tips for creating better videos

Simple Hacks to Make Your Videos and Photos Better

Why is this important?

Educators as story tellers. We have great stories but don’t work

hard enough to tell them effectively. Reaching the heart of the learner. Whatever you do, work at it with all

your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Colossians 3:23-24

Story

Story is king! Almost every video tells some kind

of a story. Focus on your story first. Use storyboards As you are going through production of

your video keep asking yourself, “how does this help tell the story.”

Three Key Elements

Audio Lighting Editing

*We are not going to look at any of these elements exhaustively.

Audio

A movie that sounds good will look better Try to get your mic as close to the

speaker as possible. Make every effort to use external mics if

possible. A lapel mic costs about $30

Audio

Monitor your sound input if possible, if not, play back the video with your eyes closed.

Use background music to build emotion but don’t let it overpower. Music should always support the story. http://vimeo.com/forums/topic:15630#comment_1723756

Lighting

Good lighting can make a mediocre camera look good. Use light that you can control Three point lighting http://

www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/simulator.html

More light is going to make your video look better

Example of an image without enough light

Lighting for still cameras

Again, more light the better. I prefer not to use flash unless it is needed. Bounce your flash

Editing Video

Tools Windows Movie Maker iMovie Adobe Premiere Elements or Final Cut Express

Tips Make your cuts shorter. (Longer is not better) Don’t use fancy transitions. Make sure that you edit angles, sound and zoom in

camera not in post. If you utilize still photos give them motion. (ken

burns effect) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNTiyRDhlRY

Editing Photos

Tools Gimp Picasa 3

Tips Take good photos (there is only so much

you can fix) Use a histogram to adjust lighting

Random Tips.

Megapixels aren’t everything And zoom isn’t either HD is the future but you can do great

things with SD Practice, practice and practice some

more Utilize online communities.