Well, it’s all starting to get a bit real.
We’ve settled on a story idea and done our research. We’ve decided on a treatment, sketched out a storyboard and worked out what shots we’re going to need, and we’ve thought about how they’re all going to cut together.
We’re ready to shoot our masterpiece at last. So, let’s take a look at the equipment we’ll need.
Ready to Roll
Well, for a start, a camera could come in handy. If you’re really lucky, somebody might even lend you a professional camera with all the bells and whistles. It doesn’t get much better than that, let’s see why.
For a start, it’s big and solid. A heavy camera is much more stable than a light one. So, if you’re hand-holding, your shots will be filed as shaky and you’ll have a top-quality zoom lens that can give you the sharp shots; whether you’re zoomed out, zoomed in, or anywhere in between.
You’ll be recording on tape or a memory card, which means you’ll have no problems with storage. So, if you want to shoot a thousand hours of footage for your five-minutes video, feel free, your edit could take a while though.
The images will be top quality, high definition, and you’ll probably have a decent microphone too, so your audio should sound good.
But a camera like this costs thousands of dollars and do you know anybody who owns one? Nah, I thought not.
Camcorders
Okay, So, it’s far more likely you’ll be using a little hobby camcorder, something that costs about 20 times less than a flash professional model.
The good news is you’ll still be recording on tape or a memory card and you’ll still have a zoom lens and a microphone.
But you know the old saying, you get what you pay for.
Well, I’m sorry, but in this case it’s true. Let’s check one out.
For a start, the camera weighs almost nothing. So, it’s going to be hard to hold it steady while you’re shooting. The lens is much cheaper than on a pro camera, so the pictures won’t be as sharp.
Behind the lens, the sense of the pixel on the images is tiny, which means you’ll get much lower quality than with a pro camera.
There’s a really small mic built into the plastic body. That means the audio is likely to be a bit tinny. Also, you’ll pick up scrapes and rattles every time you touch the camera while you’re shooting.
Still Cameras
So, if you’re not rich, what can you do to get that high-quality picture and sound? Well, how about using a good stills camera?
Just about every digital camera can shoot video and most of them have a really good lens, so your images should be sharp and clear.
The audio could cause you a few headaches, though. The built-in microphone is likely to be small and it’s hard to monitor what you’re recording.
You’ll probably find the best answer to your problem is sitting right there in your pocket.
It’s a smartphone. The latest phones can shoot fantastic images.
Stability, Storage and Sound
To make a smartphone or stills camera really work for you, you’ll need to take control of a few things and they all begin with the letter S.
We’re talking about stability, storage, and sound.
Let’s look at stability first.
Are You Sitting Comfortably?
Whatever kind of camera you use, always sit it on a tripod whenever you can. Hand holding is a real skill that takes ages to learn. So, without a tripod, your images will be shaky, Guaranteed.
A phone is really light, so it’s almost impossible to hold one steady when you’re shooting video. If you can lean against something, anything, that will help but not a lot.
So how do you attach a phone to a tripod? Dead easy.
You can use the bracket from the end of a selfie stick.
The bracket screws onto the tripod, then you slide your phone in.
Now your shots will be nice and steady. Oh, and make sure you always mount your phone sideways and in landscape mode because TV screens don’t do portrait mode.
And always clean the lens before you shoot. Usually it’s covered with makeup or grease from your fingers.
Bursting at the Seams
The next S is storage. We all use our phones to save heaps of emails, music, photos and apps. So, it’s really easy to run short of space, but if you think that’s bad, wait till you try recording high-quality video.
It fills up about eight gigabytes an hour, which means you squeeze less than 40 minutes on an empty 16 gig iPhone.
If you’re planning to shoot more than that, you’ll need to dump your footage onto another device, maybe a desktop, laptop, then delete it from your phone to clear some space.
The good news is lots of Android phones let you insert a card for extra memory and there are even a few gadgets around that can expand an iPhone’s memory.
The last S we have to worry about is sound.
Whenever you’re shooting video sound can be a problem, but things can get really tricky if you’re shooting on a smartphone.
The microphone is tiny, and it’s designed to pick up your voice from just a couple of centimeters away. So, if you’re recording somebody who’s a couple of meters away, the audio is going to be pretty horrible – all tinny and echoey.
But don’t panic. You can do something about that.
A Bit of Sound Advice…
For a start, you can plug a real microphone into your phone, maybe a lapel mike or even a shotgun mike. That way you’ll get close up audio.
If you want to use the headphone socket on an iPhone, you’ll need a little adapter cable. They cost about $20.
And here’s another use for that good old selfie stick.
You can screw a microphone onto the end of it, then poke it under the nose of the person who’s speaking, if you keep it just below the bottom of the shot, nobody will see it and you’ll get good close up audio.
You’ll need an extension cable to link the Mike to the camera though.
Back to the Future
There’s another way to get good sound that might seem a bit weird, but in the days before video, it’s how filmmakers used to record all their audio.
It’s called double system recording and what happens is this, you record your pictures on one phone and your sounds on another that’s much closer to the person who’s speaking.
Then you fit them together when you’re doing the edit, it’s called sinking.
There’s one really important thing to remember though. You’ll need to put a sync mark on your video and audio tracks so you can line them up later.
In the old days they used a wooden clapboard for that. Here’s what that looked like.
Today you can use a digital clapper board. There are lots of free ones in the app store.
So how do you use it? Well, you start recording on both phones. Then you hold the digital clapperboard in front of the one that’s recording the video.
You’ll film the clapperboard counting down while the other phone, the one doing the audio, records the bleeps.
When you edit, all you have to do is line up the bleeps with the flashing numbers and your images and sound will be in sync.
Give the Lady a Big Hand!
Here’s a pro-tip, you don’t even need a clapperboard.
You can just use your hands instead. All you do is clap your hands in front of the camera. After you start recording, the video will show your hands coming together and you’ll hear the clapping noise on the audio.
Line up the hands with noise and bingo. Everything will be in sync. Easy as that.
Okay, guys, you’re on your own now, but don’t worry, you’re going to have lots of fun making this video, so enjoy yourselves and good luck in the competition.