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VIDEO: An Introduction

Content School

By Lucy Piper

February 4^th, 2015

WHY SHOOT VIDEO on your trip?

We want to help you to create the best video content that you can from your trip. And although you might not be shooting professional video for our brands, your content can still capture the experience of our products in a unique way, and allow you to tell your story and share it with friends and family in a different format. After all, if we can inspire other people to travel through your own experiences, it makes all of our jobs a lot easier.

So, what equipment to shoot on?

The most user-friendly, robust way to capture video: the GoPro. Shoot from the hip. (or a selfie-stick...)

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The latest iPhones have incredible image quality, & coupled with apps & accessories will capture fantastic video.

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A DSLR camera coupled with good lenses will allow you to shoot broadcast quality footage.

Intrepid group Staff Video

“I shot the video in India on a GoPro that I had just bought. I’d never shot video before, but thought a lot about angles and camera movements that might work.

Then I uploaded the footage really easily to my iPad, and edited it together using iMovie. I’d never used the GoPro, iMovie, or even the iPad before - they were all new gadgets at the time…”

IG Digital Manager, Drew Martinez

And here is the branded version, with reworked music, allowing us to use it for Intrepid:

so you've never shot video before?

That’s OK. We’re not expecting you to go out and shoot professional quality content. We source cinematographers and directors to shoot our hero branded content, so don’t put pressure on yourself trying to make things perfect. What we want from you is YOUR story of your travels.
It doesn’t matter if you have never shot a second of video footage before, there has never been a better time to start. Whether it’s on a smart phone, GoPro or DSLR, the tools for the basic capturing and editing footage are more accessible than ever.

PHASE 1 - SHOOTING

Creating your own video content can be broken down into two simple phases (three if you include planning and pre-production on a bigger shoot. But for the purposes of capturing your trip, just two): SHOOTING and EDITING. HEre’s our tips for getting the best out of your shooting:

TIP #1 - Say 'NO' to vertical videos

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Your TV is not vertical. Your computer screen is not vertical. Cinemas are not vertical.

tip #2 - 'be' the tripod

You need to hold the camera steady, because let’s be honest, The Blair Witch Project ruined shaky cinematography for all of us amateurs. So you need to think like a tripod: keep your feet a little wider apart to hold your body stable, keep your elbows tucked-in against your body and hold the camera as steady as you can.

Stay on the lookout for surfaces to lean your weight against to steady the camera – stand against a wall, rest your elbows on a table or even use your backpack or bag to rest the camera on. And always be aware of straight lines in frame that will catch you out: the horizon should be horizontal…

Practice holding your camera steady. Because nobody wants to be the one using the Steady Snake.

Tip #3 - Avoid digital zoom

The zoom function on an iPhone or smartphone is not changing the optical zoom length - it is effectively just enlarging a section of the image that you are capturing. And this results in a much lower resolution image. So if you want to make something appear bigger in frame, zoom with your legs.

tip #4 - get a good variety of shots

Make sure you are getting lots of coverage for your edit by getting a big variety of shots: start off with the people – mid-shots, long-shots, close-ups etc and capture as much action and movement as you can. Then you can move on to the landscapes, architecture, nature etc.

Always capture the wide (master) shot to establish the scene and show your viewer where you are. Then you can capture the details by shooting cutaways and close-ups that deliver more information.

TIP #5 Master the natural light

Since you won’t have your own lighting team following you around, you’ll need to maximise the available light. And although bright sunlight will be your friend when it comes to landscapes, you’ll need to avoid the shadows that the midday sun can cast on faces by shooting any interviews in the shade, to get a good even light. Conversely, any interior shooting should maximise the available light, so either shoot subjects next to a window or ensure there is some effective light source like a lamp. Try to avoid filming when there is lighting directly overhead (like fluorescent tubes etc) - it flattens out the subject and removes any of the shadows that create shape in the image.

TIP #6 capturing good audio

The sound is the thing that we often think about the least, but can have the biggest impact on our videos. Although the footage you capture will probably be edited to a music track, you also need to ensure you record any voiceovers or interviews clearly. Additionally, it’s a great idea to capture ‘atmos’ tracks - short for ‘atmospheric sound’, these are tracks that evoke the feel of a place – the atmosphere. For instance: in a busy market place, you could record the sound of a local vendor calling out his produce, or the call to prayer in an Islamic town, or the sound of the wildlife at sunrise in Africa.

tip #7 experiment with Effects & apps

If George Lucas had made the original Star Wars movies on an iPhone, he wouldn’t have had to re-shoot them so many times to keep adding in effects. You can literally do anything with an iPhone paired with the right software, accessories and apps. The camera itself will shoot high-speed (slow motion) at either 120FPS or 240FPS, as well as a basic timelapse - so experiment.

Once you get used to filming basic ste-ups on your camera, there are apps that take your footage up to the next level - take a look at FilmicPro, which gives you much more manual control over the image and will allow you to use your iPhone more like a DSLR. The next stage is to look at getting lens adaptors for your phone camera,

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This is an example of a wide shot on the 18mm, with no fisheye effect (as you can see from the straight horizon)

tip #8 - control the controlables: composition

Shooting on a camera such as a GoPro or iPhone, you have limited control over elements that you can otherwise manipulate on a more manual camera such as a DSLR. But there is one element that you are in total control of: COMPOSITION.

and great composition relies on:

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Focal Element

The focal element is the area of the frame that your eye is immediately drawn to - like a magnetic pull. If your composition has no focal element, then your brain will be confused and will reject the image. You can add a strong focal element into your frame through the addition of saturation, contrast, faces or figures, motion, geometric shapes and symmetry:

In this composition, the eye doesn't know where to look...

But add some saturation to the image, and there is an immediate focal element...

Or add some contrast to an area of the image to create a focal element...

structure

This refers to the organisation of the elements in a frame based on a rule – any rule – as long as the content is not organised totally randomly. Structure can utilise the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio (Fibonacci Sequence), the Pyramid, Symmetry or Full Frame:

But some kind of structured composition makes it easier to take in.

It doesn't matter what type, just as long as there is structure.

Place the points of interest at the intersecting points of the thirds

Structure in particular can become a signature part of your filmmaking style, as evidenced below by Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson through their use of symmetry as a structural compositional form:

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BALANCE

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Just the same as using balancing scales, if you place an imaginary fulcrum in the middle of your picture, you will naturally see areas that are applying more weight. Balancing an image, however, doesn’t rely on symmetry alone; just as you can add a focal element through the addition of contrast, saturation, faces or figures, movement and shapes, you can balance out the composition of your frame in the same way.

Examples of composition in IG videos

Here are some shots taken from the ‘Travelling in India with Six Kids’:

And the ‘Travel Is…’ video from the Perennial Plate:

And some of the frames from the ‘Challenges’ video:

phase 2: editing

After you have shot your travel video, you will need to use some basic editing software to cut it together and export it to YouTube, Vimeo or a social network.

On of the most user-friendly options is iMovie. You can download the app directly to your iPhone or iPad, but it is easiest to use on your desktop. (If you don’t use an Apple operating system, Movavi is a popular option for Windows users).

basic steps for using imovie

1) Start a new project

2) Import your video

3) Choose a suitable music track to import

4) Assemble + refine your sequence on the timeline

5) Add titles, transitions, effects

6) Mix the audio

7) Finalise project and export/share

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CONTENT SCHOOL: PROJECT BRIEF #1

Now it’s your turn.
If you want to try your hand at video content, and put to use some of the tips we have listed here, this is your chance.

Film and edit your own video from 15-30 seconds in duration. The theme for this video should be DAILY GRIND.
Upload it to one of the social platforms below, labelling it with the hashtags #ContentSchool #DailyGrind

The deadline for this project is 31st March, 2015

We will be monitoring the hashtags to see how you’re going.
Keep it simple. You don’t have to wow anyone, just show us you’re trying.

And make sure you keep an eye out for what your classmates are creating – give each other tips and support and lots of likes. We would love to see as many of you from our offices all over the world entering a short clip.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you come up with, and helping you become better content creators along the way.
In the meantime, if you’ve got any questions, email us at contentschool@intrepidgroup.travel