Training others on shooting a video

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I create a lot of videos for our church.  Some weeks I will work on between 3 and 5 videos in just one week.  Even though I create a lot of videos, there are still circumstances in which I can’t shoot every event or tell every story.

Most recently our missions team went to Peru and took a HD flip-mino camera with them to tell the story. If you haven’t used one already, the flip mino is a great option to hand someone a camera and not worry too much about quality or sound for an affordable price. I didn’t think about it at the time because it was last minute, however if I had just 5 minutes to prep our team, here are some of the things I would have told them before they left to shoot with the flip-mino.

1. Think about sound….even though you can’t hear while recording with the flip you probably want to be pretty close to your subject (about a foot away)
2. Think about background noise…is there any sound in the background that will interrupt an interview such as a car, motor or air conditioning noise
3. Think about framing…watch your headroom and remember the idea behind rule of thirds (you might need to educate them on this)
4. Think about the editor….shoot multiple takes of interviews and give the editor something to work with as far as b-roll
5. Think about lighting…when shooting indoors you will need more light than you think and when shooting outdoors it is a good idea to set up your shots based on the position of the sun
6. Think about a tripod….perhaps you can’t bring one but if at all possible hold your shots as still as possible

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