by Pierce Vaughn
Hello and welcome to the technical help sheet on how to make a short documentary of a Subud meeting/congress or project. These instructions might help you create an interesting and entertaining film for people to watch and enjoy, but these are just suggestions and, in the end, you're the boss!
I know that many people nowadays have a video camera and have also done some editing work of their own. Its fun, relatively easy to do and it doesn't really cost anything. Here are some basic techniques you can use.
1. Try using a tripod. A tripod is great because it stabilizes your image.
(Note: the following comments also apply if you're not using a tri-pod)
- Pan the image from left to right. Make sure to hold the image still for 1-2 seconds before you start panning and when you have reached the end of a pan hold the picture for another 1-2 seconds. This leaves some extra space for the editing process. If you can ease in and out of the pan, meaning start the pan slowly, increase speed and reduce speed again once you reach the end of your pan, you should have a smooth image with movement.
- The diagonal tilt is great for establishing a scene. Say, for example, you're filming a workshop in a venue somewhere. Before going into the venue, it's helpful for the viewers' orientation to have an establishing shot of the venue, meaning an outside shot before you go
- in; but, instead of just filming the venue from outside, you could do a tilt/pan from the sky down to the building. Don't forget to let the last image stand for a couple of seconds.
- Another popular move is the tilt or pan combined with a backward zoom. So you can start zoomed in on the sky or on an object and zoom back while tilting or panning.
- Whenever you use a zoom while filming, it makes sense to use a tripod. The more you zoom in, the more sensitive the image is to the movement of your hand. It usually ends in shaky images unless your camera comes with a good image stabilizer.
(Examples of some of these shots can be found at www.subud.tv under Filming Tips)
- When you film a longer event in one go – a concert, for example – always remember that you might want to use the complete footage. This means that every pan and zoom has to be done with a lot of concentration. Remembering this lets you create more useful footage.
2. Improve the sound quality
- If you want to do an interview or film someone talking, try to find a place where you won't be disturbed and where there is no ventilator or computer humming in the background.
- Have the interviewed person close to the camera (unless you have an additional Shotgun mike on your camera)
- If possible – though this may be a bit more advanced – plug your camera mike input directly into the main/mix-output of the sound mixer. This way you will have the direct sound from the speakers microphone and music playback.
- - When you film an interview, always make sure the face is well lit. You can do this by using either room light, sunlight or, for example, daylight coming through a window. Try to avoid filming someone with a lot of back light.
- - When you are filming outdoor location shots, you will get the most interesting shots in the early or mid morning or in the late afternoon. This is because the sunlight casts a lot of shadow due to the angle of the sun. Having light and shadow brings a lot of contrast in to your images. This is what we want to achieve.
- - Make sure you have the right White Balance. The White Balance determines whether you are filming in artificial light (lamps) or day light. Both lights have a different colour temperature. If you are using the wrong white balance your images might be too blue or too orange.
Collecting useful images that will make the film more interesting to watch and fun to edit.
- Long shots are used as establishing shots and are made of the different locations where your film is taking place. They are usually wide shots with a lot of information like, for example, landscapes, houses from outside or a room with all its content. As the name says, these shots are used to establish a scene, show the viewer where we are and also give space/time for narration.
- Collect Close Ups of different objects and people in the area of your location. These could be flowers, books, peoples' faces, etc. – anything that fits the feel of the location. These shots can then be used in the editing process to go from one location or shot to another.
- Medium Shots are all the shots between long shots and close ups. Remember to use medium and close up shots while telling the story, and to leave the scene with a medium or long shot. At the same time, allow place for your artistic creativity.
- A basic philosophy for editing a scene goes under the name classic decoupage. At least this is my translation from the German term. Basically, it says to start out with a long, establishing shot, go closer with medium shots, even further with close ups, back to medium shots, bounce between medium and close ups as long as the scene goes and leave the scene with a medium or a long shot.
- During an interview try to insert images between segments of the person talking, that show or support the content of what the person is talking about. It is good too see the person speaking, but it's even better if you can add other images to complement him or her. In this sense, you can always think ahead of other images you need to film that would work being edited into the interview. But often this happens naturally.
- A popular effect used by first time/amateur editors is the dissolve transition between two shots. One image dissolves into the next. My recommendation for making a more professional film is to only use transition effects sparingly. Your film should work with a hard cut and good editing rhythm/flow.
- If you have music in the background, you can (but this is not a rule) edit to the music. Use rhythmic accents as cutting markers for example.
6. Using the right music for your film can make a major difference.
In my experience it can either improve a film immensely or ruin it completely.
- Try not to use stereotypical music for scenes.
- If you use music with lyrics, try to choose lyrics that might fit to the scene, theme or mood of the film.
- The music should support your film and not dominate it. That's why it is generally preferred to use music without lyrics.
- You can use music that has something to do with the country you are filming in, or the person you are filming.
Remember: It is not legal to use any copyrighted material without the written permission of the copyright holder. Use copyrighted music at your own risk. Aim to use your own compositions or get in touch with the many Subud composers we have and use their music. You can also look on-line for usable music under the Creative Commons (CC) licence.
7. Equipment
If you're off to volunteer on a project or attend a meeting and want to buy a camera to film with and up-load onto youtube, for example, probably the simplest format to use is one that films on an internal hard-drive or an SD card, because you can drag and drop the files easily and quickly onto a computer. With tapes you have to transfer the material is real time (I.e. as long as the tape is), and technical difficulties are more likely to arise.