In my previous blog post, I covered my pre-production process of creating a video montage. For my location, I selected the Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Garden in Baltimore, Maryland, and visited the conservatory, capturing photos and creating a shot list of various visual compositions to develop familiarity with my camera and practice what I learned from my readings. I also created a storyboard and script to prepare for this week’s video montage.

Reading & Writing

Last week, I read chapters 1, 2, and 5 of Tom Schroeppel’s The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video, which covered the Basics, Composition, and Camera Moves. Here’s what I revisited to prepare for shooting video for my montage.

Chapter 1: Basics

Exposure describes the amount of light that comes through the camera’s lens. The f/stop ring determines the size of the aperture, so if the aperture is small, it lets in little light and vice versa.
Professional cameras have built-in color filters, which you can change in accordance with the light you are shooting under.
Before shooting any video, it is important to set the exposure on your video camera. This is done by selecting the proper filter and adjusting your white balance. “Ideally, you’ll be able to record detail in both the bright (highlight) areas and the dark (shadowed).” You can turn on zebra stripes to help highlight areas that are overexposed.
Every camera has a normal lens, which replicates what the human eye typically sees. Additional lens types include wide-angle lenses, which capture larger areas than the normal eye can see, and telephoto lenses, which capture smaller areas.
The automatic focus does not always work well. If possible, it’s best to focus your camera manually.

Chapter 2: Composition

Making use of a tripod mitigates camera jiggle, which is caused by “shaky handholding of the camera.” If a tripod is not accessible, there are ways to get tripod-like support, including using a monopod or shoulder brace.

Chapter 5: Camera Moves

Camera moves include zooms, pans, tilts, and combinations of all three. Each camera movement is capable of revealing new information to the viewer.
When making camera moves, camerapeople should always move from an uncomfortable position to a comfortable one and not the opposite.

This week, to prepare for editing my montage, I read the final chapter. I learned that the human eye automatically edits by focusing on things that interest it. I also completed an editing experiment which helped me understand how the mind responds to edits and how different bits of information are delivered through various editing techniques. Schroeppel uses this experiment to emphasize that “choices of pictures and sounds determine how well your message gets across, and how the viewers react to it.” Here are some additional tips I picked up from chapter 10.

Chapter 10: After the Shoot – Editing

Try not to begin your video with a surprise. Instead, use an establishing shot.
Reveal new images and sounds slowly so that they have time to process the new information.
Give viewers a little extra time to absorb totally new information and feel comfortable.
If you want to create tension and send muddled messages, you can use quick cuts, fast movements, unfamiliar images and sounds, unsteady frames, etc. These kinds of editing techniques should be intentional inclusions and not accidental ones.
Read your script first! Your script will inform your editing.
Be comfortable with tossing shots that don’t move your viewers the way they are supposed to.
Include basic sequences to mimic how your viewers see life. This is a better way to communicate information than piecing together unrelated scenes.
“Each new shot should be clearly different – in content, framing, or both from the previous shot.”
Lead your viewers from shot to shot smoothly. Try not to distract them from the content they are viewing. You should only change your pictures and sounds to better communicate your message or keep your viewers’ interest.
New and/or complex information requires slower cuts to keep from confusing your viewers.
“Your editing style is determined by the pictures and sounds you select, the order in which you present them to your viewers, and how fast you change from one picture or sound to the next – pacing.”
Your editing style should complement your script.
Across various cuts, sound can be used as a connecting method. Narration and dialogue help establish sequences. Ambient sounds and sound effects help further establish sequences.
Background music is a key component of editing. It helps reinforce your message and convey an overall mood. Background music can also create cohesion and provide momentum. If your background music is not noticed or remembered by your viewers, it’s most effective.
It is best to divide your sound elements between as many separate audio tracks as possible. This helps you have maximum control over your sound elements.
If time permits, once you finish editing, shelf your project. Try to come back to it later to judge it properly. If this isn’t possible, try judging your piece by this standard: “does it deliver my message to my viewers? Will they react to this the way I want them to?” Get rid of any aspects of your project that do not meet your standard.
Progression in video production comes from being willing to receive criticism and being willing to criticize yourself. Evaluate your successes and failures and learn from them.

Research to Inform

Editing Techniques within Travel Vlogs

Sam Kolder

Sam is an experienced videographer that started his craft at a young age. His videos consist of his travels around the world with his friends throughout different seasons of his life. His editing and transitions styles are distinct and unique, so much so that he has garnered a following of over 1.26 Million YouTube subscribers.

In his videos, Sam Kolder prefers using short 1-5 second clips of different angles and shots of his location or subjects in short bursts. He rarely includes clips that are over 5 seconds long. For his transitions, he uses frames and objects within a shot to mask out subsequent clips. He also uses basic quick/jump cuts and manipulates scale, rotation, and position at once. This editing style works perfectly for his videos as most of his videos are meant to evoke emotions of excitement, joy, and energy. Using short clips and quick cuts helps keep viewers alert and maintain their attention. When Sam utilizes masking transitions, it ties two clips together in a seamless way, which somehow conveys that you are smoothly traveling from one location to another. Overall, Sam Kolder’s clip lengths and transition styles create fairly fast-paced videos.

Rory Kramer

Rory Kramer is also an accomplished videographer who has produced music videos for industry artists, including Justin Beiber. His personal YouTube videos feature lessons from his travels throughout the world. Rory’s edits are less quick and dynamic than Sams’s, with shots that can span 10 seconds or more. His videos lean toward storytelling, as he takes viewers along on a specific adventure from start to finish, stopping from time to time to incorporate shots in which he narrates what is happening in his traveling clips. These narrative videos serve as breaks, slowing down the pace of the entire video from time to time. Rory’s transitions style is pretty standard for travel vlogs. He uses jump cuts to transition from one scene to the next. This editing style works well for his videos because the overall purpose isn’t to solely enjoy the video, but also to take in the experiences and the lessons he shares. Rory’s editing style results in even-paced videos; they’re not too slow and not too fast.

Jordan Taylor Wright

Just like the previous two videographers, Jordan Taylor Wright of TaylorCutFilms documents his travels through video. Most of his videos are similar to Sam Kolder’s, as he uses short clips to evoke excitement. However, Jordan also mixes in slow motion clips that range from 5 to 10 seconds long to generate a sense of calm, allowing viewers to contemplate and absorb the overall message of the video. Unlike the other videographers, in addition to jump cuts, Jordan uses a lot of distinct crossfades and dissolves in his film work, along with subtle combinations of scale, rotation, and position changes. Fades are wonderful for his style of video because they are not abrupt, giving the viewer room to breathe and anticipate the next shot. Fades aren’t as high energy as jump cuts but are a softer way to transition from scene to scene. Jordan’s videos start off at a slow pace and eventually ramp up to an even pace with a few quick bursts of footage.

Create

Video Montage: The Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory & Botanic Garden

This week I returned to Baltimore’s Howard Peters Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park to scout out my chosen location for shots. The following day, I went back to shoot. Although I am fairly happy with how my video turned out, this project was no joke! Working with video and audio at the same time presented a few challenges and I have learned a few things to take into my next project. Here’s what I learned:

Shooting in a location that relies heavily on sunlight may present challenges with exposure, brightness, and shadows.
Always use a sturdy tripod. (I ordered one in preparation for this video, but the box was ginormous and I was intimated, considering my timeline for shooting my video. I opted for my old, basic, easily transportable tripod and later regretted it in post-production).
Pay attention to your location’s floor level. Some locations may have uneven floors or ramps, which will not provide stable support for a tripod. Unstable floors = unstable shots.
Listen back to all your recorded audio shortly after you record it. If there’s popping, cracking, or other defects in your audio clips, you can go back and re-record those clips in the same setting and around the same time of day. Learning of sound defects later may require a lot of patchwork, or prompt new recordings clips on a different day or within a different setting, which will sound noticeably different.
Some ambient nature sounds like breezes can end up sounding like white noise when paired with recorded narration. Ensure that ambient sounds are identifiable and won’t be mistaken for something else.
Be generous with your color correction. Subtle color correction may end up looking like raw footage (lol).
Altogether, it’s okay to improvise! Your script and storyboards a subject to change in post.