FILM THE FIELDA quick introduction into video making

This is a printed supplement to the course provided on:

The Swiss Red Cross SRC has created this web site for its employees and partners wishing to communicate through video. The skills provided here will give you basic knowledge on how to use your smart phone or pocket camera for video making. The page is divided into the typical video production steps:

planning – filming – editing – sharing your video.

This printed version does not replace the online content but summarises it for practical use. It provides you with the main information and with working tools that help you during the film process.

P.s. If you have suggestions how this tool could be improved write an email to hb@dubbedperceptions.com

http://filmthefield.wordpress.com

Contents page

PLAN 1FILM 4EDIT 6SHARE 7

1

PLANBefore you go out and push the record button you should spend some time thinking about and planning your video. The following 3 planning steps will help you to flesh out what you want to say and how you want to say it:

1. The 5 WsWhat and how to say your message depends on the circumstances. The 5 Ws method comes handy. Ask yourself the following questions:

WHO is my audience?Be as specific as possible. The more homogenous the audience is the better you can seduce them with a specific message.

WHAT do I want to tell them?What is the key message and what are its main points? Keep it short. You can always post additional information below the video on the internet.

WHY is this information important to them?If you know why this information is important to your target audience, you are holding the key to keep them watching your video.

WHERE and WHEN will the video be screened?Watching videos on the internet or during a film festival is not the same. On the internet your video competes with a lot of other content your audience would like to watch as well!

A good message is not only about the audience but also about the subject. Therefore ask the same questions the other way:

WHO is it about?WHAT happened?Why did it happen?WHERE and WHEN did it take place?

2. Story structureThere are many ways to structure a story. Here are two simple structures to communicate knowledge:

1. What is my message?

2. How will I say it?3. What images I need for my story?

News report Story telling

2

News reportThe most common BBC news report structure goes like this:

IntroductionYou introduce your topic giving the audience the key messages and what the video is about.

1st commentYou interview a person that supports your argument.

2nd commentA second person provides his/her insights. This comment could also form the counter argument to comment 1.

3rd, 4th, etc. comments

Shots illustrating your pointIt is time for some illustrations, graphics, statistics!

ConclusionYou reiterate your message with a final conclusion or even recommendation.

Story tellingIn contrast to the news report that looks at a situation from an outside perspective, story telling is very much about a protagonist. Every story has its hero. This can be the people you are trying to help, your partners in the field, the project you are working on, or you trying to overcome challenges in your daily work.

A simple story structure goes like this:

IntroductionEvery story starts with the introduction of its main character: Our hero the audience follows through his or her adventures. In order to identify with the hero, the audience needs to know more about him/her:

Starting positionWhat is the hero’s starting position? Where is he/she (physically, emotionally, professionally, etc.) at the beginning of the story?

MotivationWhat are the hero’s motivation? What makes him/her go on despite difficulties on the road? What drives him/her?

GoalWhat does our hero want to achieve? What are his/her objectives?

Obstacles / villainsWhat are the obstacles our hero will face on his/her journey to reach the goal? – You can also introduce a villain, as is the case in every good story. To be politically more correct it might be easier to talk about obstacles and challenges rather than villains.

3

Supporting material

ActionNow we know who our hero is and what kind of obstacles he/she has to overcome. It’s time to tell the audience how the hero has succeeded (or not) in solving the problem.

Resolution / the endAfter the audience has learned how our hero reached his/her goal, tell the audience a little bit how our hero will live/work in the future. What has changed for the hero? What has made him/her a different person? – In professional story telling this aspect is called the “story arch”. Ideally you make it clear throughout the story how the action on his/her journey changed our hero forever.

3. Story boardingOnce you know your story and how you want to tell it, spend some time to think about the images that you need to capture in order to tell your story.

Some film makers make detailed story boards about each shot they want to take. You don’t have to go into such detail. But it helps to write down what action you need to capture and what interview you need to conduct so that when you are back from the field you have all the material to tell a compelling story.

Story telling structure & story board: page 12

The 5 Ws fill out form: page 9News report structure & story board: page 10

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FILMIn order to film great footage you need to:

1. Prepare yourselfIt is absolutely fine to take snap shots. Snap shots are great to capture great footage that you didn’t expect to come across.

Nevertheless if you have a clear idea what you want to say in your video you better prepare yourself well. Don’t worry, there is always space for improvisation. But in order to improvise you need to feel sure of what you are doing.

Use this check list so that you are ready on the day of your shoot:

1 day before shooting ͻ I know how to handle my camera.

ͻ The batteries are fully charged and I have enough replacement batteries for what I want to shoot.

ͻ There is enough free memory space / tape on my camera.

1 hour before the shooting ͻ I know what I want to tell with my video and what footage I will need for

this.

ͻ I know who I am going to interview and what questions I am going to ask them. (Simple and open questions!)

ͻ I am familiar with the visual and acoustic surrounding on the set and have found good places in terms of light and sound.

5 minutes before the shooting ͻ There is no disturbing background noise on the set!

ͻ I have arranged everything on the scene in order to produce ideal footage.

ͻ My camera’s settings are adjusted to the requirements of my video (especially resolution and image quality).

While filming ͻ I take the time to frame the shot and focus, and start filming a few

seconds before I start the interview.

ͻ I hold the camera steady.

ͻ I don’t make any sound while the interviewee speaks but encourage the interviewee with my body language.

ͻ I wait a second before asking the next question, and continue to film for a few seconds after the last answer.

1. Be well prepared

2. Manage 3 key factors of a good image

3. Understand your camera’s point of view

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2. Covering the actionWhen filming three factors will influence your final product:

ImageMake sure that you hold the camera steady and that you take enough close-up shots: Head and shoulders to see facial expressions, or the hands that tell us more about the person. Ideally you have shot:

50% close-ups + 25% medium shots + 25% full shots

LightThe more light, the better the image quality. Natural light is brighter and more balanced than artificial light. If you can, film outside.

Never film people against light (also called back light). Avoid light sources from directly above or below the person. Well diffused light (also called ambient light) is better than light from only one source (also called spot light).

For interviews, the light comes ideally from the front, slightly offset to the right or left. This way the eyes of the speaker are illuminated and the face doesn’t look flat.

SoundBackground sound provides additional information to the image. The audience knows that you are standing close to a busy road or the ocean, even though that element is not in the picture. But too much background noise will disturb your interview. - For interviews use a microphone for best results.

3. Point of viewThe camera is never objective. By placing the camera at a certain point you are making a statement. For example, filming children from above their heads means “the camera is looking down at them”. Later your audience -when watching these images- will be looking down at the children too. Be aware of the camera’s point of view!

The wrong placement of the camera can also confuse your audience. For example, when you record a discussion between two people you cannot just film them from all sides. You need to keep to one side, so that Mr. Blue is always sitting to the right from Mr. Orange.

ImageLight

Sound

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EDITEditing is all about putting one image next to another, its relation to each other, and the resulting effect on the audience. So how to make the best edit choice? Practice and experiment! Watch your own videos and ask yourself:

Does this cut work? Why does this edit feels awkward?

In his book In the Blink of an Eye, Walter Murch talks about the Rule of Six: An ideal cut is the one that satisfies all the following six criteria at once:

1. Emotion It is true to the emotion of the moment;

2. Story The cut advances the story. Through each cut the audience learn something new about the story or character;

3. Rhythm The cut occurs at a moment that is rhythmically interesting and “right”. Try to feel the moment that is best to end an image and show the next one;

4. Eye-trace It acknowledges what you might call “eye-trace” - the concern with the location and moment of the audience’s focus of interest within the frame. A cut will be less noticed if your action ends on one side of the frame and another action continues at the same position in the next image. The audience’s eyes don’t have to jump to a different place on the frame;

5. Two-dimensional plane of screen The cut respects “planarity” - the grammar of three dimensions transposed by photography to two [ex. 180 Degree Rule, p.9];

6. Three-dimensional space of action The cut respects the three-dimensional continuity of the actual space [where people are in the room and in relation to one another].

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SHAREOnce you have cut your movie into its final shape you will have to export it out of the editing application. Without the export you cannot watch your movie on other computers or applications! How to export your movie depends on your editing application. Some application call this act export some call it share.

Many of you will upload to YouTube. Today, most video editing application let you export and upload to your YouTube account in one step. If your application doesn’t offer this service, these are the settings to export your video in order to get good results on YouTube:

File typeMP4

ResolutionIf you have shot your movie in the common HD format (16:9), you can upload your video in 720p or 1080p. Both formats are considered HD quality. 1080p is the full HD quality. 720p is the small brother. But even the Swiss national TV broadcasts currently in 720p quality.

Video codec.H264

Audio codecAAC-LC (mono or stereo) with a sample rate of 48khz

Before you can upload to YouTube, you have to login to an existing YouTube account (for example the one of your organisation), or creat your own YouTube account.

Uploading video to YouTube is easy. Using your computer you find an upload icon in the upper right corner of YouTube. Click it and you can either drag and drop video files with your mouse directly onto the YouTube surface, or you can select the files by clicking on select files to upload. The upload starts immediately.

While the videos are uploading you can decide who can watch your movie. YouTube gives you several privacy setting options:

PublicAnybody can view your video.

UnlistedMaking a video unlisted means that only people who have the link to the video can view it. You can email the link to who you want. If he/she clicks on the link, he/she can watch the video. If the person decides to forward this link to a third person, that person will be able to watch the video as well!

PrivateA private video can only be seen by you and the YouTube users you select. The video won’t appear on your channel or search results and will be invisible to other users.

Once your video is on YouTube you can share your video with others. You can email the video link to others, or you can embed the video into another web page, such as a blog.

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That’s it!You have now a basic understanding of how to make your own videos and share them with the world.

Remember:

Learning to use video is like learning a new language.

Practice, practice, practice!

Your reward comes from your audience: Their replies, their likes, their disagreements...

...their reaction to your video message.

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Keep your answers short! Less is more: a video message to the point will be remembered. Too much information will be forgotten. WHO? WHAT? WHY? WHERE & WHEN?

…is your protagonist?

…happened? …do you want to say?

…did it happen? …do you want to say it?

…did it happen?

…is your audience? …does the audience like to know? …does the audience need to know?

…will the audience watch your video?

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