Transcripts
1. Here we go again!: while our choice of camera and microphone and all the rest of the Gubbins is important, we know there's something even more important to consider. This conclusion is the driving force behind my master classes. When people join me for the day, one of the first things we do is realize there's a lot mortar video than just raving the camera around or pointing at ourselves and saying stuff. We discussed all this in make great video make great video is in fact the first of a trilogy of courses on bits available on this platform for free. In it, we concluded that the most important thing about video spoiler alert here it is not the camera, but the audience and the audience don't want shaky video. In fact, what they want is the opposite. What they want is video that steady level wide with no zooms. So that's more or less where we're up to Really this solitary video building brick. So here in this second of the three courses, we're gonna move on from merely making great video to making really great video here. We're gonna be taking a look at the other building materials we have at our disposal. When we're putting together video, we'll take a look at how chat people framing them well and most of all, getting them to speak in a relaxed way that we can use would also be indulging ourselves in a spot of generation, will brush upon the editing and ultimately produced a more complex piece of video that our first. So let's crack on with make really great video.
2. The three main elements: Oh, they were great. Quite so. At the end of last course, we've made one little clip of video, and this is a bit like wanting to write postcards, but only being able to use one word. Now. That's where a lot of people stop, which is good news for us, because we're going to move on now and start writing in video sentences. And for that we need the three elements of video which come together like this. A good, weird old brick war with some big bricks and some little bricks. Now, the big bricks, those big bricks represent people chatting on the smaller bricks. Well, yes, that's stuff happening. The third and final element is perhaps the most important of all. And it's you. Yes, you are the mortar that holds this video wall together. Eso the Remember the film I showed you at the end of the last course. We had some big bricks, people chatting. We had some smaller bricks. Stuff happening on the way I held it all together with the mortar in this occasion was voiceover. In hindsight, maybe using a Marine based bait does make more sense than an Italian pig. Yeah, good light. So that's what we have to do now. We're going to have a look at people chatting stuff happening, and then we're going to add a little bit of voice over and then see where that gets us ready, of course.
3. My pal: okay to talk about people chatting. We need to get out and have a chat with people. I've come to one of the finest shops in the country and with one of the finest shopkeepers in the country. Nikki, you You've sort of agreed to help, but sort of reluctantly as well. Which is perfect, first of all, that we need to talk about the rule of thirds, don't we?
4. Thirds: before we consider any other shots, just like Teoh. Revisit that footage around the building site because there's something very, very good that happens, even though it's the first time the teacher has used the cameras, she says. She actually stumbled upon something, which is which we can all benefit from, so she's waving the camera around. Then she's just nips in behind the chapters, giving us the guided talk and she stops. Cameras suddenly stops, and we feel a sense of com. Thank goodness we got a shot we can digest. And the reason we like this shot is because she's obeying the rule of thirds again. It's a principle that self rule, but when you divide things into into thirds almost like a noughts and crosses on board, it starts to be very aesthetically pleasing. Now she's seen two vertical thirds with the The building works going straight up here, but also there's a horizontal 3rd 3rd of the way down, and that's where the chaps eyes are. Admittedly is quite a long way to the right hand side, but whenever we get the eyes 1/3 of the way down the screen, it feels very comfortable and very naturalistic. Obey this rule of thirds. And I suppose the eyes are the windows to the soul, arguably more important to tell us more than the mouth moving eso the eyes. 1/3 of the way down is a brilliant thing to do, and I'm always trying to get the eyes 1/3 way down. When I'm chatting, people are filming people, whatever. Just whenever people involved eyes, 1/3 of the way down is one of my golden rules. Now, if the camera can be really close or really not so close, but still the eyes 1/3 of the way down when they're quite close to top of the head disappears, That's not so. That's not so bad. In fact, I prefer it that way. So she stumbled across the rule of thirds here, and if we just move the footage along a little bit, she does it one more time. Amidst all the zooming and panning around juggling, she just stops inside the building and you could see again. Here. There's the rule of thirds. A lovely, lovely set up shot. The beam, the What is it? The iron girder? Is it steel girder? He's sweeping just nicely diagonal from 1/3 on the right to third on the left. He again his eyes or 1/3 of the way down. It's a very aesthetically pleasing shot. It's pretty. It's not held very long because pretty soon we're off again on the roller coaster ride, being shaken around, not being allowed to see anything zooming in and out. Jim started to feel ill again, but those two shots have pointed out. Obey the rule of thirds on. That's what we're looking for when we're trying to get a shot. But obviously we're trying to get ours, not juggling unsteady level, no zooming holding of 10 seconds and obeying the rule of thirds.
5. Framing: The rule of thirds, of course, comes in very handy when we're chatting to people and filming them. So one way, standard way I've noticed people started. Thank you, Nikki. Start filming it. Put the faces right in the middle on. You could see the rule of thirds isn't really playing a part here. There's a lot of head room and side room, and it looks a bit unbalanced. So the first thing is to get the I 2/3 of the way down. Suddenly, things start to sort of look quite nice, s so I'm very happy with that. But the next biggest could remove Nikki to one side to the third or to the other side. I quite like the cactus thing going on behind your sound. More happy with that one. So I'm just going to do that all pressing on the face. Thank you, Nikki, to be very big. Obedient. Thank you than than the A F lock pops up. And so the next bit is if I'm going to talk to I'm obviously wants to get some eye contact so you could look around this way and then you look at me in the face there, and it's almost like the audience is being cold shouldered on the right hand side of I'm gonna frame it this way. I need to make sure Nikki looked through the space. It's like including the audience. So that is the way we need to chapter. And the next thing, of course, is we need to work out exactly what we're going to say. So hang on a sec.
6. Cunning questioning: Yes. So the next bit is we need to start thinking about questions. So how about this For a terrible question? We're gonna have a terrible answer. Nikki, Is this your shop? Yes, it is. Thank you. So, Anita, what I find is working to questions in together, gives them or considered answer on, especially if the subject matter is a little bit more interesting for the person answering the question. I suppose so. Nikki, why did you want to open a shop on Do what sort of prompted you to turn something quite difficult, Possibly into a reality. Um, I don't think I ever had a burning ambition to open a shop, but Thea, opportunity, rise. I really enjoyed it. Well, I've learned something, and I got a much better answer that I can now use. So that's the whole point. Thank you.
7. Your next challenge: All right, then we got a bit of a challenge ahead of us. First of all, you need to find a friend. My case that took a week or three. But eventually I found Nikki. And then when she found your friends, you need to film them doing three things that you're gonna be these now all being well, this is available on the download somewhere around here, so that might be easier. But the first thing is, we're going to film something happening. Stuff happening which is filming them with a coin. You've got to ask them. Have you got a coin you could have a look at? Take that wallet and pop it down somewhere. The second thing is people chatting. You going to ask them a question? Which is Where do you think this coin came from? On. Where do you think it's off to? Next again? Look at the download for the precise details if you want on. The final thing is we need to film some stuff happening again, which is then picking up and taking their coin back. Of course, all of these things need to be filmed. You remember? Steady level wide. No zooming and held for 10 seconds. Unless, of course, it's the answer, in which case you hold it for long. As they answer, like, say, there's a download available. Let's have a quick look at how I got on and then it's your turn.
8. Here's my effort: So Nikki have kindly agreed to help out with this little helping out thing for me. Eso The whole idea is this. Could you find a coin in your purse? A wallet or what? Have you like to call it? Andi? Pop it down somewhere in front of you, if that's all right. Jolly good. There we are. Right. Jolly good. I'm gonna get a close up of that as close as I can. That's an interesting one. More brightness. There we are. So? So the first point is to get a close close up of the coin wherever it's been put down. Steady level as you can. No zooming held for Well, we don't have hope for 10 seconds, but in this case, maybe 20 will do, just in case. That's the first part. And then the next part is to have a chat with your friend about that question which we want to know that. So here we go. Eso nicely framed there. Some third thing was going on. Eso coins looked into this of being changing hands for since 5000 BC eso They come and go. That's still part of world we live in. So how do you think this particular one? This 20 p coin you've set out ended up in your possession in the first place? And where do you think it'll be off to next? Well, I know for a fact this was in the jelly bean machine, because our jelly bean are 20 peas. Just go through the jelly bean machine and get recycled of and where it will go next. I'll probably buy coffee for myself later with. So the last bit of this was to make sure your friend gets their money back. So the money is yours to take if you if you need to take it back. Thank you.
9. More editing: good, right? So we got that footage. Let's edit it together, start speaking in sentences. And for that, we need our timeline on the first thing we're gonna drop into. That is the clip off your friend chatting. So we're gonna put that they're on. We're going. Teoh, make sure that's really precise. Just so it's just their response, not us waffling on before and no doubt afterwards as well. On then, next in front of it, we're going to pop a little clip off stuff happening. Remember, we got a shot of the coin before we started doing the chat. So we're gonna pop that there in a little while. We're going to do a spot of voiceover now. We don't quite know how long that voice over is going to be yet, but we want our stuff happening. The picture of the coin to match it. So we don't know quite know how long that's going to be so gonna leave it just vague at the moment. But we're going to start by putting in our chat. We know how long that is. We're gonna make that really precisely because we know it's we're gonna be really precise. That's the one we're going to start with
10. iPad editing: so to bring these two clips into my movie. Obviously we need to launch I movie by just tapping on the icon a market that screen opening wheel person, the plus to create a project and will create a movie. We're going to ignore the temptation to look at everything. We've got to just create a movie right at the bottom. There, a blank canvas. Now we're gonna have a look at our videos recently added. And it was this awesome one here where Nicky was chatting. So if I just add that in and then notice the the audio line on the bottom, you ever want to get rid of that tap on this squiggly blue line on the right hand side that would keep it just the video. I mean, it's still there. It's just it's just not shown eso That's just I'm just crawling with them backwards and forwards to see when Nikki's mouth starts moving, cause that's when she starts talking about there. I think it could be the right position, so I'm gonna take a chance and press on split. Been the bit of the beginning. Let's see how she started. I know that was lucky and I moved to the and you see the audio lines just starting to waver off there. And then I chip in. That's me talking. And so I think that will be the end and spit that and been the end bit, I think where were all coffee for myself later. So I got a bit lucky there. But the more you do it, the lucky you get like golf. And I'm just going to spin the now line to the beginning. Then I put the the coin at the beginning, which I'm looking for now, adding the whole thing and just scroll these ends. So just like a shot, right and focus, There we are. And then the ending stayed out of focus because I focused on that about their just in this shot. If it's I want to just tap on that and maybe no. Definitely dropped my volume down cause I was chatting away We're gonna put voiceover on next and then just before move on this little fade I'm moving. Loves putting fades in for now. Just tap on that little butterfly symbol Impressed none on. We're going to discuss this in a lot more detail in the next course. But for now, let's just not have the fades. Thank you. Im movie. So now people only voice over to do, I think.
11. Voiceover: When it comes to your involvement in these video productions, there are three ways that you congest involved. The 1st 1 is to be seen and heard and stand in front of the camera and say Stuff the third way is not be involved at all, not see or hear. You just arrange everything in order that you hope the audience will understand. But the second way is my favorite way, and that is voiceover narration. Call it what you will, and that's what we're gonna have a go at now. So, too, were no rate into the iPad or some such device. There tends to be a little microphone just to the opposite end from the little home button time little pinprick of a dot. Now the more astute of you might well notice that I'm not using the microphone from that iPad. I've got a plug in one. You're probably wondering, what is that? Plug in one. Well, I'm going to tell you, but I think it's important to approach these things from the right way. If we start worrying about the kit first, then the camera sort of drives our decision making. We do all the thinking now about exactly which way we want to go, and then we're gonna make the camera come with us with all the kit in the apse. So that's coming later. Um, that's a bit like yet putting ourselves in the driving seat rather than being the passenger seat video anyway, So we're going to record an oration into this. So once we get going, it's almost like a little microphone in itself. I suppose if you get too close, it might get a bit distorted. But you can also have another go too far away might be a little bit too distant, so there is this kind of optimum place. I tend to put it about their Onda just record into it like this. So here's what we need to do to put some voiceover in I movie project. To be honest, it doesn't actually matter where we put it, cause we can adjust it to our heart's content afterwards. But let's put it for now, in the place where it's probably going to go, which is roundabout beginning. This is the the voice over we're going to use again, and later course we'll look at how to build these up ourselves. But for now, let's just take one off the shelf, which is this one. So this is all we really need to say. Coins have been coming and going for thousands of years. This one currently belongs to in an insert your friend's name at the end. Now, on an iPad, you got the little microphone symbol on an iPhone. Need to hunt a little bit more, go for the plus and then scroll down. There'll be a voiceover option there. Eso just press on that and then it's going to sort of say, Are you Are you ready? I'm gonna press record is going to count you in to the count of three and get a little bit stressing with you. But you don't need Teoh react to that because you know you can edit afterwards. So I'm going to record coins have been coming and going for thousands of years. This one currently belongs to Nikki in a press stop. Then I press except and then I've got my little blue but a voice over there, which I can cut See the you can see the way form. So let's just cut that put in the bin. You see how the voiceover stays where it is? Where? As if it was video, it would slip up next, the one next to it. Record that. And then I could just push the voice over to where I wanted to bay. I just put it on my finger. Now. Then we can now see that I just press the tab. Button coins have been coming and going for thousands of years. This one currently belongs to Nikki. And that's where I want Nikki to come in. Whoops. So I'm going to press pause. I'm going to cut the video, been the better, don't want. And then Nikki should come in straight away. Coins have been coming and going for thousands of years. This one currently belongs to Nikki. I know for a fact
12. A second layer of video: now you know when someone's been away on holiday and then come back in the telling you a story and how much better it is if in the middle of the story they consort, show you a picture, Either they printed it out on their iPhone or something that helps illustrate their story. What we could do the same with video with our second layer off video. You could argue this is the essence of editing, and I'd have to agree with you. So you know that bit back in the shop where Nicky suddenly said the 20 p piece came from a jelly bean machine. Now I was thinking, or the audience would really thank me right now if I could show them the Jelly bean machine while she was still talking. Well, that involves the second layer of video. So let's have a look how that works. So this is where we were up to on the iPad. In my movie, we have the stuff happening, the coin, the voiceover underneath. And then we had people chatting. In this case, it was Nikki, and she was talking about jealousy. This was in Thea Jelly Bean machine. They're so It'd be nice to see the jelly bean if you see what she was telling a story about Holiday. Be nice to show the picture of Jelly Bean on day. I do have one. I just have a look in my videos recently added Bo Top when I took 10 seconds steady level wide, no zooming shot off the jelly bean machine. Now I can bring this down and instead of wiping what Nikki said out and take you away and then just having that we put it over the top is if she's still talking but showing you a picture, which suppose effectively is what we're doing. So if I just tap on my jelly beans, Um, now you can actually just adjust the site. Just decide if you want. It's a steady so that nothing happens in it. You could see Time's going down. Three seconds is sort of what we tend to have, isn't it? That's a 3.7 normally would press. Plus, it would come down to a strict timeline, but person with three dots, corn ellipsis, and you got some options of how you could bring it down. The 1st 1 is you bring in just the audio of the 2nd 1 is the one we're going to use the 3rd 1 You have a little picture in the big picture. The 2nd 1 You can split it into two columns, but we're going for this picture in a picture, which is the 2nd 1 along the big rectangular. The doctors rectangle press on that low hold it comes on top, so that's our second layer of video. Also notice it's cut out the sounds. It won't fight with what Nick is saying. Let's see what we've mainly machine because our jelly bean are 20 peas, just goes through the jellybean machine and get recycled. Very happy with that. Now you were saying that this is the essence of editing, and I was tempted to agree. Can you hear that Nikki makes a little mistake or slip up steak? It's not mistake. She's being very kind of stakes in this business because our jelly bean up so, she says, are jelly bean. I mean, jelly bean are trying to piece are trying to appease. So I'm gonna try and just nipped that out. Our jelly bean colors are I can see it's just in that little audio looking the audio waveform, Anthony, thanks to a little dip there. So if I just they're with me, uh, cut the bit there. No, it's quite a big gap in there. That's not really there was just one of the things I like about my movie, but I'm there. I'll Jelly Bean trying to be, Yes, a little gap there so I could nip out this little slip up, uh, split that put the big bit press on the dustpan, and then l come in. So now underneath this shot machine because our 20 peas just goes through the jelly bean machine and get recycled said that is editing. So So we're cutting away to a shot because you want to see it. Which gives us the ability to make what people say short them as long as we don't change their meaning. You know, with this power comes responsibility, etcetera, etcetera. And that's and that's really what editing is all about. Because if we didn't have this shot over the top, Nikki would do this little jumping thing. I just over there, you'll see she'll jump, and that's just a bit too weird for me because our 20 peas just goes, press the back arrow. There we are, So I'm happy with that.
13. Yet another challenge: and now it's time for you to have a little look at the second layer video. In your case, you film them picking up the coin, taking it away. I want to put that over the end of what they were saying in their response on. Your task is, instead of putting something over the middle is defined your shot of the coin getting picked up. Andi find last three seconds of that Because that's along, the audience's attention tends to last. I'm just go to the ellipsis, drop it down to the second layer and notice we can push this where we want to just push this right to the end. Little sort of in states of getting eaten up there. They just put it right In the end. It was sort of snap in, and then the next, I'll probably buy coffee for myself. What did that? I didn't look for the right bit. They want the finger coming in with less of that. It will go next. I'll probably buy coffee for myself. I didn't want a bit more just before comes in. They're not gonna pop pop that on the end it'll go next. I'll probably buy coffee for myself later with happy with that and that's the second layer of video
14. Conclusion: brilliant. You did it. Did you get something like this? Coins have been coming and going for thousands of years. This one currently belongs to Nikki. Well, I know for a fact this was in the jelly bean machine because our jelly bean are 20 peas. Just go through the jelly bean machine and get recycled. Um, and where it will go next. I'll probably buy coffee for myself later with Excellent. So you've used people chatting stuff happening on voice over the three elements, three main elements of video. So you're in a different league to the people of limited themselves to just using single clip video, which is great. That's the good news. It's about news is nobody's gonna watch it. It's what I call shopping list video. You see, a shopping list is very interesting for those directly involved with shopping. But if you go in a shop and try and interest other people in your shopping list, they're not going to be too interested. Let's face it on. This is the same kind of video. It's interesting to those directly involved. But other people might just go. You know what? Just got something to do over here More good news, though. This is a very easy fix. And I think it was the author and net Simmons from the book. Whoever tells the best story Winds said this the missing ingredient in most failed communication is humanity. All you have to do is tell more stories and bingo. You just showed up. That's what it's all about. The stories, that's where the power is. I mean, the video side of things. It's all very nice, but it's really just the vehicle that gets us where we need to be to the power of storytelling. And that's what the next course is all about, of course. Video storytelling using ipads but concentrating on the stories, I very much hope to see you there.
Rob Glass, BBC-trained video journalist
