Documentaries for the classroom

Presented by

The Montgomery County Intermediate unit

Presenter Michael C Whisted

The three steps to producing a video

• Pre-production• Production• Post-production

Pre-Production• Team Assignments• Story Outlining / storyboard• Research• Arranging interviews• Scouting locations

Production• Lighting• Position• Equipment• Audio• Questions

Post Production

• Video capture• Video conversion• Video editing• Audio editing• Publication

Rule of Thirds

When you look through your viewfinder to frame a scene, tryto visualize the grid and put the most important features on theintersections of the lines. In other words, the middle of the frameis not the most visually interesting. Newscasters, for instance, arealways framed in the center of the television screen for a stable butdull visual image. A more dynamic framing sets objects or peopleon the intersections of the grid lines,

http://www.whyy.org/hamiltoncommons/youngjournalists2011.html

Two basic concepts in good videography are headroom and nose room. Headroom refers to the amount of space above a subject’shead. The shot is visually distracting if the subject is either crammed against the top of the frame or placed too low in it, withtoo much space above his or her head. Try to position the subject’s eyes on the top line of the rule of thirds grid.

Head Room and Nose room

Nose room is also called “look space,” and it refers to composing a shot so that there is some space in front of the subject’s nose.

Shooting Do’s and Don’ts

* Try not to move the camera too much.Footage is much more watchable when the camera is still and the subjects are moving.

* Try not to zoom in and out.Zooming in and out renders the shots hard to watch and hard to edit.

* Use a tripod or train your self to hold the camera still.

* If a person enters the view allow them to walk past rather then panning the camera.

* If a person is walking away from the camera allow them to get smaller rather then zooming in.

Shots

Close-upA close-up positions a person or object as the most important element in the frame. A head-and-shoulders framing of one person is often used in documentary interviews. Close-ups of objects allow the audience to see them clearly without other visual distractions.

Interviewing Check list

* Always use a tripod, set camera at eye level.* Keep the subjects gaze consistent, looking at the interviewer is better than staring into the camera. * Position the camera and the subject so as to create a sense of depth.

Interview Check list• Take carful note of the background, remove distracting items or clutter.

• A white or light background, such as a bright window, will turn the subject into a dark silhouette, because many cameras will set the exposure for the brightly lit scene outside the window and compensate by darkening what is in front of the window. Move your subject away from a window or other bright background.

(Unless you are interviewing someone in the witness protection program)

LightingThe Broader the light source the softer the light

lessons shadowsReduces contrast

Suppresses texture

Increases shadowsIncreases contrast

Shows texture

LightingThe closer the light source the softer the light.

The farther away the more harsh the light.

LightingDiffusion scatters light

Fewer shadows softer skin tone

LightingKey LightEvery subject should have a key light

Lighting

Key Light

Back LightDistinguishes subject from back ground. Smaller than the Key Light

Lighting

Key Light

Back Light

Fill LightsTheses lights remove shadows created by the Key light and back light.

Questi ons • Ask short, open-ended questions that require more than a yes or no answer. Rather than

asking a recent immigrant, “When did you first come to the United States?” which would give you a brief answer such as “1998,” you might ask, “How did you decide to come here?”

• Allow the person to finish their answer and pause briefly between questions so that the interview is not rushed.

• Remain silent when the person is speaking.

• (Asking questions that start with “How” such as “How did you come to be a member of . . . ” tend to work better than questions that start with “Why” such as “Why did you become a member of . . . ”)

• Use of a question board?

• Always end by asking if they have anything to add.

• Always record about thirty seconds of “room tone” to provide you with extra silent moments to match the ambient sound; this will allow for seamless editing. Every space, indoors or out, has its own audio character—“room tone” is simply the sound of the room with no one talking. You’ll use the matching room tone when editing so that we won’t hear a disconcerting audio emptiness if you cut out a cough or other audio glitch.

• Turn off T.V.’s and radios anything recorded may be under copyright and not usable.

• Take a moment and listen for detracting noises like traffic or people passing by, just closing a window or door can help.

• If your outside and it is windy it will be pick up on the recording.

Capturing Audio

Any Audio Converter

Converti ng an iPod fi le for your background music

1. Open Any Audio converter.2. Click on Add Media Files.3. Navigate to your iTunes folder.4. Select a song.

Select the format you want to convert to, MP3

Click Convert

Click the output folder and your converted files will be displayed

Creati ng your own background music

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/music/piano/

Any Video Converter

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

About MPEG File Formats

MPEG 1 ‑

lossy compression is a data compression method which discards (loses) some of the data, in order to achieve its goal, with the result that decompressing the data yields content that is different from the original, though similar enough to be useful in some way.

Generally used for the Internet and CD ROM, providing picture quality comparable with VHS quality at quarter-screen frame size. ‑

MPEG 2 ‑ Delivers higher quality video than MPEG 1. A specific form of MPEG 2 was chosen as the standard for ‑ ‑compressing video for DVD video.

MPEG 4‑

MPEG-3 was launched as an effort to address the need of an HDTV standard while work on MPEG-2 was underway, but it was soon discovered that MPEG-2, at high data rates, would accommodate HDTV.[3] Thus, in 1992[4] HDTV was included as a separate profile in the MPEG-2 standard and MPEG-3 was rolled into MPEG-2

'Moving Picture Experts Group'

Includes many of the features of MPEG 1 and MPEG 2, and adds support for interactivity. It offers better compression and ‑ ‑reduces file size while maintaining the same perceptual quality level as MPEG 2‑

H.264 is used in such applications as Blu-ray Disc, videos from YouTube and the iTunes Store, DVB broadcast, direct-broadcast satellite television service, cable television services, and real-time videoconferencing

MPEG 4 part 10 (H.264‑ )

What happened to MPEG3?

About Digital Video

Images are captured using CCD (Charged Coupled Device)•Images captured with this device are recorded on tape , DVDs, or various types of digital cards.•Consumer products have one CCD•Higher grade professional series have 3CCDs each dedicated one of the three RGB colors.

Video Standards

NTSC – National Television Standards Committee 29.97 fpsNorth America / Japan / Philippines

PAL – Phase – Alternating Line 25fpsWestern Europe / Australia / SE Asia / South America

SECAM – Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire 25fpsFrance / Russia / Africa

Capturing Video Importing video directly from your camera is called capturing.First turn on your camera and connect to the computer using the USB 2.0 A to 5-Pin Mini B Cable.

USB 2.0 a to 5 pin mini b cable

Plug the USB end into your computer, then plug the 5 pin mini male into the 5 pin mini female located on the camera.

Capturing Video If your Camcorder does not have a USB port than it will have a Fire wire port.

Capturing Video If you have a Camcorder that records to an SD card or internal storage, connect using your USB cable shown in the previous slide.

From the Start menu select My Computer.

Capturing Video Your camera may appear as a removable hard drive or you may see a picture of a camera.

Double click to open the camera.

Double click on the Video folder.

There may be another sub folder, double click to open that as well.

These are your video files, each time you start and stop recording a new video file is created.

Now just copy the files to a folder on your hard drive.

Windows Movie MakerImporting Video

From the File menu select New Project.

Windows Movie Maker

Under Movie Task , Select Import Video.

The Import File window will open, use this to navigate to your video file.

Windows Movie Maker

Your video will be imported to the Collection window as a series of Video clips.

Windows Movie Maker

Drag the video clips to the bottom of the window where the Time line is located.

Windows Movie Maker

Using Video Eff ects

Again under Movie Task / Edit Movie.Select View Video Effects.

To use a Video effect just drag it to the Time Line and drop it on the Video clip.

Using Video Eff ects

To remove a video effect just right click on the icon in the lower left portion of the slide.

Using Video Transitions

Again under Movie Task / Edit Movie.Select View Video Transitions.

To use a Transition just drag it to the Time Line and drop it between the Video clip.

Titles and CreditsAgain under Movie Task / Edit Movie.Select Make Titles and Credits.

You are prompted to decide where you want to add the title or credit.

Titles and Credits

What in the Enter Text for Title box is previewed to the right.

If you select Change the Title Animation you get a selection of different ways to show the title.

For example selecting Scroll, Perspective rolls the title like they did in the Star Wars movie.

If you click on Select Change the Text, Font color you will see the following window.

Editing ClipsOne of the easiest ways to edit video is to drag the Timeline tool to the location where you want to edit the video.

Editing ClipsThen from the preview video screen select the split screen at current location button.

The clip is now split into two clips

Capturing a still from the video

Import and preview a video. When you reach the spot you want to capture the still frame, stop the preview. From the Tools menu select Take Picture from Preview. Give it a name and save it.

Editing ClipsAnother way to edit video is to move the Time line tool to the location you want to begin Trimming the video and select Set Start Trim Point from the Clip menu.

Next move the Timeline tool and select Set End Trim Point.

Working with AudioIf you hover the cursor on the line above the Timeline it will turn into a double arrow. This is used to expand the Timeline so that you can see and work with the audio tracks.

Click and drag to expand the Timeline.

After you expand the window click on the + sign next to Video.

My movie has four segments and each segment has its own audio track. You can adjust the volume of each track by right clicking the audio portion.

From here you can Mute, Fade in, Fade out, and control the Volume.Fade in slowly increases the volume at the beginning of the clip and Fade out slowly lowers it at the end.

Use the sliding adjustment to raise or lower the volume, this applies only to the selected clip.

Notice how the volume level is portrayed by the width of the audio line.

Time line Tool Bar

Set audio levels

This slider control bar allows you to adjust which audio source is the dominant one. You can have audio of people talking that was recorded with the camera set higher then the background music or visa versa

The Microphone icon is the narration control. By clicking here you can add a narration sound track. You need to have a microphone for this.

Use the + and – zoom control to zoom in and out. This makes the Timeline larger or smaller.

Rewind and Play buttons

Show Story board toggles between the full timeline view and the Story board view.

Skype and Face time for long distance interview.

Audacity

http://www.whyy.org/hamiltoncommons/awards_2011documentary.html

Examples

http://www.whyy.org/hamiltoncommons/bobsnewsstand.html

http://www.whyy.org/hamiltoncommons/youngjournalists2011.html

Things to look for• Background.• Rule of thirds.• Do you hear the question or just the answer?• Is a tripod being used?• Head space and nose space.• Audio background.• Are stills being used?