Talent tips if you're working with talent there's delivering copy to camera. Make sure you coach them before shooting. After you start recording and tell them action, have them wait for a second before starting to speak. This will give your video editor time to effect to the shot. Also make sure their mouth is closed before speaking. It looks bad seeing your talent with mouth agape before they start speaking Likewise when they finish speaking, make sure you coach them to remain looking at the camera until you say cut.
This will give you a second or two for your video editor to effect or fade when the talent is done speaking, inexperienced talent have the tendency to immediately look off camera to the shooter or the director for approval after they finish delivering their copy. coach them to keep their eyes fixed on the camera until you tell them they can look away. cue cards. If your talent needs to read copy on camera and you don't have a teleprompter, then you'll need to make cue cards. You can buy large sheets of poster board in any office supply store to use as cue cards. It's best to write the copy with a sharpie or black magic marker with a card in a vertical portrait orientation.
Now explain in a minute. The key to a successful on camera read is to make a Looks like the talent is looking directly at the camera. The first thing you want to do is create as much space between the camera and talent. The closer you are, the more it will appear obvious that the talent is looking off camera during the read. Secondly, while you will see most people placing cue cards beside the camera or beneath it, this is not the optimal place to have a natural looking read. For example, here's what it would look like if I was reading a cue card off to the side of the camera.
And this is an example of what it would look like if I was reading a cue card below the camera. In both cases, it's obvious that I'm reading a card. The optimal place is behind the camera. So the talents eyes are looking just over the lens. So here I am. Reading a cue card, behind the camera just over the top of the lens Looks like I'm looking into the camera lens.
Thirdly, to minimize side to side eye movement. As I mentioned a moment ago, I write my copy on the cue cards in portrait orientation, as opposed to landscape. Lastly, to minimize my eye movement up and down, I will physically feed the card vertically behind the camera and read along with the card silently while the talent is reading, making sure that the verbiage being read is always just above the back of the camera. important thing to remember, you will only get away with the illusion that the talent is looking into the lens. If his or her eyes never leave the card. People have a tendency to look back directly into the lens when they finish reading, or sometimes constantly move their eyes from the card to the lens while they're reading.
Tell your talent to keep their eyes on the cue cards at all. times, even when they finish reading until you tell them cut. If their eyes move back to the lens too soon, the subtle I've movement will be apparent to the viewer and will spoil the illusion. sitting position. Having a small stool handy is helpful in shooting interviews or stand ups with people who are not professional talent. With someone who's not used to it a standing and reading copy.
They tend to get nervous and shift their body from one foot to the other back and forth. Or if they're sitting in the chair available on location is a swiveling office chair. They may rotate the chair side to side. A fixed tool will remedy both problems to force the talent to keep their bodies still timecode timecode is indispensable to video both for editing and for organization. every frame of video has its own individual number and is based on a 24 hour clock. You can either record it in record time, or free run time.
What does this mean? record run time the clock stops running each time you stop recording, and then it starts again when you hit record again, and free run, the clock continues to roll whether you're recording or not. Why is this important? First off, it's important from an organizational standpoint. If you're shooting a single camera, you might want to start your timecode at one hour, zero minutes and zero seconds. If your camera cards only hold an hour video each you can start card number two, at two hours, zero minutes and zero seconds.
Or if it's a multi day shoot, you can start each day's recording at a certain hour, so you can keep everything logged efficiently. In these cases, you would set your time code to record run. Perhaps you're shooting to a schedule But it's more important to keep track of the time of day. So later post it's easy to find certain scenes based on the shooting schedule. And that case you would set your time code to free run and set the time code to time of day. Or if you're shooting multiple cameras, set them both to free run.
Connected via BNC cable from timecode out from camera one to timecode in on camera to it set the camera that is spitting timecode that is camera one the time of day. This connector BNC in both cameras should stay in sync while both are shooting. rapping I'm sure you've heard the term that's a rap music to a crews ears after a long day. As you wrap your cables you need to do so in the over under technique. I'm going to teach you how to rat cables properly. Now this applies to video cables, audio cables and electrical extensions.
When I first got into business, somebody asked me, Do you know how to wrap cable? I thought they were kidding. I thought I was being hazed or it was a prank or something. But there is a right way and a wrong way. And it's done to keep your stuff organized. When you're disorganized, it can kill shoot, especially if you're on a tight schedule.
Now first, I'm going to teach you the proper technique. And then I'm going to demonstrate the difference between a poorly rat cable and a properly rat cable. It'll make more sense then this is the wrong way to do it, wrap it around your arm. I've seen people do this. And it's wrong because it just ends up a mess. The right way is called the over under technique.
What you want to do is hold the end of the cable and on your first trap, you go over the second wrap you get to take your friends fingers in your right hand and you're going to twist and make a loop that goes under, over, under, over and then under. Over. Twist, under like that. After you practice, you can start doing it pretty fast. You get into rhythm. over, under, over, under, over, under.
No when you're done wrapping the cable, don't just throw it in the back of the van like this. It's like ruining what you just did is it's going to get all the spaghetti up. We'll make sure you tie it off the piece of rope, parachute cord, whatever you have to a square knot, not a fancy little bow or anything. Don't use gaffer tape or any kind of tape to tie cable. And that's it. All right.
This is a poorly rat cable. Notice how when I pull in the end it just turns itself into a knotted mess. This will kill you on a shoot and set you way behind schedule. This is a properly wrapped cable going to sound when I pull it on the end of this one. It just pays itself out. It's all neat and tidy and very well organized.
That's what you want to shoot. When you get back to your office Homer hotel room, double check that your cables are wrapped properly, especially if you have other people on the crew wrapping them. It doesn't take long and it can save you time and headaches the following day when you're shooting on a tight schedule. While we're on the subject of wrapping, make sure you lay your tripod and light stands on the floor while you're wrapping and not just laying them against the wall. I can't tell you how many times I've had people in my crew leave my stuff against the wall and then gravity ends up pulling get crashed into the floor. It seems to happen every time I'm not looking at them.
It's a result of laziness to not bend down to gently lay gear on the floor and it can and will break your equipment. I'm going to show you how to make a field expedient windscreen for your Lavalier in case you get out on a shoot and you find out that your windscreen has been lost and you don't have a spare We've got a little piece of foam here for what am i packing cases. I've got some zip ties on it keep me at all times and here's the smallest one I've got. And I've got my trusty multi tool. This particular Lavalier is flat and rectangular shape. So I'm gonna use the screwdriver in my multi tool to make a small hole in the foam.
Once I've done that, I'm gonna slide this foam over top of the Lavalier it's nice and snug. I'm going to take the zip tie and I'm going to fasten it around the phone to hold it secure to the mic. without covering the microphone element, of course, tighten it down. And I'm going to now use the scissors that are in the multi tool to trim the zip tie and then I'm going to cut off the foam to shape the form a little bit. And there you go, and it's nothing pretty it's not beautiful But if you're out in a windy condition, it'll save your shoot. Now that you've got all this equipment, how do you transport it from your car to your location, you need something with wheels that's portable.
One of my most useful pieces of yours this collapsible cart with built in bungee cords, I could stack a lot of stuff on it securely. I also have this cheap cart that I got from a big box store. If you something like this, make sure you also get some different length bungee cords to strap your gear down. Finally, when going from one type of terrain to another, like from a sidewalk to a curb or a gutter, make sure you tack a straight on so your stuff doesn't shift If you get lazy and proceed at an angle, all your equipment will dump over onto the ground environmental concerns? No, I'm not talking about global warming. I'm talking about how the climate factory equipment and how you can prepare for it.
If you're staying in a hotel room, or any other air conditioned room the night before your shoot. Make sure you get your gear packed into your vehicle before you shower dress and eat. Make sure your camera case is open. This will keep your camera time to acclimate to the outdoor weather conditions. It can really ruin a shoot by getting to your location and having to wait for your camera lens to stop fogging. I mentioned keeping a large trash bag in your kit.
If you're outside it starts raining put your trash bag over your camera. It's a good idea to have a second bag to protect your kit. Those are The tips I have for now the next segment we'll discuss best practices, how to act like a professional and keep getting gigs.