VIDEO BASICS
by Bill Bohlen
This class will cover everything you need to know about video creation.
- INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO
- FILMING TRCHNIQUES
- EDITING TECHNIQUES
- SHARING VIDEOS
WHY VIDEO?
There has been an explosion of growth in video on social media in recent years. Views of video content have increased 99% on You Tube and 250% on Facebook between 2016 and 2017. On Twitter, a video is 6x more likely to be retweeted than a photo Tweet. If you haven’t taken a closer look at the power of social media and video together you’re in for a surprise. The numbers are big. Really big.
WHY VIDEO IS SO EFFECTIVE
There has been an explosion of growth in video on social media in recent years. Views of video content have increased 99% on You Tube and 250% on Facebook between 2016 and 2017. On Twitter, a video is 6x more likely to be retweeted than a photo Tweet. If you haven’t taken a closer look at the power of social media and video together you’re in for a surprise. The numbers are big. Really big.
It's becoming internet users preferred way of consuming information.
PHOTO v VIDEO
Probably most of you have taken photos with your phones or cameras, but have shied away from videos or have tried and given up. Well now you have come to the right place. So, let’s start at the beginning.
Video is a great storytelling tool in today's digital era.
STORYTELLING
BEGINNING MIDDLE END
WHAT THIS COURSE IS BASED ON
Most of us, travel, have travelled or thinking of travelling. So, for the purpose of this exercise, I am basing this course on travel videos, but the filming, editing and postproduction methods we learn in this course are the same for any other movie you care to produce.
VISION AND SOUND
Motion pictures are the best medium to capture your viewers when you are trying to tell a story, the main reason is the viewer experiences not only vision but also audio to enhance the story.
YOU THE STORYTELLER
Once you've created your masterpiece, share it with family and friends.
A - Create a Blog or Vlog
B - Share it on You Tube
C - Post it on Facebook
E - Or just file it for future use.
A - WHAT'S A VLOG? You may ask
A video blog or video log, usually shortened to vlog, is a form of blog for which the medium is video, and is a form of web television. Vlog entries often combine embedded video with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take or cut into multiple parts.
A Vlogger records events on camera both in front and behind the camera. This might at first be daunting.
Other Vloggers prefer to talk behind the camera from the back, so that they are heard but not actually seen on screen.
B - YOU TUBE
You can create a You Tube channel to share your videos with family and friends.
Some people are a little apprehensive about You Tube, but I can assure everyone that it is quite safe.
Some You Tube facts:
- You Tube is the world's second largest search engine
- 400 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every minute
- We watch 1 billion hours of You Tube videos every day,
more than Netflix and Facebook combined
- The time people watch You Tube videos on their TVs has
more than doubled in the last 12 months.
- The most viewed videos are on average 60-90 seconds long
C - Facebook
If you have a Facebook page, you can uploadyour videos just as you upload photos.
You can do that either directly or you can
upload it to You Tube, then link it to your
Facebook page.
D - Email it to family and friends
For it to be emailed, you need to compile your video to an email acceptable format.
It depends on your email service provider of how gig the files can be.
E - File it for future use ?????????- Not much to be said about that
Videos can be used as a sales tool on Craigslist, eBay, Gumtree - Real Estate
Length of Videos
People’s attention spans are decreasing on the Internet so much that it’s a small miracle that anyone watched Kony 2012 in its entirety. Studies have suggested that videos be between 35 seconds and 2 minutes. The ideal being 1 minute 35 seconds.
Audio
A video primarily has two significant elements: Picture (vision) and Sound (audio). While shooting a video it’s important to give significant attention to both the audio and visual aspects of your content because, believe it or not, the audio is just as important (if not more important) than the video. Most inexperienced video makers make the mistake focusing a lot on capturing the best quality visuals for their videos and, all too often, completely blow the sound. It sets the mood in film and television. It helps hold the viewer’s attention to watch the vision on the screen.
In reality, even if the video component has some flaws and turns out much less than perfect (pixelated, grainy, out of focus, under-exposed, etc) but the audio is apropriate, clear, at the right volume and free of distractions then the project can still be an overall success and can get positive results.
IS AUDIO THEREFORE IMPORTANT IN A VIDEO?
IS AUDIO THEREFORE IMPORTANT IN A VIDEO?
Several studies have shown that if the audio quality of the video is of just medium to marginal quality, that no matter how good the picture turns out viewers are more likely to react negatively to the video content as a whole.
IT IS THEREFORE CLEAR THAT THE SUCCESS
OF A VIDEO RESTS MORE WITH THE
AUDIO QUALITY THAN THE VISION.
MUSIC IN MOVIES AND VIDEO
Music sets the mood in film and television. It helps hold the viewer’s attention to watch the vision on the screen. So, it is a much better story telling media than just watching pictures.
MY PET HATE
A lot of amateurs make the mistake of using the first CD that comes to hand to use as background music, usually CD’s that have long past their use-by date, (James Last, Mantovani, Strauss etc etc.) There is nothing more boring than watching your friend’s movie of a Spanish bull fight with Andre Rieu playing Blue Danube in the background.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO GET THE BACKGROUND MUSIC RIGHT!
There is tons of Royalty-free music available on line.
Just search and you'll find.
We'll be going into music in lesson 3 - PART 3 EDITING
I'll help you find music for your videos.
WHAT SOUND DOES TO US
The most obvious role music plays in movies is in manipulating the audience's emotions.
Film composers know that and use it to shortcut the logical part of our brain to get straight to the emotional centres.
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RECORDING MEDIA
Most video cameras, DSLRs and Point and Shoot cameras record video onto SD cards.
Some older camcorders used to record onto tapes or internal memories.
Most smart phones record video onto internal memory.
When it comes to choosing a new SD memory card for your camera, there are a lot of options out there – not only differing in speed and capacity, but also brands and budget.
When it comes to choosing a new SD memory card for your camera, there are a lot of options out there – not only differing in speed and capacity, but also brands and budget.
When it comes to choosing an SD memory card for your camera, there are a lot of options out there
not only differing in speed and capacity, but also brands and budgets.
COSTS OF SD CARDS
They can range from $25 - $299.00 depending on size and speed.
I buy SanDisk Ultra 32GB 80MB/s cards from Teds Camera Shop for $19.00
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VIDEO FORMATS
Until a few years ago, Full HD (Hi Definition) was the pre-dominant system used by camera and smart phone manufacturers.
This gave a frame size of 1,920 X 1,080 pixels
But now a lot of manufacturers use 4K video which gives a frame size of 3,840 X 2,160 pixels, which allows the filmmaker much more flexibility when framing shots in post production.
WHAT DOES 4K mean?
For the filmmaker 4K is a great innovation. It means you can shoot video without having to zoom in. You can simply crop the footage in post production, without losing much quality of the raw footage.
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MP3 is the most common audio format used in video, especially with Microsoft-based
computers. AIFF is sometimes used with Mac computers, although as a Mac user myself,
I prefer to use mp3 for simplicity.
Smart phones with 4K video
Apple iPhone 7
Apple iPhone 10
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra
Xiaomi Mi6
Huawei P10
OnePlus 5T
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MANUALS
As basic as it sounds, it is a good idea to explore each function available on your camera or smart phone. Read the manual from front to back, then read it again. There is nothing more frustrating as missing out on a good scene because of unfamiliarity with the controls. Know all the settings in and out. Take lots of practice shots using all the functions available.
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ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT
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ADDITIONAL BATTERIES
SOUND EQUIPMENT
EDITING SOFTWARE
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WATCH AND LEARN
Before we go on to our next lesson at the next meeting, I urge you to spend some of your free time watching television. News, current affairs, documentaries.
Don't concentrate on the storyline, but instead concentrate and observe the following:
- Scene Length
- Scene composition
- Transitions
- Movement
- Titles
- Special effects
Take especially note of how slow the camera zooms, pans, tilts and glides.
We'll discuss what you've observed at the next meeting.
