Keep camera movments - focusing , zooming , etc . - as smooth as possible
like atmosphere ( Go-pro helmet camera , exciting !) rather than amateur bungling . A video all made with an expensive panning tropod for total Hollywood smoothness can be a bit boring if you don ’ t have Scarlett Johanssen to liven it up .
voicing concerns
You only need one shot talking to camera . After that , if you slot in voice-over above the natural sound effect of the original video clip , they ’ ll think you ’ re still there talking to them . Talking-to-camera shots can go wrong ( eg my head wasn ’ t in the picture ) so I ’ ll have a long slow shot of nothing much happening as backup that I could use with a voice over .
the White way to do it : interview tricks
In Andrew White interviews ( Julia Bradbury does it too ) the camera cuts away from the interview to watch the interview from further away . The first camera doesn ’ t show in the second camera ’ s shot , and anyway AW doesn ’ t have a second camera … He ’ s cut in a repeat of the interview , taken afterwards from further away , over the original soundtrack . You never even noticed that the hands were moving wrong and you weren ’ t seeing the lips . things to do
Trim the starts and ends of the clips Drag them into the right order Pull in and insert stills . ( In iMovie , you can drag stills straight in off the desktop .) Click somewhere marked with a T to insert a title over the top . Click something that might look like a bow tie to insert transitions . Mostly you can just cut from clip to clip but to establish a ‘ paragraph break ’ or time interval you put in a transition . ( And set what sort of transition , and its duration .) After your second video you ’ ll know to allow an extra 2 sec on the end of a clip when you might want to have a transition . A symbol slightly resembling a amicrophone ( mic not mike remember ) means insert a voice over .
Vary the framing when shooting interviews
interview tricks two
Interviews need to be edited , to take out the bit where he rambled on about the Beeching cuts yet again .
1 edit out the audio unwanted bits seamlessly 2 now there are jumps in the video !
3 drop in a closeup shot of what ever they were talking about to cover the join
This requires a slightly advanced editing trick called ‘ detatching ’ the video from the audio , so ’ s to keep the audio running while substituting different video ( or a still ).
the cutting room
Shooting a 5 minute video takes all morning . Editing it into a movie takes all afternoon . The editing program will import your clips into a dump area , perhaps at the bottom of the window . You then drag the ones you want up into a ‘ project area ’, perhaps at the top somewhere .
dogmé dogma
A school of filmmaking following Lars von Trier says
1 Hand held camera only 2 No extraneous music
3 No fancy lighting ; actual lighting as in the actual world
4 All sex scenes must be unsimulated
All this helps avoid the glossy Hollywood effect so repugnant to right-minded Danish film auteurs . But above all , no horrid music . ( Apart from anything else , it probably violates copyright .) Sadly , my movies so far don ’ t have any sex scenes .
see for yourself
A selection of the short videos from the weekend , with some dismissive comments by by me and / or Andrew White , are on display online at www . owpg . org . uk / video-workshop-newlands . The Guild , and the participants , are grateful to Andrew White for an interesting , instructive and energetic workshop session .
10 Outdoor focus | spring 2018