I thought I would share with you guys 3 awesome, extremely valuable video shooting tips and/or tricks.
#1 – Quality
I’m not going to bore you with the usual technical and mechanical advice you see all around the internet. The quality of your video should totally depend on what your goals are. If you’re promoting yourself as a professional and want people to take you seriously, high-quality video is a necessity. However, if you want people to see you as a more laid back and “real” type of person, I actually recommend purposefully shooting lower quality video. Perhaps only using a mobile phone to shoot your videos suits you? Don’t get stuck thinking High-Quality = Better and Low-Quality = Worse. They are just different and they produce different results.
#2 – Eye Contact
This tip is more geared for somebody shooting video and speaking to an audience. I see this all the time where people read their lines and try to fool the audience into believing that they are really speaking directly to them. When speaking to an audience, look directly into the camera lens as if it’s a human eye. You have to remember that actual people just like you and I are watching this. It get’s really easy to objectify what we see and read online. As if some robot is just spitting out all of this information for us to consume. Put some personality and emotion into your work. Let people connect and relate with what you have to say.
#3 – Lighting
This always seems to be one of those tasks that gets swept under the rug. Lighting your video can add so much life to whatever it is you’re shooting. If you’re shooting outdoors, a simple reflector will do miracles. If you’re not looking to spend loads of cash on video production gear, I recommend heading over to Home Depot and grabbing a large piece of insulation board with the reflective back. If you’re really in a pinch, grab some cardboard and wrap it up in aluminum foil. As for lighting your scene indoors, professional lighting of course is going to give you the best quality. Again, if you aren’t looking to spend mad bucks, just be conscious about lighting and try to shoot in an area with lots of natural light.
Maybe you already knew about these video shooting tips, maybe not. Hopefully I was able to at least provide a different perspective on the topic of shooting video. If you guys have any other useful tips for shooting video, be sure to write them in the comments section below. People are friendly here so don’t feel shy.