Paul Thurston

Start > Home > Film Video > Fun Video Tricks

F I L M A N D V I D E O
	INDEX 1. What I Do 2. Fun Video Tricks 3. Fun Film Tricks 4. Film Tests

Fun Video Camera Tricks

The following are tricks I've used.

White Balance

1. The White balance is usually done to the smallest source of light.

Example: If you are shooting near a window and will be installing a Halogen light inside, do a white balance to the halogen light and put an orange Rosco Cinegel filter on the window. (5500ºK to 2900ºK - ROSCOSUN CTO#3407.) If you are shooting outside and will be using Halogen lights as Fill light, put a blue Rosco Cinegel in front of your lights (3200ºK to 5500ºK - ROSCO#3202 FULL BLUE) and white balance to your Halogen lights.

2. Don't forget to do a white balance every time you go outside.

3. Don't forget to do a white balance every time you go inside.

If you have to shoot with a consumer camera, you will never go wrong by setting the White Balance on Automatic. If using a professional camera, try to do a white balance every time the Kelvin Color Temperature changes substantially.

4. You don't necessarily have to use a white card or piece of paper in order to do a White Balance. You can successfully use a little kid's white T-shirt, a businessperson's white dress shirt, or nearby white walls.

If you would like to know where to purchase ROSCO Cinegel filters, visit my Places of Interest page. Here you will find a link to a ROSCO distributor and ROSCO's mailing address in New York. These plastic gels come in rolls of 48 inches x 25 feet (1.21 m. x 7.62 m.) and in sheets of 20 x 24 inches (50 cm. x 60 cm.)

ROSCO CINEGEL COLOR CORRECTION FILTERS
(COLOR REPRESENTATION IS APPROXIMATE)
ROSCO 3202 FULL BLUE (CTB)		ROSCO 3407 ROSCOSUN CTO

Solution for Fluorescent Light Flicker
(Professional Cameras: 30fps video)

To fix this problem do the following:

If you are shooting in a country that has 50 Hz electricity ( i.e., U.K. ), set the shutter speed to 1/100th.

The flicker disappears because these higher shutter speeds are a multiple of the electrical frequency. (1/100th is a multiple of 50 cycles per second.)

Be advised that you will probably lose an F-stop and that the suitability of this solution is dependent upon your camera's ability to generate this shutter speed.

Iris Information (Professional Cameras)

1. Set your Iris setting (f-stop number) by zooming in on the person's face and setting the Iris button on "A"(AUTO.) Let the lens' Iris adjust. Put the Iris setting on "M" (MANUAL.) Then, zoom out. Leave the Iris setting on "M."

2. If the person has dark skin, close up the Iris by ½ F-stop.

Tripod

Stay away from hand held camera work. In all situations use a tripod, monopod or other suitable vibration-less Camera Support tool whenever you can.

Press Conferences and Other Talking Head Situations

1. When covering a press conference or other live event where there's only one person at a time talking, start the recording or camera work by zooming in from a Wide Angle shot into a Chest Shot (above the person's elbow and below the armpit: Medium Close Up.) Make sure we can see some of the people present as you zoom in.

2. If the speaker begins to move around or shows something, zoom out. When this person returns to the podium or table, zoom again to Chest Shot.

3. Zoom out to a Wide Angle as soon as the event is over so we can see who is present at the event.

Formal Interviews

Set the interviewer, interviewee, light source and camera in the way shown below so you successfully get the shot.

Chimera's Video Pro Banks are extremely lightweight and primarily used for instruments up to 1000 watts. Visit Chimera.

1. Have your light source illuminate your subject from a three-quarter front position. The light source can be on the left or right side of your subject. If your light source is an electrical device, have the light bounce off a white surface, install a Chimera Light Bank in front of it, or install a diffusion item in front of it (Rosco Tough Spun #3006, Rosco Tough White Diffusion #3026 or tracing paper.) The key is to diffuse your light source.

2. Do a white balance.

3. Set the camera in front of your subject so your lens is about the same height as your subject's face.

4. BETWEEN the light source and the camera, set the chair where the interviewer will sit. (Figure a1 and a2.)

TOP VIEW: Notice your position and your interviewer's position.

Figure a1. (From left to right) You, your interviewer and your light.	Figure a2. (From left to right) Your light, your interviewer and you.

5. Once you have installed lavalier microphones on your subject and interviewer, have them recite a favorite quote while you set your audio levels in the camera.

6. Have your subject facing your interviewer and not the camera.

7. If your camera has the ability to record more than two audio tracks, have the camera's attached microphone turned on and recording on channel three so you have an audio back up.

8. Zoom in to a Chest Shot of your subject (Medium Close Up.) Make sure your subject's eye that is farther away from the lens is near the vertical centerline of the frame. (Figure b.)

Figure b. Notice the eye farthest away from lens is near vertical center.

9. Give your editor lots of video (Try to start shooting when your subject has the lavalier mic on and stop shooting only when your subject, at the end, gets up to leave.)

Home