| To avoid being one of the 'many' follow these tips | | | | from the camcorder remote microphone, up the |
| and produce great website videos to impress | | | | inside of your shirt and to your lapel. Bear in mind |
| your visitors and put you way ahead of the | | | | that you will normally be seated within two |
| competition. | | | | metres of the camcorder so the microphone |
| 1. Good Lighting. | | | | should have plenty of cable. |
| The main difference between amateur and | | | | 4. Avoid Zooming and Panning. |
| professional videos is the quality of the lighting. | | | | Another amateurish trait, avoid these actions as |
| With poor lighting comes graininess which results in | | | | much as possible. If you are videoing yourself or |
| poor quality video. In film and television studios, | | | | a subject in the garden for instance and want to |
| you must have seen them on TV, there is | | | | 'set the scene' for your viewers then by all |
| always an excess of lights and the cameras can | | | | means zoom out, pan a little if necessary and |
| be adjusted down to suit the amount of light. It is | | | | then return to the subject and continue with the |
| not so easy or successful to adjust the camera | | | | recording. This should be as much zooming and |
| up when there is not enough light. This will lead to | | | | panning that you need. |
| noise and graininess and a low quality video. | | | | 5. Pre Roll and Post Roll. |
| For your home studio make use of fluorescent | | | | This is the time from starting and stopping the |
| light bulbs. These bulbs have several advantages | | | | camcorder and the actual start and finish of the |
| over tungsten and halogen lights, namely no heat | | | | action you want to record. This allows for better |
| output, low energy consumption and a nice soft | | | | editing once the shooting is over. Not allowing for |
| light with not so harsh shadows. You can buy | | | | the pre and post roll can make editing difficult, |
| fluorescent light kits or you can save a lot of | | | | resulting in amateurish videos. If you are filming |
| money and make your own fluorescent light box | | | | yourself then start the camcorder recording with |
| as we show you elsewhere in this web site. It is | | | | the remote control, wait six seconds before you |
| best to use a three point lighting system which is | | | | start talking and at the end let the camcorder run |
| fairly standard in most studios and again we will | | | | on six seconds before stopping. This will give you |
| show you how to do this elsewhere on the | | | | plenty of time to play with when editing. |
| website. | | | | 6. Remember It's A Small Screen. |
| 2. Tripod. | | | | When shooting videos to add to your web site, |
| Use a tripod for shake free shooting. Tripods | | | | normally the player will be 320 x 240 so avoid |
| come in all sizes and quality but don't go | | | | wide scenes, keep it close to see the detail. |
| overboard to start with. The camcorder that we | | | | Typically you will be shooting close or very close |
| use on this site is only small and weighs in at just | | | | shots. If you are filming yourself talking then you |
| over 500 grams (1.1lbs) so there is no need to | | | | will be within two metres of the camera and |
| buy a tripod to suit a heavy professional video | | | | shown from the waist up. Keep the content |
| camera. | | | | simple and uncomplicated, do not have much |
| 3. Microphone. | | | | happening in the video and keep movement to a |
| The built in microphone on your camcorder is not | | | | minimum. Watching action from a football game in |
| the best to use if you can avoid it. Typically the | | | | a 320 x 240 player is not great. So keep it close, |
| quality is not good enough and it has a wide | | | | keep it simple and keep it quiet. |
| pattern picking up lots of other noises, even the | | | | 7. Think Like a Photographer. |
| running camcorder noises. Don't scrimp on buying | | | | When shooting a video see it like a photographer |
| a microphone, buy a uni-directional one that | | | | taking individual shots. Compose your shoot, take |
| preferably can be mounted on the shoe on top of | | | | a few seconds from one position. Stop the |
| your camcorder. Otherwise mount the | | | | camera and reposition yourself then shoot again. |
| microphone on a boom or support just out of | | | | Do not have too much camera movement in |
| view of the camcorder but close to the subject. | | | | your video. |
| Another option is to use a lavalier microphone, the | | | | Using these tips will ensure that you can shoot |
| sort that clips onto your lapel and as used by | | | | and produce quality website videos of a better |
| newsreaders on television. These are very | | | | quality than most people. As with many things in |
| effective and decent quality ones can be | | | | life, practice makes perfect and it will not be long |
| purchased for less than $50. No need to buy a | | | | before you are getting good results on the first |
| wireless unit, but you need enough cable to run | | | | take. |