Here is what I've learned with this book, thus far: shoot with your eye, not with your fancy camera.
Recently, my husband and I went to the Isle of Wight County Fair in Virginia. I decided that I would work on my shooting skills on our little outing and shoot with my eye. Let the shot be what I saw and how I saw it.
And it doesn't matter what type of camera you have because you could have a really great quality camera and shoot crap with it. I know. I've done it. lol. But we all have at some point in our lives. Everyone starts somewhere.
As I shot, these are the things that I practiced:
1. Keep it short. Each of my shots were relatively 10 seconds long.
2. Shoot it like your eye sees it, and how you see it. (Most of the time I see shots and stories in my head, but I had a hard time making the shot look like I saw it in my head. By practicing more to shoot like I saw it, I was able to get a better shot and it looked like it did in my head. The way I saw it, the way I experienced it, and the way that I wanted to my audience to see it.)
3. Shoot everything. You can never have too much B-roll.
I hope that my advice will help those that are reading to shoot better. Also, I highly recommend getting How to Shoot Video that Doesn't Suck by Steve Stockman. Yes, I will probably blog about most it. But you should read it, too.
Here it an example of what I shot at the fair. It is a rough cut. A rough cut is meant to be a starting point. The shots have only been placed in the timeline along with the music. They have not been color corrected in any way. I am asking you to look at just the shots. I am not asking you to look at the edit, just yet. Editing will be another blog post.
For this particular project I shot with what I had and edited with what I have. I shot with a Canon Power Shot SD 1400 IS digital elph, 1280x720, 30 fps. I edited with iMovie - not my favorite, but it works for the time being. You don't have to have the best quality of equipment to work on your skills. Work with what you have. Once you are able to work with better quality cameras and editing software, like Final Cut Pro, you will already have the skills that are necessary and will standout better among the pros without looking so much like an amateur college student wanna-be.
Look out for the next post in about 2 weeks. My goal is to blog about once or more every week and half. I recently got a new job as a Sales Associate at Pier 1 Imports and my husband and I will start packing soon to move into our new house. So yes, I am busy, but I want to work this into my schedule. My overall goal with blogging is to encourage you (the reader) to do something - whether it's being a better shooter or making changes in your life or throwing away your computer because what you read makes you rethink technology and why everyone has the opportunity to write whatever they want and share it for the world to see. (I really hope that I don't make you do that last one. lol)
