The Confusion of Video

This project seemed easy enough. Find a story. Film some stuff. Done.

It was not that easy.

The struggles started with filming. Wind. Wind is crazy. I recorded the first time with just my DSLR camera and you could tell. The wind noise was astounding. So the next time I called a student and got a hold of a shotgun mic with a big furry thing that looked like a dead rabbit on it. It helped. The sound was better and the background noise was cut down. I also learned that you can cut some of that background noise out in editing depending on the program you are using. If you are using Adobe Premiere Pro you can go in and use noise deduction and it really helps. Might have saved one of my interviews. Learn the editing tricks. It makes your video better.

You are not good enough to hold your camera still. Use a tripod. I learned this one from experience. Sure I looked cool filming without one, but the video was not good enough for me.

Don’t move during your shots. I ended up borrowing a gimble or gamble to get some panning shots, because the ones I tried without one were not good. Once again I called on one of my students for advice. It really does help to have a student who knows more than you.

Finally, when it comes to editing you need to watch tutorials and work right along side of them. You need to be completing the task as you are watching it so you can remember it. If you do not know how to do something Google it. Googled everything and it made life a lot easier.

Adobe Premiere Pro seems like a lot to learn, but if you start off with a few of their tutorials in the learning section it is not that bad. Once you go through the first two learning tutorials (the ones that come with Premiere) Google everything else you need to know. The best way to learn is to jump in and get your hands dirty.

Check out my video here: https://youtu.be/cO-X_Hh8q3Y