Doc School - Shooting Actuality 3
DOC SCHOOL: ACTUALITY TOOLBOX (Part 3 of 3)
By Peter Biesterfeld
In the actuality toolbox are shooting tips and conventions for single camera videography when shooting uncontrolled action (actuality). The objective of the shooter is to bring back footage from the field that can be edited together to tell a visual story, seamlessly.
SCREEN DIRECTION
• Keep screen direction (the direction people are looking and moving) consistent from one shot to the next. For example, if you shoot the teacher exiting frame right in one shot, shoot her entering frame left in the next. Otherwise it will look like she's bumping into herself when you cut the two shots together.
CAMERA MOVES
• Inexperienced videographers are very fond of "playing the trombone." That's the way my college film teacher put it when he suffered through students' actuality footage where the shooter insisted on zooming in and out without holding a shot. The camera never settled and the footage was random, often shot from only one camera position.
• Stay away from unmotivated zooms and pans. Camera moves for no reason take up a lot of screen time and they are difficult to edit out of.
• One good reason for zooming in is because you can't get close to the action.
• Another good reason for a camera move is to reveal information. Panning across the artist's table to reveal her tools is a motivated move; so is starting on a close up detail of the artwork, then zooming out to reveal the completed work.
• If you must use a camera move, plan it. Hold your shot at the beginning of a zoom or pan, make the move … not too fast, not too slow. Then, at the end of the move, hold the shot for at least five to ten seconds before you cut.
SHOT LENGTH
• Optimally, hold all your shots at least ten seconds so the editor has enough material to work with. Shots shorter than five seconds go by too fast for the audience to make out what's going on on the screen.
• Roll the camera until an action completes. For example, don't stop shooting before the teacher enters the school. Hold the shot until she's inside and the door has closed behind her.
• When you're shooting, listen to what people are saying. Don't stop shooting in the middle of a comment. Shoot until you've captured complete sound bites.
CAMERA POSITION
• If you have permission to move around at a Town Hall meeting or at a conference, there is no reason not to come back with a variety of solid, static footage. Shoot for a variety of shot sizes, from close-ups of faces listening and hands writing to establishing and medium two-shots (two people).
AUDIO
• Without sound you don't have actuality. You just have lip flap. Pay attention to audio. Have audio figured out for everything you shoot. Spend decent money on sound.
• Wear headphones.
TRIPOD OR HANDHELD?
• Use a tripod for shooting close-ups on a long lens (zoomed in).
• When shooting handheld, for a stable image, shoot on a wide/short lens (zoomed out).
SHOOTING EVENTS
• Shoot as unobtrusively as possible, but don't stay rooted in one camera position.
• Shoot a variety of shot sizes.
• Shoot lots of close ups.
• Shoot plenty of cutaways. Cutaways are shots away from the main action. If the main action is a conversation, shoot listening shots and reaction shots of people who are not talking. Cutaways allow the editor to cut the conversation (or any action) to appropriate length.
• When shooting music performances, hold your shots for long takes to record entire passages of music. Then move in for cutaways and close ups of musicians, instruments and spectators.
- Don't forget locators, establishing visuals of the setting and landmarks that identify the place
STORY STRUCTURE
• Take advantage of ready-made story structures and chronologies in events. For example, weekend workshops and conferences have built in beginnings, middles and ends.
• Use the repetitive nature of activities to your storytelling advantage. For example, when shooting a baseball game, a pool game or any industrial process, you know the action is going to come around again. You can shoot a ball player in his three at-bats with different shot sizes and from different camera angles every time he comes to bat. Cut the material together and it will look like one outing at the plate.
BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS
• Whether the action is restoring a heritage property, building a boat, or publishing a newspaper, think storytelling for everything you shoot.
• When recording the before and after of any process or project, shoot for visual storytelling - elements that can be assembled in editing with a beginning middle and end
REALITY SHOOTERS ARE STORYTELLERS
Actuality-based stories and documentaries are carefully focused and planned. But no matter how detailed the planning, once unscripted action unfolds before the camera, reality shooters must rely on experience and visual storytelling instincts to capture it effectively.
With experience, you can become a fluent visual storyteller and shoot actuality footage that can be cut together as seamlessly as any scripted material in a fiction film.
-30-
(Part 1: Shooting for Storytelling; Part 2: Shooting Actuality; Part 3 Actuality Toolbox)
By Peter Biesterfeld
In the actuality toolbox are shooting tips and conventions for single camera videography when shooting uncontrolled action (actuality). The objective of the shooter is to bring back footage from the field that can be edited together to tell a visual story, seamlessly.
SCREEN DIRECTION
• Keep screen direction (the direction people are looking and moving) consistent from one shot to the next. For example, if you shoot the teacher exiting frame right in one shot, shoot her entering frame left in the next. Otherwise it will look like she's bumping into herself when you cut the two shots together.
CAMERA MOVES
• Inexperienced videographers are very fond of "playing the trombone." That's the way my college film teacher put it when he suffered through students' actuality footage where the shooter insisted on zooming in and out without holding a shot. The camera never settled and the footage was random, often shot from only one camera position.
• Stay away from unmotivated zooms and pans. Camera moves for no reason take up a lot of screen time and they are difficult to edit out of.
• One good reason for zooming in is because you can't get close to the action.
• Another good reason for a camera move is to reveal information. Panning across the artist's table to reveal her tools is a motivated move; so is starting on a close up detail of the artwork, then zooming out to reveal the completed work.
• If you must use a camera move, plan it. Hold your shot at the beginning of a zoom or pan, make the move … not too fast, not too slow. Then, at the end of the move, hold the shot for at least five to ten seconds before you cut.
SHOT LENGTH
• Optimally, hold all your shots at least ten seconds so the editor has enough material to work with. Shots shorter than five seconds go by too fast for the audience to make out what's going on on the screen.
• Roll the camera until an action completes. For example, don't stop shooting before the teacher enters the school. Hold the shot until she's inside and the door has closed behind her.
• When you're shooting, listen to what people are saying. Don't stop shooting in the middle of a comment. Shoot until you've captured complete sound bites.
CAMERA POSITION
• If you have permission to move around at a Town Hall meeting or at a conference, there is no reason not to come back with a variety of solid, static footage. Shoot for a variety of shot sizes, from close-ups of faces listening and hands writing to establishing and medium two-shots (two people).
AUDIO
• Without sound you don't have actuality. You just have lip flap. Pay attention to audio. Have audio figured out for everything you shoot. Spend decent money on sound.
• Wear headphones.
TRIPOD OR HANDHELD?
• Use a tripod for shooting close-ups on a long lens (zoomed in).
• When shooting handheld, for a stable image, shoot on a wide/short lens (zoomed out).
SHOOTING EVENTS
• Shoot as unobtrusively as possible, but don't stay rooted in one camera position.
• Shoot a variety of shot sizes.
• Shoot lots of close ups.
• Shoot plenty of cutaways. Cutaways are shots away from the main action. If the main action is a conversation, shoot listening shots and reaction shots of people who are not talking. Cutaways allow the editor to cut the conversation (or any action) to appropriate length.
• When shooting music performances, hold your shots for long takes to record entire passages of music. Then move in for cutaways and close ups of musicians, instruments and spectators.
- Don't forget locators, establishing visuals of the setting and landmarks that identify the place
STORY STRUCTURE
• Take advantage of ready-made story structures and chronologies in events. For example, weekend workshops and conferences have built in beginnings, middles and ends.
• Use the repetitive nature of activities to your storytelling advantage. For example, when shooting a baseball game, a pool game or any industrial process, you know the action is going to come around again. You can shoot a ball player in his three at-bats with different shot sizes and from different camera angles every time he comes to bat. Cut the material together and it will look like one outing at the plate.
BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS
• Whether the action is restoring a heritage property, building a boat, or publishing a newspaper, think storytelling for everything you shoot.
• When recording the before and after of any process or project, shoot for visual storytelling - elements that can be assembled in editing with a beginning middle and end
REALITY SHOOTERS ARE STORYTELLERS
Actuality-based stories and documentaries are carefully focused and planned. But no matter how detailed the planning, once unscripted action unfolds before the camera, reality shooters must rely on experience and visual storytelling instincts to capture it effectively.
With experience, you can become a fluent visual storyteller and shoot actuality footage that can be cut together as seamlessly as any scripted material in a fiction film.
-30-
(Part 1: Shooting for Storytelling; Part 2: Shooting Actuality; Part 3 Actuality Toolbox)
