Tips for Better Home Video – Planning

By Chris Folsom, General Manager of TV Camden

What’s wrong with my home video? Very possibly nothing, however, the content or subject may be perfectly fine, but how about the technical side of your home video?

The perfect subject, little ones, family vacations or just video of an outing can be dramatically improved with a little knowledge and thought.

With a little planning, one can improve the “watch ability” of home videos. Have you ever seen the faces when someone says “Hey lets watch the video of our vacation.” Eyes roll, heads drop in the hands with despair. For the most part, when an individual pulls out their camcorder they put very little thought into how to video what. What is meant by this is to plan what to shoot and to make the video more appealing.

Here’s an example.

Our subject: Little Johnny sitting in his high chair eating some dry cereal.

In many cases, the good intention mom or dad picks up the camcorder and points it at Little Johnny as he eats. What’s wrong with that? Nothing if mom or dad wants to put the video in the closet for storage.

Why not tell a story? What is the story? Little Johnny eating cereal is one story. So, let’s use this as the story line.

Think about Little Johnny, he’s sitting in his high chair looking up as mom or dad prepares the cereal.

Position the camcorder where it records Little Johnny sitting with anticipation of getting his cereal. Then position the camcorder to get video from Little Johnny’s view looking up at mom or dad preparing the cereal. Then a shot from over the shoulder of the cereal being prepared and the next shot might be mom or dad’s view looking back at Little Johnny (This is the camcorder looking back at Little Johnny in his high chair).

Can you see how the video is coming together? Think about telling a story with pictures/video. All the cut away shots, those over the shoulder and Little Johnny looking up shots create a more interesting story, because it is telling a story. It’s the little details, these cut away or “B Roll” footage that helps create a story and makes it more interesting to the viewer.

Most camcorders have basic edit functions that allow the user to stop and start the camcorder so the “edit” will flow without “spaces” between the shots. Get the direction out and learn how to use this function on your camcorder for more interesting and fun home video. One might find a Steve Lucas lying underneath, who knows!

Coming next time…Why a Tripod?