Saturday, June 16, 2012

In Camera Editing CVNB Weekend Project 1

There is an old school film method called In-Camera Editing. You decide on the story that you want to tell and then record shot for shot, in order until your film is completed.

Well, we don't use film we have memory cards, hard drives and, god bless 'em some folks are still on tape. We have recording devices. Yes, this is doable no matter what you are using.

Why Would I Want To Do This?

One, it is a freaking good idea. Two, by the nature of the project you are going to have to plan out or at least visualize what you want to record. Three, there will be a lot of serendipity that is going to come your way. You will have to decide do I want to record this? Will it fit the sequence of the video I want to make?

There will be choices and opportunities that will come and go. What will end up in your final video?

What You Need 

You can do this on any mobile device, camera or camcorder. Even if you can only take photos with your phone you still can tell a sequential story.

I'm going to give folks a little bit of wiggle room. You still have to record your shots as you find them and the movie should be completed in-camera.

But you can do minor snipping in an editing program to tighten up the shots, if you chose. And I do mean minor. No flipping the order of the shots, no correcting color, no speeding up or slowing down via an editing program.

Yes, you can add a title and end credits if you plan to upload your project to a video web host.

For Real, How Do I Do This?

How about Michael Rosenbaum's 5-Shot method as a planning model? Hell, it might be a good way to re-enforce the skill about making sure you have a story or narrative.
  1. A close-up shot of the hands (or object)
  2. A close-up shot of the face (or maybe an extreme close up of the object)
  3. A wide shot 
  4. An over the shoulder shot 
  5. A unusual or alternative view of the subject.
There are no failures. If you see a something happening that you have to record go for it. Then start over and make you In-Camera video.

Challenge yourself and please, have some fun with it.

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