Worldview Media

Worldview Media realises the value in sharing skills and expertise. We start by taking a look at some basic video production techniques.

‘Clean and clear sound’

It is a recognised convention that web users are far more likely to accept poor quality pictures, if the sound is clean and coherent, but far less likely if the sound is poor, even if the pictures are good. To achieve this good sound quality, it is unlikely you’ll get away with even a good quality consumer camcorder. There is a chance it might have an external microphone socket, but most don’t, and most don’t allow you good control of audio levels. There are >£600 ‘top-of-the-range’ camcorders out there, that may shoot great, high quality HD pictures, but suffer from simply atrocious audio capability – audio which is unforgiving on any professionally situated web video. And even if you do have a good camera with good mics, it is still important to make sure your sound is clean. An incorrectly attached tie or radio mic may rub against clothing and leave you with a horrible grating noise, which is near impossible to remove in the editing process. If you are using an onboard mic, or a mic on a boom pole, then it is vital the interviewee’s voice is picked up cleanly, despite background noise. If this means getting it nearer to them, then so be it (just make sure it is out of shot). Remember: clean and clear sound can make or break web video.  

‘Light up, light up’

You could shoot your whole film in automatic mode, and your clever little camera will give help where it can. But, if you really want to move up a step, you need to be able to work with manual settings. The pictures need to consistently look good if you are to stand out from the competition. There is the iris, white balance, gain and filters to consider, as well as focus and shutter speed. The iris needs to be set at the right aperture to allow the right amount of light in to correctly expose the shot; the white balance needs to be set to tell the camera what is true white, and from there it can expose all other colours correctly; you have to decide if you need to add gain to the shot in poor light conditions, and how much to add – remembering the more you add, the more likely you will be to get a degraded and grainy looking picture; the Neutral Density filters are used like sunglasses for the camera, which block out excessive light, without affecting the white balance; the focus needs to be sharp and accurate for what you want the viewer to see, and it is important to get this right as the human eye is very good at distinguishing if something is out of focus; and, finally, the shutter speed is important in telling the camera how tight or loose the picture should be in the capturing of movement – a slow shutter speed will give you the look of trailing images (i.e. often used for street scenes, cars moving etc.), a fast shutter speed will allow you to be able to slow down your pictures in the editing phase, without losing definition – although it is usually acceptable to keep the shutter speed on 50 for most of your shooting.

‘Shoot-for-the-edit’

A highly skilled video journalist can produce a film which appears to be shot with several cameras concurrently, when in fact it is simply a case of confident perception of action, good awareness of continuity breaks and a highly developed shooting instinct. It is vital to be able to grab the attention of the viewer, take them on a journey, and then leave them inspired, ready and able to respond. It is all very well shooting masses of film, but you must be constantly thinking of how this is going to translate efficiently into your editing workflow, and ultimately the story you want to tell. Films don’t make themselves. You can’t think: more footage = a better film. You must always think: ‘Why have I got the camera rolling now? How could this shot fit into my editing timeline?’ It is often said a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind, so it is with filming too. A cluttered shoot is a cluttered, complicated and – most importantly – inefficient use of time spent editing.