Tips from an editor that hates dealing with messy doc-style footage: 1. Conceptualize every shot. You can do the same camera move multiple times for variety, but dont move on to something different. WHAT I SEE IN THE THUMBNAIL SHOULD BE WHATS IN THE SHOT. 2. Let the action play out, dont change your point of interest when something is happening. You risk losing a complete action. Be decisive and focus. 2. Set your exposure before hitting record. Once its set, DONT CHANGE IT MID SHOT. If you do, scrap the shot and start again. If your camera has halfway-decent dynamic range, you can fix a stop over or under in post. Its much harder (and a pain in the ass) to mask an exposer change mid shot. 3. Make edits in camera. Delete shots you know are worthless. Dont leave me with ANY blurry feet shots to scrub through. Really sloppy. 4. Establishing shots should have moments of movement and stillness. Rack focus, pan or tilt, then lock off your composition and hold for a few seconds. Was that so hard? 5. -and this is a big one. BE ECONOMICAL. Dont overshoot! I dont need 10 variations on the same establishing shot! Nor do I need hours of people just sitting around twiddling their thumbs waiting for something cool to happen. Shooting because you are forever worried about missing something means you dont know what youre really there to do. By all means, shoot everything, and pay me more to sift through everything for the few little nuggets of usable footage. Dont have the budget for it? Didnt think so. The first cut starts with you, not me. There, its off my chest. Bernie Yao knows what Im taking about.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 23:32:22 +0000
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