Tips for recording online video

Just as the type of editing varies for online video, so does the type of equipment and set-up you’ll have during interviews.

In class we’ll start getting you used to doing one-person interviews using one camera, and we’ll talk about how to add more cameras, equipment and people to improve the professionalism of your videos.

Tips for one-camera set-ups.

Tips for two-camera set-ups.

Five Shot Sequence

Sequencing shots is helpful in deadline video editing, because you are shooting an action in the order you will then edit the action. It helps make sure you get a variety of shots, in order, that will be easy to edit on the fly.

The five shots are:

1. Close up of the hands
2. Close up of the face (answering the question: Whose hands are these?)
3. Medium shot (showing the hands and face together)
4. Over the shoulder shot (showing the action again, from a different angle)
5. Creative shot (try something different to show the action from a different place)

These steps are outlined well in this blog post by Mindy McAdams. She posts several video clips to show you a simple five-shot sequence in action.

Assignment

Practice a five shot sequence. You’ll need to ask permission to shoot video of a person (you can pick a friend) but you absolutely SHOULD NOT stage any action. Ask your roommate if you can shoot video of him or her cooking dinner, or playing the guitar, or something he or she is already doing. Better yet, come up with an idea for a five shot sequence with someone on the team you’re profiling.

Edit the shots together in order into a 25–50 second video. Upload the video to YouTube and embed it in a Medium post. Send a link to that post to Blackboard.