Tips for making a video 2 - camera

bynardusvdv

238 followers

8 years ago

These are some tips (or more like thoughts) of making a video and is a follow-up of my previous blog post.

Which camera is suitable for a video?

1. Research has shown that the quality camera is not the most important part when people look at the video. Sound is! So, my first tip is to use a camera with descent sound/mic build into it. Most phones are more than all right! A tripod is more way more important than a camera so rather spend some money there on a tripod. You can start with a cheap one as well.
2. There are mics available for the iPhone as a plugin. This makes the Apple about the number one phone to make videos. But Samsung lovers, read on!
3. If you use a phone to record, nothing wrong to stick the phone with ordinary Prestick to the tripod. Or make another plan to stick it there. As long as you don't cover the camera...
4. People don't believe me that the camera is not important as long as you have the correct phone. I give courses in drama for kids that can't afford the top classes. In 2014 I've had a bunch of kids that didn't believe me that a Samsung S5 would be just right. I told them that we are going to make a Nescafe "advertisement" as a practice round - with only a camera, no lights or other fancy ding dongs. Take into account that it was a practice session and their first time in front of a camera, so I left some room for mistakes. One of them made it his job to make videos after this and I am very proud of the video's his making. He popped out to be a brilliant actor as well! But this was where he started - with a Samsung S5...:
5. The biggest lesson to learn out of this video is that the Samsung must be recorded side wise to get the full 9:16 (HD) view. If you record in the upright position, you only have 2/3 view. Unfortunately I didn't notice that the kids were recording it upright. Of course this mistake was a good learning opportunity for them...!
6. In 2016 I've done the course again with 14 and 15 year old teens. This time we would make a KitKat "advertisement" and I asked them to bring along their own cameras so that we can see what was the results. It was also their first encounter with a camera as well as production problems like the fact that cinemas didn't want us to record inside them. When we got permission we couldn't use some lights, etc. But check the quality with cheap cameras: