Capturing the Holidays

Holidays are the time when we are most likely to grab the video camera and capture family events. For most of us, it is why we bought the camera in the first place. Taping a holiday home movie can be fun, and should be something you will cherish years from now.

Media Notes Episode 10 | Holiday Videos

Capturing holiday events, quick tips and tricks

The holiday video does not have to just document annual events. With a little planning you could create a great video postcard from the family that you send out before the holidays.

The Video Post Card

One topic idea could be to shoot some of the activities where you are getting the house and family ready. If you get a tree, shoot a little sequence of the journey there, choosing “just the right one”, bringing it home and decorating it. If you have young kids have them describe their version of the meaning of these holiday celebrations. Have each member of the family give a message why they are thankful, or who they miss, or what gift they are hoping for, or any topic that has special meaning for your family. And shoot to edit. Don’t be afraid to shoot something more than once, and only use the best version.

A great way to get your video post card ready for distribution is to edit it all together using iMovie or MovieMaker and upload it on to web sharing site like Vimeo, Blip or Soapbox. Write your family letter and include a link or embed the video. For those friends and relatives that are far away, the chance to see your family may be the best gift of all.

Holiday Movies

When it comes time to record the family holiday gathering, here are a few survival tips to make it a movie to remember, in a good way.

First of all, use a tripod whenever you can. I realize most tripods are so clunky and big they could be considered lethal weapons in six states, but they really help improve the watchability (if there is such a word) of your work. Things like breathing and body movement can be exaggerated significantly on your camera, particularly when you are zoomed in. Using a tripod can make your video look more professional, and can eliminate the nausea-inducing movement common to most home video. This is particularly true of the holiday classics like concerts, plays, religious services, gifts, and video taping in low light.

Second, film a few set-up shots of an event before you film the actual event. For instance, film the tree sitting by itself before you film people opening presents, or film people filing into an auditorium for a concert before the actual concert. Hold each shot for at least 10 seconds. When you edit you won’t have to use all of it, so don’t make the mistake of shooting each moment as if it were a snapshot. Just count to ten quietly to yourself until you get a feel for how long is long enough. Years from now you will really appreciate the footage of your holiday decorations, or the holiday meal. Look for camera shots that catch the feeling of where you are and set the scene for your holiday home movie.

As I have indicated in earlier posts, interview your subjects. Have them describe what is happening, have them tell you what is going on around them. If your child performs in the Holiday Pageant, asks him about his performance. If gifts are a part of your celebration, ask your kids what they want the night before, and then get their reaction when they finally discover what’s in all those packages.

No matter how well you plan, how well you shoot, how succinct your interviews, the odds are that you will shoot tons of boring video that no one, not even you, will want to watch again. So shoot to edit and edit what you shoot. It is not that hard. Try to trim out sections of the video that don’t have much going on. If your video looks choppy, a fun idea can be to make a holiday music video. Select your favorite holiday song, and the set clips of your holiday celebration to the music.

Enjoy the Moment

Plan ahead. Plan when you will shoot and when you will put the camera down. Don’t let your camcorder keep you from celebrating the holiday with your family and friends. A home video can give you great memories, but nothing will match the memory of being fully present in the holiday events yourself. Besides, some folks will get really tired of having the camera out all the time, or may not appreciate the intrusion to their vision of the perfect holiday. Keep it in balance and appreciate every moment of the holidays. You only get one shot at it so make it the best you can.

Drew Keller

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Of Video Tape and Hard Drives and Time Code

Truth be told, I don’t closely follow the latest developments in camera and computer hardware. Sure I am aware of how the sand is shifting under our feet… away from tape-based production and over to file-based acquisition. But I don’t really have the time or interest to delve into the nuanced differences between all the different camera models. I think for most of us a camera is just a tool for storytelling. And don’t ask me if it is best to buy a flash, hard-drive or DVD camera. Each has benefits and liabilities, and you are currently running a 2-in-3 risk of buying a handsome doorstop instead of a camera. It will be well over a year before one of these particular formats emerges victorious as the de-facto home movie standard.

I work a lot with file based media in my other life as a producer and editor. Probably 50% of the content I work with comes from a hard drive instead of tape. And if the economy had not landed so decidedly in the dumper, I have a feeling Christmas sales of file based HD cameras would have been epic. The manufacturers certainly thought so. It is difficult to find a camera for sale that uses tape… DV or HDV. You may find one or two of them tucked away on the end or the back of the shelf, out of direct view.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think the change is bad. I really like what Pure Digital Technologies is doing with the Flip MinoHD (especially at the price point), and Canon’s HG30, HF100, and Sony’s HDR-SR11 all call out to me when I walk through the store. I love window shopping, picking up a camera to see how it feels in my hand, checking the balance, the weight, access to features. I just don’t know if I feel compelled to buy one.

Media Notes Episode 9 | Timecode Breaks

With changes in our spending habits because of the worsening economy comes a change in the adoption curve for these new cameras. Logic says it will flatten out with early adopters taking longer to move to an early majority and critical mass. In other words, we will be in this state of technical flux longer than most manufacturers anticipated. We won’t be buying many new cameras and we will hold on to our old ones longer.

This brings me (in a long and indirect way) to the notion that most of us are still using tape. And we are likely to use tape for some time to come. The cameras we have purchased in the past few years still make great movies. Not to mention the hours of legacy content we have of our families, sitting in a cardboard box on a shelf in the hall closet (the tapes are in the box in the hall, not our families. Although with four kids there are times…).

It is best then to learn the most efficient ways to manage your footage. Time code is a great tool to catalog, organize and capture your footage for editing. And you should shoot to edit. Even if it is just to chop out the wiggly bits of camera movement when you start and stop your camera. Editing takes your movies from unwatchable to enjoyable. Especially for others.

When you are shooting with tape, and you have a partially or previously recorded tape, when you put it into the camera and start recording it will pick up where the numbers left off. That’s a good thing. But this only happens if the tape is at a point where the camera can read where you left off.

You need to be careful if you rewind the tape to look at your footage, or take it out of the camera. When you are done reviewing you’ll cue the tape up to where you left off. You need to do this just right and here is why. When you’re trying to find where you left off you may roll past the end of your footage and then you are in snow (the screen will look blue). If you start recoding here, the timecode will not pick up where you left off, it will reset to zero. That’s because the camera thinks you have started a new tape. 

You don’t want a tape that starts at zero over and over again.

You see your computer uses these numbers as a guide when you transfer your footage for editing. If you have multiple instances of the same number, your camera and computer probably won’t know where to find your shots. It can’t tell which time code you intended to use.

In this episode of Media notes I talk about a few ways you can avoid the headaches that come with broken timecode. And here is the enticing part, I show you my shoes. No really. And there is a reason why.

 

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Little Video Books

Somehow I got tied to the work of Michael Rubin. I never intended for this to be the case. I am pretty sure he doesn’t know about it.

In graduate school a few years ago I was tasked with writing a book review about Rubin’s 500 page chronology of filmmaker George Lucas’ idea farm and the pixel pushing ranch hands who work at Skywalker Ranch. “Droidmaker“ is the inside story of George Lucas, his intensely private company, and their work to revolutionize filmmaking.

Fast-forward to my current efforts to stay abreast of content written specifically for demystifying personal filmmaking. I have plenty of academic textbooks that my students use in the classes I teach at University of Washington. Most of the books are really quite dreadful. They resonate with all the readability of a phonebook or military field manual. There are precious few authors that keep it simple.

Over the years I have passed countless copies of Tom Schroeppel’s “The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video” on to budding filmmakers. It was first published a quarter century ago, but the practical sensibilities found between the brown paper covers are timeless. You can still find it on line for about $15, and if you want a quick jump start into  understanding how to shoot I can’t think of a better place to start.

Which brings me to Michael Rubin. Lo and behold he has published a little book about home video called, appropriately enough, “The Little Digital Video Book.” On the whole, Rubin has done a very good job here. I disagree with his take on incorporating sound bites into personal videos (he says no and I think they are critical to keeping your work timeless), but his explanations about framing, sequencing and editing are much better than most any other starter book I have found. If you are looking for a little manual you can tuck into a camera bag or use to fiddle away a few minutes I recommend his book. Rubin has done a good job and I guarantee that after starting this book your shooting will immediately improve. I can’t say that with most of the books I have seen.

 

 

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Counters, Numbers and Timecode

The first few blog posts here on Media Flow have been rather technical in nature. I am not much of a gear-head, but I find that most often it is the technical details that get in the way of having a great experience shooting and producing personal videos. My hope is if I create a foundation by first discussing technical topics I can then move on to what I consider the fun stuff… insights on narrative and aesthetic techniques for compelling storytelling. I think most folks would much rather learn about how to compose a good shot, or sequence a scene or edit a montage than listen to me drone on about how to load a tape.

With that in mind I present the next episode of Media Notes… Timecode.

Timecode Basics

I know. As far as topics go this one is nay too sexy. But I believe you will spend more time wrestling with timecode issues as you produce your personal movies than you will with any other technical problem. At some time most of you will have challenges that range from duplicate code on your tape; to code that shifts up and down from poor shooting procedures; to problems getting your computer to track and digitize your footage. There is no reason for this wasted time and countless frustrating minutes. A little “timecode hygiene” will keep you concentrating on the fun stuff… the creative stuff.

Timecode is an exceptionally useful and important number. Timecode creates the “where” information on a tape. Each frame has a unique number (unique if you set things up correctly) and that number becomes an address for finding your content. I sometimes think of timecode as a mile marker on the freeway. If I tell you to meet me at milepost 165 southbound Interstate 35 in Iowa, we could both find it. I have nary a clue what is there, but this is a unique address and I can find that point, and you can too.

No matter if you are using tape or file-based media, timecode will be a part of your production process. It certainly will help if you spend a few moments becoming familiar with the how and why of using timecode. Grounding yourself with a few fundamentals is always a good idea.

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Camera Tour Part 2

Media Notes Episode 7 – Camera Tour

The great thing about the creative process is there are no rules. Oh sure, we can talk about the rule of thirds, or don’t cut two wide shots together, or electricity and water are a poor mix. But much of the process of storytelling is driven by your aesthetic sensibilities, not rules. If we were to tell a story about a common experience, each would tell it differently, focusing on details and elements that are important to the teller. To me, that is the cool part of creating videos. What is important to the teller? What do they bring to the story that sheds insight into their view of the world?

My daughter once made a video about her Furby attacking a piece of lawn art. It was a fascinating look at the way my then 8-year-old daughter saw the world. She shot it all on a little flash-based camera, strung the clips together in MovieMaker and was done. I loved seeing what she felt was important to the story and the fluidity of the plot. OK, it was so fluid there was no plot.

Where is this leading? I want to reiterate that much of what I talk about comes from 30 years of experience making TV. My point of view is shaped by a career of breaking stuff. Cameras, software, computers, tripods, more lights than I can count… I learned early that it is best to be careful, but not to be intimidated by the tools or the process. I also learned from literally hundreds of professionals who shared their opinions with me about the best way to make TV. As we continue the camera tour with a look at video tape you will see that I have opinions about the best way to accomplish a task. But they are only opinions, not gospel. The ideas and observations work for me, and have worked for the literally hundreds of students I have taught to be filmmakers. If you disagree, that is totally cool.

And please, don’t send me your lens cap. I have enough already.

 

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Camera Tour Part 1

Episode 6 – Camera Tour Part 1 

I really try and avoid jargon. Too often I slip into the trap and hear myself sounding self-important as I toss acronyms and slang into conversation. For instance, why say LCD screen when screen will do just fine? Calling it liquid crystal or plasma isn’t going to directly affect my shooting. And numbers get displayed on a screen… for me the screen is not a display. What is the point here? Well in this episode I am starting a jargon-free tour of the common video camera.

Many of you are very familiar with your camera, so the material in today’s episode may seem obvious. For example, if you have been shooting for a while you certainly know where to find the on/off switch. But there is a huge population of folks out there that are really intimidated by all the knobs, buttons and glass on a camera. I watch my wife try and shoot with anything beyond our Flip and her anxiety ratchets up appreciatively. This video blog episode, and the next, are not really geared for the power user, although I hope everyone finds something new. They are geared for those who leave their camera in the closet or under the bed, unused and unloved. The users who have hours of unseen footage in a box. Those of you who can’t figure out why your footage is not what you expected.

My goal here is to create an invitation to those who are intimidated by the technology, the complication and the impenetrable mystique of creating personal media. My hope is to open the door to those who begin a task like editing a home movie and quit because they don’t know where to start. So in the spirit of beginning at the beginning, we start with where to find the power switch.

 

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Interviews

The process of teaching some of the finer points of personal video production can be somewhat chaotic. Where do you begin? What is helpful to one may be obvious or uninspiring to another. An important part of the task over the next few months is to build a body of content that will present a foundation in the basics of digital video. It is a lot of ground to cover.

Episode 5 – Interviews

I expect much of this content will be about how you can use your camera to tell your story. The choices you have available may seem a subtle at first but they can dramatically affect your video.

Let’s take camera height. All too often we see footage of a child taken from the adult’s point of view. We watch home movies where we see are the tops of a lot of little heads and upturned faces. When I shoot kids, or anyone for that matter, I work to set the height of the camera to be level with the eyes of the subject. That means when I am photographing someone less than six feet tall (my height) I take the camera off my shoulder and drop it to the right height. This can make a huge difference. Take a look at the power of the little girl describing peacocks in this episode’s video. She talks directly into the camera, she is full of energy, and we have a glimpse into her world. I certainly am not the first to point out that the world of a four-year-old can have the same power and insight as that of a fifty-four-year-old. Thinking about your camera position will help you to show the moment with integrity.

This episode is not about camera angles, oddly enough. It is about how you can tell a story. When we shoot home movies we usually just spray the camera around the room. Hosing down the event as if the place was on fire. We see Uncle Ed in the corner, there is Aunt Ethel at the table with her Niece, and look, there is the toddler unwrapping a gift. It is a string of random moments with little connective narrative. A great way to create home movies you will treasure for a lifetime is to interview the people in your video. Have them tell you what they are doing, how they feel, what is important about the day or the event, who they are, why they are there… I think you get the idea. This is your chance to play journalist and ask them who, what, when, where, why and how. It is not an inquisition, but their answers can give perspective to otherwise confusing footage. Besides, you will have the added benefit of using your interviews as the narrative spine of your video.

You Can Edit. Really

Editing sometimes seems like so much alchemy. Managing all the cables and software can feel overwhelming. But the learning curve for editing does not have to be steeper than the face of an isosceles triangle.

Episode 4 – You Can Edit. Really

You can, and should, edit your footage. There are a multitude of resources available to you for managing your footage. Whether you are on a PC or Mac, there are solutions that will do a great job and are already built right into your computer. While videotape is far from dead, we are seeing more and more cameras that record the image to a file, making moving and managing your video as easy as moving and editing a Word document. Finally, with the expansion of video on the internet, we will begin to see more and more web-based editing applications where you can edit and distribute your work with a minimum of muss and fuss.

But it does take practice to become familiar with the process. It is not all that difficult to do and you can have success within the first few minutes. This is especially true with the Beta build of Movie Maker. This package appears to be a few months away from release, but shows tremendous promise. I expect to spend a fair amount of time exploring it with you as they get closer to release. In the interim we have iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Premier, and many other apps.

You have to start somewhere, so dive right in. It won’t be perfect at first, but you need to start somewhere. Simply, just start editing your videos. You will see that the story you have to tell is important, and that more folks will listen as you eliminate the bumpy spots in your footage. Eventually you will learn how to add sound, organize the footage, and use basic editing techniques. But you can’t learn until you start. Find the courage to poke around the editor that is waiting for you.

 

 

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Media Notes Episode 3 – Get Up and Move

 

Episode 3 – Get Up and Move

We have all endured the excruciating home movie. You know the one… a single wide shot of “Little Johnny” or “Little Judy” running around a field playing some sort of pee-wee sport. The camera is locked on a wide shot, the kids are dots in the back ground. A proud mom or dad offers commentary about how, “there is my kid. The blue smudge over there.”

A Wild West dentist would inflict less pain than these parents. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Shot variety is a great way to propel a story or event. Wide shots should be left to the domain of surveillance footage, establishing shots and weather cameras. As photographer and story teller it is up to you to choose what is important and communicate that point of view with your camera. It is all about how you frame the shot. This episode introduces you to the notion of shot variety and camera placement. There are a number of thoughts about how you can convey emotional messages by how you position your subject in the frame, and in future episodes we’ll explore the logic and emotion behind the choices you make. For now, I just want you to start thinking about where you could be to make your shots more interesting.

It is not difficult and once you practice moving around you will find that you are placing your camera and framing your shots by intuitively knowing what is best for your story. There is no need for intimidating theories and a pile of jargon. Let’s keep it simple. Get up and move. Often closer is better. Look at the corners of your shot, is there anything distracting there? What feels right?

Shooting your home movies is not a test, it should be fun. Sure, there are times where the final outcome is not the vision you had. But that is how we learn. There are events in your family that can not be repeated and if you stop using your camera because you are afraid you will make a mistake, well that would be the real mistake.

I love shooting everyday stuff. After a while all the Christmas packages look the same, but the water fight in the back yard, the inflatable pool, bath time, dinner in a high chair… those have a special beauty in their own right. Most of life is lived in the in-between moments, not just during life’s milestones. So be certain to capture life’s little pleasures. Twenty years from now having your four-year-old daughter sleeping under your arm will only be a sweet memory. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could revisit the moment with more than your mind’s eye.

 

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In-camera Special Effects

Your Camera’s Special Effects

MediaNotesEpisode02 from drewke on Vimeo.

Your camera comes loaded with all sorts of special effects. But do you really want to shoot your video in black and white? In this, the second episode of Media Notes, I look at the benefits and liabilities to shooting your footage using your camera’s special effects.

Offering some insight into production, I hope you can see why I believe it is always best to “Keep it Clean”. In other words, shoot your video clean and add the effects later during editing. There are great tools out there for editing, many free or part of your computer’s operating system. Remember, if you add it when you shoot it, you can’t remove it.

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