You wrote a script, estimated a realistic budget and scheduled your shoot. Let's also assume you've assembled a professional team of crew and talent. You've also gone over your checklist repeatedly with microscopic detail, and left nothing to chance. After all, this is your baby, your breakout project, and...
Audiences won’t buy into a movie, the story and the characters if the acting is not believable. It doesn’t matter how impressively staged the action is, how clever the plot or how dazzling the effects, if authentic human emotion isn’t up on the screen we lose interest. And that’s...
Whether you're leading a professional production team, or working as a one-person operation, one of the best ways to reduce your stress and increase efficiency is to delegate certain tasks to someone else. If you are a control freak, like most producers, you might have a hard time letting...
Kipling’s ode on information gathering first appeared in 1902. It was published around the time when the professionalization of journalism – the formal training of reporters, was taking a foothold in North American education circles. Kipling’s six interrogatives have been drilled into journalism school students ever since. Why? Mostly because...
With intensive pre-production and tight budgets, you're all set up and ready to shoot. Now the pressure is on to get great footage and capture the event. In this segment, we talk about last minute preparations, shooting techniques, and how to direct a crew. This is where the real...
I pride myself on having a thick skin. When I submit a project for review, I expect changes, I expect constructive criticism, and I also expect to disagree with some of that criticism. I can honestly say I am a much better shooter, editor, and all around producer because...
One of the comforts in controlled shoots is that you can always try a few things to see what works with a scene. Move a light a few times. Take time to test audio with different microphones in different positions. Maybe swap cameras to see if the Canon EOS...
Directing can be a very rewarding task during video production. Directing animals even more so. Being a director of dogs is something that two Videomaker readers have done for quite some time, and at their core are dog trainers, with videos coming secondary to the dog training.
Charlene and Glenn...
I love shooting video. I love achieving perfect composition and capturing great sound. It's really satisfying to bounce light around for perfect exposure. When I'm traveling with family and friends, it's important to me that we take home some great images that capture the moment. The problem is, I...
As summer approaches, you get a call to produce a seasonal series on backyard grilling. While the thought of shooting a food show like this sounds appetizing, the actual logistics present a real challenge.
The shoot will entail both indoor and outdoor locations using two cameras in a relatively confined...
