I need help! I spended $450 on a cam I was aticipating to get and now, I really don't know what to do with my cam, besides filming special occasions. This is my first cam that I ever bought in my whole life and I want to get better at my hoobie. I also learned how to used this cam on the day I bought it. If you only film in specail occasions your not going to be good in filming, ever! But I want to get good in filming and later buy a 3CCD cam. I didn't even get a whole tape on my trip to Milwaukee. Plese help, I read a whole book about camcorders and filming but I didn't learn anyting, it was confusing.

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GO SPURS GO!!!!!

Actually, that is an EXTREMELY good question. I'm sure that you speak for many people. We all suddenly have the capability to make outstanding video, so now what? I'm going to make this thread a "sticky."

I'm not going to say too much now. Maybe I'll post later. But I hope that a lot of people contribute their thoughts to this thread. The one thing thing I will say is that like with still photography the ordinary can be made to look special and interesting. With photography it's subject selection, compostion, lighting and framing. Those things are important in video too, but video adds a powerful new item for making things interersting: EDITING.

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Fred

25 years ago (I'm older than dirt) I took a one semester class in film making at MATC (Milwaukee) which helped me understand the process and think (and shoot) in terms of the final product.

Now after lots of practice, I have a blast making short films. Special, and not-so-special occasions, just about any kind of activity can be filmed.

Here is one tip that works great...
Get more than one perspective. For example, I filmed my nephew riding a pony at his birthday. I got a few shots of him waving as he rode past... then I walked along side him to get a "helmet-cam" perspective. You see what he saw, people waving as he hides past them. Then I got a few close up shots of the pony and the rider. Later I asked him some questions about the ponies. He probably didn't even realize I was filming. I got some really great comments from him... stuff like "the ponies smell like poop".

I find that I need 25 to 50 short shots (edited together) to make a short film of 3 to 5 minutes. Sometimes I put in some still shots too.

The editing has the biggest impact on the final product. You can add music, voice over, sound effects, transitions, video effects, titles, etc.

Bottom line - shoot anything (and everything) and think about how this shot will fit into the final film.

Pets, outdoor animals, insects, and nature are great ways to get practice for videorecording. Or if you have a favorite song making a music video for it is great for practice.

One of the most interesting projects you can do is to a video of where you live. The everyday places, favorite places, your home. In our ever changing environment, this will be a treasure someday.

I'm a still photographer by trade who is making the transition to video. It's difficult. It's whole different way of thinking. I got into video when the people I work for downsized. What a shock to the system! - downsizing and the transition.

We do a lot of training films. We recently did a five minute film on the proper use of fire extinguishers. One scene we shot from a dozen different angles. We went through at least three fire extinguishers for roughly a 45 second edited segment. Two years ago we shot about eight hours of footage for a 7 minute and 44 second traffic safety video.

I'm finding that it takes a lot of good video footage to choose from and that the magic is in the editing. A good editor can make or break a production.

My boss told me to practice on something I was good at or very familar. So he had me do a safety check/inspection on my car as though I was getting ready for a long trip. He also told me to time scenes I watch on TV. Most scenes run between 5 and 8 seconds.

Well my video didn't turn out too bad. I plan to redo it later at home only for humor to use my six year old grandson as "The Inspector".

I now watch a lot of History and Discovery Channel, TLC, HGTV and the cooking channel to get ideas.

There is a lot out there to film. Sometimes inspiration can be the most difficult part. It just takes a bit of imagination.

If you only film in specail occasions your not going to be good in filming, ever!

Any Subject

What to shoot depends on a project which needs to be defined beforehand.
Just shooting anything without a plan is waste of time and resources.
Picture yourself as a good cook. You need :
What in particular you want to cook?
This depends who is invited for dinner. Evaluate your audience, their likes , dislikes.
Age group. Expertise. It is for this audience you do the project not for yourself.
What ingredients you need to make the dishes, are they readily available or not, if not in your possession, what or how can it be substituted?
To come back to video:
- Evaluate your audience
- Know what you can do or what is beyond realization.
- Know how to put your project into a story form, Beginning , middle and ending.
- Find a hook and solving, making the interest of the story stronger.
- Try to incorporate 10 or more clips into each minute of finished work, your work should not be boring but fast paced. Some clip durations can be shorter than a second!
- Practice with short subject matter , not more than 10 minutes of finished work
- Make use of close ups as much as possible , stay away from generalities except for audiences orientation.
- Link , or group clips in logical follow through.
- Make the seemingly mundane subject interesting, show why it becomes important.
- Submit your project for evaluation. Family, friends, club….Listen what they say, your excuses are not valid justifications.
Tata for now…………….

I've done a lot of nature videos to practice getting things right. I've also done sports activities which is something that is always easy to find going on. Other things to do would be local bands playing gigs or just practicing. Schools are a great source of events to video. Just set up at the local mall and video people as they walk by.

It all depends on what you are wanting to do with your camcorder. If you're just a gearhead that likes to use stuff just because it's cool there's plenty of stuff out there to satisfy your tastes. If you're looking to practice in order to develop certain skills we would need to know what it is you're trying to accomplish. Just about everyone has a local college that can help you develop your skills too. Even if it's just a basic photography class it can help you in a lot of ways.

Hi, y'all, I just going to write an update. I been taking you advice and it's pretty much understanble. I been filming nature out in my local arberutm and on a scenic bike path. But my videos are pretty shakey, and have unnasarcy scenes. YOu must be thinking to edit but I have a crappy hard drive (10GB), I do not have firewire and I can't return the USB 2.0 card that I bought by mistake. So can you help?? I still need suggestions about what to film, please!

The only people who might ever enjoy an unedited video are the people who are in it and the parents of people who are in it.

I think that you have to make a committment to editing. Life rarely offers oppurtunities to simply turn on the camera, point it and get interesting video until you turn it off.

If you absolute can't afford to do anything about editing right now, the best you can do is view your video, decide how you WOULD edit it if you could, make some notes, then go out shoot the same thing again (or something very similar), but this time the way you would have edited the first one.


--
Fred

If I was in your situation I would:
- Make a plan of a story I would like to film and write a synopsis of it.
- Will write down the most important scenes needed
-Write down how to link one scene after the other
- Expand the needed material, even if it is hard or seems impractical
-include all the angles , positions the camcodrer supposed to be for
shot.
- re-read all what you wrote 100 times if needed, modify as required.
- Have someone reading it and giving their opinion.
Your story has to have all the needed elements. Beginning, body of the story, and ending. If the story is not an event but fiction, the more questins are answered tne better. You inadvertently will make mistakes, that should not discourage you, just retake the clip, do not jump to the next scene. You have to review each taking on the spot (unfortunately that is the game of linear editing, very time consuming).
It is a temendous training , and you will need it evey time you have a project and a decent computer. After a while you force yourself thinking in this order . This discipline is what many videographers will envy you for as non linear editing is for most people thinking sloppily.
It is hard work
In event filming you have less options as the story is written beforehand, just scout out locations with best camera placement, and remeber to be aware of reaction shots (people watching the parade as example, where there is a oportunity.) Rely on close shots of interest, do not just plant the camcorder on a tripod and hope for the best, that's not filming! Try to change location.
After filming write down all data(clips), enclosed with the casette.
Subject matter depends mosly with what you're comfortable with. Do not attempt to do unfamiliar work. To succeed you must use your imaganation.Be critical of what you do, and improve with the next project. Do projects that have meaning to you, that is taking anything that moves or looks pretty without a story is uselsss what filming is concerned, the only use of the above is to get used to your camcorder.

Shaky video-
Turn on image stabilization if your camcorder has it. Don't use too much zoom. Brace yourself against some stationary object. Hold the camcorder with two hands and tuck your elbows into your body. Pan and/or zoom SLOWLY. Practice and have fun.

EDIT without a computer-
Plan your video before you shoot. Try to shoot the shots in the order you want them in the final video. Do some editing in the camera... rewind and re-shoot. PRINT your video from the MiniDV to a VHS VCR. While you are recording on the VCR... use the PAUSE button on the VCR remote to edit out the parts you don't want in the final version. Practice and have fun.

Most importantly -
Practice and have fun!!!

But I always have mt EIS on, it's a habit.

Big thing: Invest in a larger hard drive. They are very inexpensive these days and 10 GB is just too small for use with video (one DVD is 4.7 GB all by iteself). Most computers will let you add a drive, so you don't have to mess with any of the software you have installed now.

Phil

Take your camera with you in the car when you're driving anywhere-work, the store, etc. It doesn't matter. Just make sure you're aware of your surroundings and you're bound to see something worth filming. I can never find anything to film when I look for it but when I don't have my camera, it seems like there are so many good things to catch-especially when I'm in the car, so I just have my camera with me at all times.