Okay, so you want to put together a videotape. You've got a camcorder, and you've learned how to use it. Now what you want to do is to make the entire production as painless as possible.

Shooting and editing take a great deal of time. It is not brain surgery, but do not think this is something you can do at the last minute (like some other class projects you may be assigned). Preparation is the key. If you are well prepared, you'll save yourself a tremendous amount of time and aggravation in the shooting and editing phases.
--Dr. Steve Esposito, Director of University Television

I. Planning.

The very first thing you must do when deciding to put together a videotape is to plan your show. You need to know what you want to say, how you want to say it, and what your finished product is going to look like. In other words, you need to write a shooting script. It need not be elaborate, and it is not necessary to include every word of dialogue or every bit of information that will appear on the screen. But you need to be organized to the point of knowing the basics...for example, which locations you need, the general order of the finished show, who needs to be in what scene, and most important, which part of the story will be covered in each scene. Remember that you are going to edit your tape later, so the sequence of shots is not important...you can shoot all scenes at a particular location or camera position at once, then cut them together later.

Dr Esposito suggests: Do not try to do too much. Anything that you want to say should be no more than 5-10 minutes. People have short attention spans!

II. Shooting/gathering video.

When you are shooting video, ALWAYS use a tripod.

There are a few things you should remember about shooting video. First and foremost, remember that tape is cheap...don't be afraid to use plenty of it. For every shot start the camera rolling, and let it go for about ten seconds ("pre-roll") before starting the scene. At the end of the scene, let the camera roll an extra ten seconds or so ("pad the shot") before shutting it off. This accomplishes two things. First of all, VHS camcorders have a nasty habit of backing up a couple of seconds before starting to record. This can destroy the tail ends of your scenes if you are not careful. Padding the end of the shot with that extra footage can help. Second, the videotape editor needs to have at least five seconds of clean video before the edit start point, so if you start the recording and start the action immediately, the first five seconds of the action will be chopped off when you go to edit.

This is probably the most critical thing you can do to simplify the editing process. Always pre-roll and always pad your shots.

The other thing you should do is keep track of the shooting progress. As you shoot, write down the scene, and indicate for each take whether it seemed like a good performance. This will help you later when you're trying to remember which shot is on which tape. Taking good notes here can save you later on. On a related note, if you are shooting a scene and the talent blows it, or the light gets knocked over, or the microphone falls off, or a jet flies over, or whatever...Just keep the camera rolling, and try the scene again. That saves you from having to wait for pre-roll (since the camera is still running from the last shot) and can allow you to preserve any momentum you might have had from performing the scene.

One final item. If you are using video from sources other than camcorders, be certain that it is recorded at the 2-hour "SP" speed. Most commercial videotapes are recorded at this speed, and it is the only speed that the editing equipment will operate at.

III. Preparing to edit.

Editing is an expensive and time consuming process. If you go to a production house, you can expect to spend hundreds of dollars per hour for final editing. Of course, if you are a part of the University community and using our facilities, we're not going to ding you for such exhorbitant fees, but the fact remains that editing time can be scarce, and the availability of qualified editors to help you may be limited. Even if you are doing your own editing, a bit of preparation can save you from unnecessary hours of production and icy stares from other people who want to use the equipment. No matter how you do the editing, it is to your advantage to simplify the process as much as possible. Here are some tips for doing just that...

1. Write a script.

Again, the script doesn't need to be terribly detailed, but it needs to be complete. You need to know which shot goes where in the program, and you need to know what elements need to be included. Any graphics or titles need to be identified and spelled correctly. If background music or sound effects are needed, you need to indicate that as well. Exact camera moves and dialogue are not important here, merely the notation of which take of which scene you plan to use, whether or not you plan to use the audio already in place on the tape, what music or sound effects you need, that kind of thing.

2. Log the tapes.

This is where the notes you took while you were shooting will come in handy. Sit down with a VTR with a real-time counter...or with a stopwatch...and play through the tape. Rewind the tape to the beginning, and watch the whole thing with the stopwatch in hand, or use the real-time counter. Write down the scenes on the tape in the order in which they appear, and note the actual time elapsed from the beginning of the tape for each scene. That way, you can find the scene easily when you are using the editor. This also gives you a chance to take more notes, and figure out exactly which scenes you want, and where you want them cut. Once you are finished, you will have a tape log which will tell you (and your editor, if you are using one) exactly what is where on your camera masters. This will dramatically speed the editing process because finding the right shot will be less like finding a needle in a haystack.

3. Gather your materials.

When you arrive at the editing facility, make sure you have everything you need. You'll need your camera masters, a blank tape for the finished product, your scripts, your notes, your tape logs, and any material you plan to edit into the finished program including title cards, music, and information for doing electronic titles. Again, if you plan to use graphic titles, be sure you have all the correct spellings. When selecting music, compact discs and videotapes are preferred over audio cassettes, and Capital University TV is not presently equipped with a turntable.

IV. Editing.

At this point, editing should be a simple process. You have already figured out what the finished product is going to look like, so it is mostly a matter of collecting the right elements and putting them together. A bit of preparation will have made this a relatively painless process. At this point, magic happens, and you end up with a complete production.

For related reading:

DCAjr - 03/13/2000--HTML 03/13/2000