It’s easy to capture memorable clips that you’ll love for years, insists professional photographer and videographer Bakari Chavanu, founder of lifetimevp.com. Simply use these tricks that filmmakers use to create your favorite movies:
* Have a plan. Think of all the shots you want to include before you start filming, for instance, at a birthday party you may want viewers to see the cake being decorated, guests arriving at the party and the guest of honor blowing out her candles.
* Use a tripod. It prevents shaking and moving, which distracts from the scene you’re shooting. No tripod around? Rest the camera on something stable, like a table, bench or shelf.
* Open with an establishing shot. This is the first shot on the video and shows the location where the action is going to take place. In the case of the birthday party, you might pan the decorated room or take an outside shot of the restaurant where the party is being held.
* Include variety. To keep your video interesting, try to include a mix of long-, medium- and close-range shots. For example, you can start with a long-range shot that shows all the guests around the birthday girl, a medium shot of the birthday girl opening her presents, then a close-range shot of her hands as she opens a present.
* Take cut-away shots. This is when you direct the camera at something else other than the main subject to capture the mood of the setting. For example, if you shoot the birthday girl blowing out her candles, you could include cutaway shots of the guests singing “Happy Birthday” and clapping after the candles are blown out.
[photo: tylerkaraszewski]
