• The 4 types of recording media
• The Pros and Cons of each
• How to make an informed camcorder purchase

Now go out there, and make your old teacher proud!

but you must see this before you lay down your cool cash for those hot camcorder deals out there.

• Did you know  there are 3 different categories of camcorders?
• Can you tell me  the biggest thing to consider when looking for your next camcorder?
• Any idea why I’m grilling you like this?

This is Part 1 of 3 episodes that will help answer all these questions- and more!

I’ll give you the skinny on these new slim cams.

In this very special episode of CHM, learn what your camera would tell you if it could talk.

• Like people, your camera gear has secret desires and special needs.

To make awesome home movies, you need to take your camera out of the closet.

• How many times have you seen something really cool, and you wished that you had your camcorder?

Say you went out for a beer at the Las Vegas Lounge in Philadelphia.  You order a Miller Chill with lime, and then you see Danny Bonaduce walk in wearing an Evil Knievel costume.  Then, he challenges you to a thumb war.

I mean, just say that happens… and you don’t have any camera.

That would really be a bummer, man!

I’m not suggesting that you should walk around everywhere with your camera bag.

That would be impracticable.

As it turns out, however- I do have a suggestion.

Keep your camera bag stocked  with:

• • Your camcorder (Now I’m just being flippant with you)
  • 2 charged batteries
  • 2 tapes or memory cards to record onto
  • a decent tripod – even if it’s just a table-top model

Then, take it with you whenever it’s practical.

Danny Bonaduce could use the YouTube exposure.

]]> http://www.creativehomemovie.com/2009/09/29/camcorder_ready/feed/ 0 http://www.creativehomemovie.com/2009/09/20/good-lighting-for-home-movies/ http://www.creativehomemovie.com/2009/09/20/good-lighting-for-home-movies/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:46:04 +0000 Scott Markowitz http://www.creativehomemovie.com/?p=236 What’s one way to INSTANTLY improve the way your videos look?

Make sure there’s enough light on your subjects.

Many camera manufacturers claim that their camcorders perform well in low light.

Don’t let your camera’s tech specs fool you into ignoring your environments lighting.

If you’re shooting inside, and it’s dark, then you should try to light your scene.

I bought an inexpensive work light at the Home Depot to handle this task.

Halogen Workshop Light.

Don’t let your camera’s tech specs fool you into ignoring your environments lighting.

• If you’re shooting inside, and it’s dark, then you should try to light your scene.

This sort of Halogen Light can be found in home centers and department stores.  They’re pretty cheap, and they throw A LOT of light.

Indirect Light is Right.

To use a light like this:

• Bounce it off of a wall or ceiling.
• 2 of these lights bouncing off the ceiling in opposite corners of the room are even better!

Check out the difference lighting can make.

This video shot with room's overhead light.

OK, class.  Notice the graininess when using only the light from an overhead fixture…  I’ll wait.

Now, LET THERE BE LIGHT!

This is the same scene with one Work Light Bouncing off of the ceiling.

You can see that there’s much less of a grainy effect.

The subject is brighter, and the colors are allowed to really come out.

Very good, class.  Now go out there and shoot!

We all know that watching a video shot using poor camera work is hard to watch.

You know it.  I know it.  Your father-in-law… needs to read this.

As you recall, telling a story is the most important thing to do when making a video.

The next most critical thing is to use good, solid, time-tested camera techniques.

If the mere mention of watching your videos make people scatter like cock roaches in light, you may suffer from what I call HMD.

6 Easy ways to practice good camera technique

1. Hold your camera steady while shooting - Keep your elbows close to your body.
2. Don’t pan and tilt all the darn time!! - There’s nothing wrong with slowly panning across your scene… once.  After you get your wide sweeping (slow) pan, then concentrate on tighter, and again, steady shots.
3. Hold your Shot – Hold your shots for at least 5 seconds.  I usually shoot between 8 and 15 second long clips.
4. Frame your Shots – Try to make the things your shooting look nice in the image frame.
5. Get Close Ups – Your viewers want to see the details of the who and what your showing them.
6. Get Sound – If it’s a video of your kids, your audience WANTS to hear them SAY cute things.  If it’s a video of your friends, then you want to HEAR them say something clever or funny.

• • To get any decent audio of your subjects’ speech, your camera will have to be within 4 feet of the person speaking.  (Unless you have a shotgun mic or a lavaliere mic.)

Stay tuned, class, for more detailed discussions of all of the above!

Wrangle your home movie acquisition media before it gets out of control.

I have some great advice for using those in your own home movies.

Don’t use Digital Effects.  They’re not cool.

You may say:

Now, you’ve gone too far, Scott.  It’s cool to shoot stuff with the “Sepia” filter.

No.  No it’s not cool, faithful blog reader.

Here’s what you need to know about shooting with digital effects:

They only look cool while you’re shooting.

In reality, you want your footage to look as good as possible all the time.

Stop and consider that when you shoot with the “Sepia” filter turned on,

you have told your camcorder to throw away color information.

You can never undo a digital effect.  It’s permanent.

That’s color you’re never getting back, people!

Also, the cool sepia effect on the left will not look good when you edit it together with footage from another time that had no effects.

Other effects to avoid using:

• Mosaic – Do you really want Jr. to look like he’s in the witness protection program?
• Black & White – Go ahead, just throw your color away.
• Art – (It creates harsh contrasts in your image)  They call it art, because nobody understands it.
• Fade Transition – Dips to black and up from black every time you start and stop recording.  This is a great way to miss some action that you wanted full frame.  Please, just add fades with your editing software.
• Wipe Transition – See above.

So, avoid the noid, and keep shooting straight.  (You can always mess it all up in edit if you really want to.)

even though you know you had many minutes of video already recorded to tape.

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO YOU:

You most likely (or maybe it was your friend; why do I always blame you?) switched to playback mode on your camcorder to review some of your footage.  Then, when you were done, you cued the tape back up to approximately where you left off on the tape.

You (or your buddy) thought you were at the end of the last scene, but you actually cued the tape forward just a little too far. (Usually the screen turns solid blue when it runs past the end of picture)

Once cued past the tape’s data, the camera will assume that it to prepare a new tape for recording.  Then, it correctly starts back at time 00:00:00

Solution: Cue your tape to about a second BEFORE the last scene is over on your tape.

Super Solution: Really plan ahead here, and roll each shot about 3 seconds longer than you think you need to.  It’s a good habit to get into- so that you have plenty of extra data on the tape for the camcorder to be able to read when you are cuing the tape.