I was probably going to shoot just about everything since I don't want to miss any of the kids reactions or miss that funny occurrence that you can never recreate.
That is a good start and reason to shoot all the time. but you still want to control yourself
I will explain later
Also I think the more you shoot the more relaxed your subjects become and it ends up being more natural.
the best think to combat this problem is somewhere on the camera there should be a way of turning off the record indication light that turns on when recording. Just to clarify, that would be the red light on the front of the camera.
you said digital are you using a hard drive camera? despite the previous post I am not a fan of those. This is tied into the "tape everything statement" What do you suggest?
Phil
First, because you are using you BIL camera I will assume it IS a hard drive camera. Lets go over the pros and cons of the format.
disclaimerI am posting this as information and using my opinion and knowledge of the topic. Do not flame me as it is not my intention to get into a format war but after looking at the last posters youtube videos and despite the fact that youtube compresses the video and some lose of quality is expected, That video proves my point to the lower quality of HD cameras compared to mini-DV. Especially ones that have been clocked back to hold more video
Now that that unpleasantness is over with,
Formats:
HDD is the latest. It stores mpeg format on a built in hard disk. These are typically made to be shown on the newer wide screen TVs but still can be set to the old TV size.
Pros:
Small size and convenient because you don't need to carry recording media. Latest technology and formatted for wide screen TVs. Wont be as obsolete in the coming years as more and more people change over to the wide screen format.
Uninterrupted recording. you wont have to stop to change out full media.
Cons:
Quality suffers as the video is stored in a compressed format. The quality you would get with a $1,000 hard-drive camcorder is equivalent to what you'd get with a $600 mini-DV model. Price is set by the sensor used to pick up the picture. I can't stress how important price is in this category.
If you can adjust the quality up you will lose HD capacity. Adjust the quality down and you will gain HD space. Space may be an issue if you record a lot. *A high end 30G adjusted to best quality will get you about 5 hours of video. Lowest quality 7 hours. (*reported in USA Today) Now some cameras have improved and can squeeze out more time. Your milage may very.
Every time you use the camera you must download your video to store it to clear the camera. Then you have to put it on some sort of media to archive it. This can be a huge pain in the butt. With a tape or DVD you just pull out the media put it on the desk and deal with it whenever. The unedited tape is your archived piece. Think about this, you just came back from vacation in May. Your camera has less than an hour of record time left on it. You unpack, and put the camera by the computer knowing you have to transfer the video to store it and put it on a DVD. A week goes by and you have to go to a graduation party. Now your camera is still on the desk and it is full. Bummer
Do you see why taping everything might be a problem? you should keep the quality up but if you do not bring something to dump your video onto, you need to conserve HD space. It is not like you can just go and buy another tape.
What you want to do is have a plan. An idea of what you want to tape (I know, not the right term for an HD camera but old habits die hard) so you can save space but not miss anything.
In the movie biz this is what storyboarding is. Just so you know storyboarding consists of planing out each shot to develop a blueprint when it is time to shoot.
So now go get yourself a pen and...no I am only kidding of course I don't expect you to draw up your shots, but you should have a storyboard in your head.
Start by choosing a format for your film. See, if you know what you want to end up with you will then know what you will need to shoot to compleat your finished product.
idea: Hopefully a little light bulb just went on in your head.) Take for example getting the Kids reaction on rides. See you are already developing a plan and you didn't even know it
OK, so back to choosing a format.
I will give you three. All in order of skill level. Now you may come up with your own but this will get your creative juices flowing.
warning do not look at any of my other videos until the end of this tutorial
Format 1.
Video Collage
This ones pretty simple and easy to do. You can easily use some still pictures too. It can also be done as an opening or closing to the other formats I will discuss.
Simply put together some shots of the family having fun, shots of the hotel, food, people, characters. and add music. Chose the music wisely. Be aware of tempo, flavor and feel to portray action, drama, comedy, again go back to your plan. If you want a tear jerker select a slow string version of When You Wish Upon A Star. Want to show a lot of clips and pictures? Pick an up tempo song that will keep the action moving.
That is what I did in this, the first of our 3 examples.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0Sb0TFO9k4
Format 2.
chapter Videos
This ones cool because you have a lot of flexibility in case you did miss something but not as open as the first format. Basically you break down each aspect of your vacation. Say the hotel, MK, Meals etc. You then make small videos of each subject and string them together to make a whole vacation video. One of the advantages of this format is you don't have to carry the camera with you all the time. Say for example you went to MK on Monday and you were there all day and you went crazy. You have shots of the castle from every angle, you got the parade, the rides, shots in the stores, kids on the rides, I mean everything. So Wed. rolls along and the kids want to spend the morning back at the MK. You already have more that enough video of the family at the MK to make a nice short video to show friends and family back home what they are missing because they didn't got to WDW. You can leave the camera in the hotel room.
Now for the example I will again use a video from my 06 cruise. This is of our servers. Now remember I didn't have the camera at every meal nor did I use a lot of tape during all the great meals we had. Some of the food shots are still photos and put in a little live video to show how fun our servers were but not so much people would get board. I don't want to understate the amount of video shot, there was a lot but I edit it down and the result is a short clip that captured several moments.
disclaimer: the quality isn't that good as I was new to youtube and compressed the video to the wrong format
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwRvFo3m5AA
Format 3.
Video Trip Report
This is the most difficult of the 3 because it requires a lot of taping and a lot of editing to make it watchable. You must have the camera with you at all times because if you miss something you will blow the format. Of course there are exceptions. Now on a water park day you could use format 2 just for the water park section and fill the day up with still shots from a water proof camera along with music. Now, what I did is got myself a clear water tight acrylic case for my camera so I was able to tape under water but that is a bit extreme I know
. Also If you do multiple things over then you will edit each day different as not to repeat. Lets say for example Monday at the MK you went on Splash, BTMR, and saw the parade. So you put that in the video for Monday. Wednesday you do Splash, Tea Cups, BTMR and watch the castle stage show. For Wednesday you will leave out the stuff you did on Monday. you may just do a graphic or title stating you did that. For example I went to the pool every day but in my video after the first video shots of it I may just put up a title that says. "After the Magic Kingdom we went back to the hotel to swim and then got ready for dinner." now the video cuts to us at dinner
. That of course would include a music bed. For this format it is helpful to write down a brief description of what you did each day to help you during the editing process. I developed a sheet in excel and can fit details of an 8 day trip on one page. It takes 5 minutes to fill out at the end of that day, or the beginning of the next. Info would include where you ate, what parks you went to that day, other activities like boating or swimming it doesn't have to be too specific with rides, shows, times and stuff.
Here is the example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKQ_Dj58MCM
Tips on what to and how to shoot.
I will give you some tips and include some from other posts I did before.
First make sure you set your shots up include wide shots then med then close.
Example:
POTC Wide shot of the plaza. Med. shot of just the building. Close up of the sign.
Don't always keep your camera strait. Watch my videos and notice how some of the shots are angled. Don't zoom in and out on people too much. Do zoom in and out of stationary objects like buildings and signs to add interest and depth. Again watch my video trip report and notice the pan and zoom of signs and of area shots. Most of those shots once edited should last no more that 5 sec. So if it is a large area pan left and then reset and pan right. Add a slow zoom to the second pan and it won't be as stale as just holding the camera still.
I will give you a rule of thump I live by. If the subject in a set up shot doesn't move then move the camera. If the subject in a set up shot is moving then hold the camera still. Here is an example. You enter through the tunnel of the Magic Kingdom and you get a nice sweeping pan of the town square. So now you got that and the horse drawn trolley is approaching. So you say to yourself "self, that would be a cool shot" now most people would stand by the horse and follow the horse as it goes by. It is an OK shot but think about what the composition of the shot is. If you keep the horse in the center of the frame is the horse moving? Answer no. It is like a cartoon, only the background is moving. A better shot would be to get positioned so the horse is coming toward you at an angle and let it walk off frame. If you know you would be using this shot without the audio. (remember you planed you video out ahead of time) than encourage the cast member to wave at you. I do that all the time. I have a great example of this shot from PORS but I never uploaded it to youtube. If it is still in my computer I will upload it and post a link. You will notice that in my number 3 format example the fast pass checker has waving has we went on the Peter Pan. I know i wouldn't be using that audio so if you heard the raw video you would hear me saying "wave friendly cast member wave".
Another trick I do is tape just for sound. Say I want shots of Main St. with audio. If I change the picture the audio changes right? Not on my videos. It is too distracting. In the format 3 video did you notice that after showing the line to buy tickets to the MK there is a cut to my green AP voucher? Did you notice the birds never stop are changed their chirping? It is because you are hearing the audio from one video but seeing 2 video clips.
By now you are thinking one of 2 things "this guy is so full of himself, who does he think he is Martin Scorsese?" or "this guy must be a professional."
No I am not a professional so your first thought is correct.
But you don't have to be a professional to get great results. I learned by doing and watching movies and TV with a more critical eye than just watching it for the entertainment.
Observe how fast past shows cut from one shot to the next, ask yourself what kind of music are they using to set the mood, pace and flavor of the scene. Watch a drama and notice how many shots cut off the tops of the actors heads. We tend to feel we need to get the whole person in the frame and that isn't always the case.
That is one thing I need to be more aware of I often feel I have too much headroom. This is often a problem when I look at still pictures. It is one of my pet peeves. My family will show me a picture they took and I start ragging on them about all head room at the top of the photo. They get so mad at me LOL.
I think anyone could at the least be taught some of these techniques and with some patients and practice can turn out some great family videos.
Just copy what you see and like. You will find yourself putting your own personal touches on it and before you know you have a great unique video everybody will love.
Here are some rules I use in editing.
Don't use gimmicky transitions they are ok for stills but not for video. Page turns, in and out boxes, most programs come with a ton of them. Fades and cuts are all you want to use. Quick cuts to change scenes and locations for example. I open the video by telling the audience the day and where we are going. Cut to the car of us pulling into the parking lot. Fades are used to stretch time. Take for example the time we were in restaurants. I fade from order taking to the food being delivered fade to the eaten food etc...
Ask yourself "do I need this to tell the story" I shot about 10 hours of video on my last trip. I used about an hour and a half.
If you get stuck on a particular segment skip it and go past it. Lets say you are working on day one and you went to the parade and you are having trouble with editing it together. Move on to the next part. I often find away around obstacles when I continue to work not by staring at the screen trying to think "how am I going to make this work?" Keep moving forward. Remember the words of Willy Wonka. "You must go forward to go back."
If you have a photo editing program like photoshop elements you can easily make title shots that are more interesting than just using the title editor in the video program.
For great backgrounds start taking digital pictures of textures. I must look like an imbecile to most people because I am always taking pictures of walls, tree bark, palm fronds, pavement and other textures. Those same techniques are great for scrapbooking too. Textured pictures can be printed out and cut into frames or used as an embellishment under a photo to create a boarder.
The size of your project needs to be 640x480 pixels. Photos should be resized to this dimension also. You will have to resize and then crop to achieve this but if you don't your still pictures will have black bars on the top and bottom as standard photos are wider than TV ratio.
To practice, tape your kids playing for a couple of minutes and make a movie of it.
This is an example of a practice video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTVL-0tF39Y
Now I have been typing for over an hour and by now people have probably responded to your post so I apologize for any repeat info.
. I have received warning and have gotten posts locked because people get so fired up. I really should be more tactful.
. Who cares?
.
