I blogged last month about making a how-to video (paper flowers) based on an assignment at work. Since the column the video accompanied is a monthly feature, I got another opportunity. This time the subject was felt faux food. You can check out some examples at Megan Cooley’s blog (she’s the star of my video).
I learned a few more things I thought I’d pass along:
Avoid reflective tables when taking stills (doh).
Recording the audio of the instructions in a separate take is good. But encourage your subject to write out a script. Use short declarative sentences in said script. This will save you lots of audio editing work.
Be creative with your still/static shots. Like with the sandwich stacking.
Use titles/text to save time. It’s just as effective as the narrator’s audio instructions.
I’m just catching up to blogging about this video I shot and produced a couple weeks back.
It’s a sweet story about two long-time pen pals meeting for the first time here in Spokane. They started corresponding in the 1930s.
I tagged along with the reporter to document the magic moment. I hadn’t shot any live events for months, so I was kind of rusty on sequencing my shots and other imperatives that I’ve been taught.
I taped while the reporter did his interview with one of the women, but there wasn’t much there I could use. She didn’t provide much when I asked some follow ups.
In the end, I was able to capture the moment they met with some OK sequencing, and when I sat the two of them down together I got some usable audio to create a simple, one-minute short.
More important than the finished product, I think, was the experience of getting back into live shooting and producing on deadline.
I’ve spent significantly less time staring at a computer screen the past two weekends. That’s because I’ve been taking part in an outdoor rock-climbing course through the Spokane Mountaineers.
My forearms and fingertips hurt.
In honor of my belief that we all need to play and sometimes rope and rock feel nicer under your fingers than a keyboard, here’s a video from brightcove.tv.
Synopsis: A guy with a camera walks the precarious Camino del Rey in Spain en route to El Chorro climbing area. This will give you goosebumps. Notice, too, how the cameraman doesn’t bother clipping into the safety line like so many of the people he passes.
Update: If you’re not seeing the video, brightcove.tv appears to be undergoing renovations. Please check back later.
People around the newsroom are saying they haven’t seen the falls this powerful in years. I went down this afternoon to take some pictures and wound up shooting an impromptu video using my Sony point-and-shoot and editing it in Final Cut.
If I’d planned this better, I’d have taken a video camera. But then I’d have been duplicating what my co-worker Thomas Clouse is working on. I’ll post that up when he’s finished in the next few days so you can compare.
Anyway, here’s 10 seconds to give you a taste of how much water is moving.
