help you make smooth
| | 06:02 | edits is a concept of cutting on the action.
| | 06:06 | The best place to breakaway from one shot or coming
to another is in the middle of some physical action.
| | 06:12 | So if my subject is something like riding
unicycle across the screen, I would in the
| | 06:17 | first shot just before he completely exited,
and I would begin the next shot just after
| | 06:21 | he was a little into the scene.
| | 06:24 | Cutting on the action helps to mentally carry your
audience from one angle or shot to another seamlessly.
| | 06:30 | So now let's look at how all these different types
of shots fit together to give us a fluid final scene.
| | 06:38 | (music playing)
| | 06:44 | (male speaker: My name is Mark Wilder,
and I am a professional entertainer.
| | 06:50 | Juggling on a unicycle probably is my favorite thing
to do, just putting those two things together,
| | 06:55 | and when you take a 7-foot-tall unicycle and
juggle flaming torches, I think that's pretty wild.
| | 07:02 | When I'm performing, I'm really having fun.
| | 07:04 | I mean, I get to play for a living, and
people see that, and I think in turn it rubs off
| | 07:09 | on them, and they have fun watching.
| | 07:12 | The best way to get in touch with me is to go
online and check out my web site, which is
| | 07:17 | wilderjuggler.com, and you can check out some
pictures and some video of me in action, and
| | 07:23 | then you can hit me up and send me an email, and
that will be the best way to get in touch with me.)
| | 07:30 | (music playing)
| | 07:40 | So I just gave you some basic
advice on editing to get you started.
| | 07:44 | When you're ready to dive deeper into the
technical aspects of editing, there are lots
| | 07:48 | of courses on the lynda.com library on Adobe
Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, and others.
| | 07:55 | Those courses get much more detailed about
specific software, organizing material, making
| | 08:01 | cuts in the editing process as a whole.
| | 08:05 | Remember, editing is all about having lots
of choices to cut to and from, and the editing
| | 08:10 | process really begins in your head
the moment you hit the Record button.
| | 08:15 | So on location, you always
want to shoot for the cut.
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| Goodbye| 00:01 | Well, that's it everybody.
| | 00:02 | If you watch this whole course, you've got a
great head start on shooting video and doing
| | 00:07 | it right. But this is just the beginning.
| | 00:10 | Remember, this course is a starting point,
I recommend that you also check out some of
| | 00:14 | the web sites and podcasts
included in the exercise files.
| | 00:19 | These are great ways to get the latest news
and information on the world of filmmaking.
| | 00:24 | Now there are also lots of great film books
out there, including my own books,
| | 00:27 | The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide
and The Shut Up and Shoot Freelance Video Guide.
| | 00:32 | When it comes time to start editing, be sure to
check out the video section on lynda.com library.
| | 00:38 | You'll find a ton of courses on editing,
postproduction, motion graphics, and more.
| | 00:44 | And that's it for the course. I hope you
feel better prepared to go out there and capture
| | 00:49 | your story on video.
| | 00:51 | Remember, the only thing that really counts is
what's in your heart and what's on the monitor.
| | 00:57 | Until next time, this is Anthony Artis,
wishing you peace, love, and video.
| | 01:02 | I'm out, baby!
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