Hot Tips to Keep Your Friends From Changing the Channel on Your Home Movies

There is nothing worse than pretending to be enthralled as your friend bores you to tears with hours of video from their last vacation, footage of their pets or children. If you've been on the receiving end of this sort of inhumane torture than I truly feel for you. If you happen to be the sadist who traumatizes your victims with lame ass videos than know this, there is a special place in hell for people like you!

Good news is that it's not entirely your fault and there is something you can do about it. Afterall, most of us are not born with an inate skill set to shoot and edit footage that is sure to entertain and delight even the most critical friends.

So, what does it take to bring boring home videos to life? It's easier than you would think and won't cost you a fortune in fancy camera equipment or take up all your free time editing movies while your significant other pesters you to mow the lawn, do some dishes or tend to the laundry. After spending the better half of the year studying, analyzing and experimenting with videos and simple editing techniques I have these helpful tips to offer.



THE CAMERA

Most likely, you already own a digital camera. If you're shooting with VHS or Beta than you're going to need to have it converted so you can edit your video digitally using software on your home computer.

Nearly all of my videos were shot using the Canon Powershot and even my trusty 3G iPhone. The advantage to using these small handheld devices is that you can easily run around town with them and they are unobtrusive when you whip them out to catch that something special you want to share with your friends.

When starting out, don't pay so much attention to what you're shooting on than what you are shooting. There are much better cameras on the market and I'll discuss those options later this week but these two cameras have always done right by me.


KEEP IT INTERESTING

Let's not even discuss editing yet and concentrate on these hot tips I've developed to help ensure you have enough raw footage to actually work with when you finally do sit down to edit.


KEEP IT COLORFUL...

There's nothing worse than home movies shot indoors where the entire video is filled with a boring, whitish, yellowy background and some talking head saying something we don't really care about to begin with. Try to angle your camera so the background of what your shooting includes a colorful wall, a nice painting, or even a window with a lush garden in view. Believe me, color makes everyone look better and your videos more interesting to watch.


LIGHT UP...

Unless you're looking to create a certain mood nobody wants to view one of your home movies where they have to squint to make out what the hell you're even shooting. They can hear voices or music or something but all they see is black. When shooting, turn up as many lights as you can to illuminate your subjects. Natural light is best but the light from bulbs can be just as good if you have them turned up enough. Also, make sure the source of light is pouring onto the front of your subject and not coming from behind them while you're shooting or you'll end up with a dark sillouette while everything else is lit. Not a good look. There are exceptions to this rule but keep it simple when starting out and keep your subject lit from the front as much as possible. Turn the lights back down if you don't want to kill the mood of the party when you're no longer shooting.


DON'T JUST STAND THERE...

There really is nothing more boring than watching a video when the camera angle never moves. Most people just stand in one place with there cameras while they shoot their subject. Try moving around. Circle your friends or whatever you're shooting to give the illusion of more action and interest. Move in to get a tighter shot of their face as they say something interesting but move back out again when they start gesturing or doing something that should be seen in its enitrety to offer a more comprehensive experience for your viewers.

Be careful not to crop the body in weird spots like at the knees or just above the feet, making them look unnecessarily like amputees. Also, watch how many times you zoom in and out because you don't want to make your friends feel sea sick from all the back and forth movement. Keep in mind, the closer your camera gets to the action the more audio your tiny mic will record. As you move away from your subject the harder it will be to hear what's going on and the odds of picking up annoying background noise increases. Wireless mics can be used to compensate for this problem but when shooting home movies no one really bothers with stuff like that.

Here is a video of my banker friend, Cliona, who decided to randomly turn on YOUtube and bust out some opera during a party at our loft in soho. This is a good example of moving around the subject, using natural light pouring through the windows and offering a colorful background to keep the video visually appealing.




PLAY WITH YOUR FILTERS...

The Canon Powershot offers plenty of filters to use while you're shooting. A particular favorite of mine is called color accent. This filter not only converts everything to black and white but makes one color of your choice pop out (like red, green, blue or whatever you choose). This effect can be quite dramatic and gives the illusion of a much more upgraded experience. Here is a video also shot at my loft using the color accent filter. It was night time so I made sure I had all the lights turned up to keep the performers and our friends properly illuminated to prevent everything from going the same color grey.



LOAD UP...

This tip is just what it implies, load up on lots of extra memory chips and have a spare battery on hand if at all possible. Keep one charged at all times and have two or three empty 4 gig chips ready to quickly replace the ones you've just filled up. Most people never shoot enough footage to even fill up a 2 gig chip. Big mistake! I find my friends act more naturally when I have been shooting for awhile and quite often. They forget I have the video camera going and start acting themselves again. Most people freeze up or act differently when they realize they are being recorded so this is a great trick for keepin' it real.

The more footage you record the better your odds will be to capture that perfect moment when someone says or does something so hysterical or adorable that even your most critical friends will find entertaining. Remember, it's better to have too much footage than to say to yourself, "if only I had the camera out". Of course, you'll never use most of these videos and that's kind of the point. Save the best stuff for editing and archive or delete the superfluous footage after the editing process has been completed.

Here's a video of my friend, Jennifer, discussing her experience using MATCH.COM. It's only 45 seconds but is a fair example of having the camera out and ready to go. I could tell this story was going to be funny but I didn't want to miss a thing. So, I pretended not to hear and asked her to repeat herself which she gladly did thus allowing me ample time to turn on my camera and start recording without interupting her train of thought. Remember, being unobtrusive is key when capturing real life moments.





STAY TUNED... (the editing process)

To keep this blog entry from turning into a novel, I'm going to save my segment on what it takes to edit all that great footage you'll be taking for later this week. You're not trying to win any awards here so start using some of these techniques I discussed above in the meantime. Stop leaving your camera at home and start packing it around with you everywhere or at least for the next few days. Shoot some footage around the house, in the yard, at work or while running even the most mundance errands about town. You never know what you might come across and it will be fun to have your camera on hand and ready to shoot it when it does. In a couple days, I'll have some editing techniques that will surely impress even your most discerning critiques.