Holy crap! This post took me a long time to get ready for you– my valued students. No need to fret, however. After watching this, you’ll see…
• 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!
See why a tripod is the best weapon against bad home movies.
(Makes you want to see Scar Face again, doesn’t it?)
What’s one way to INSTANTLY improve the way your videos look?
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.
He was suspended 20 ft. above the ground, and he was scared stiff- he was frozen to the point that he would not be able to get himself to safety.
From Ryan’s perspective- he was a goner for sure. For the 150 spectators, however, he was just the 12th little kid in a row to succumb to THE WALL of DEATH.
Of course, this whole mess was because his big sister had braces.
What the? Scott, what does this have to do with making awesome home movies?
Most camcorders- even the least expensive ones- seem to be shipping with on board digital effects these days.
I have some great advice for using those in your own home movies.
Problem: Your camcorder reset its time counter to 00:00:00even though you know you had many minutes of video already recorded to tape.
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.
