If you’re new to video

Steve Stockman In Tips and Tricks, If you’re new to video, Teaching and Training

Great take on the “50 Ways” Exercise. Your Turn.

This video was my take on your “50 Ways to Shoot My Daughter Doing Homework” exercise. In addition to shooting from as many different angles as I could, I tried some of the other things I have been learning in your book: telling a little story, keeping the shots and the finished piece short, and editing to music. It was also my first attempt at shooting with a monopod and using Premiere to edit.

What do you think?

Mike

PS: It would be great if you had a place like a facebook page or youtube channel for people

… Read the rest

Steve Stockman In If you’re new to video, Teaching and Training, Your Questions Answered

What about Video Classes? Can You Help?

Hi Steve,

I’ve read your book and improved a lot after reading it – thank you!

Now I have a fancy new DSLR, and want to take my home movies to the next level. Do you know anything about some of the courses that are out there, such as dvworkshops.com, or nyvs.com? I’m thinking they might be good resource to help me work on polishing my camerawork and editing.

—Lilia

I have an extreme bias toward experiential learning in video. Theory is nice, but practice is what makes you better– practice in both the physical job of shooting and practice … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In Tips and Tricks, If you’re new to video, Teaching and Training, Your Questions Answered

The “180 Degree Rule” and Why You Shouldn’t Care

Did you break the “180 Degree Rule” when you shot your exercise “50 Ways to Shoot My Daughter Doing Homework”? Not that it matters because the video looks great, but did you?

–Sohail

The “180 Degree rule” suggests that you must keep all your cameras on the same side of an imaginary line between you and your actors when shooting. Imagine a circle split in half– the cameras go on one side of the split, the action on the other– hence, 180 degrees. If you “cross the line” with your cameras, the audience may be confused when characters appear to … Read the rest

Steve Stockman In If you’re new to video, Video Marketing, Teaching and Training, Your Questions Answered

5 Questions to Figure Out What Your Video Should Cost

Hi Steve-

You sometimes say that a certain video doesn’t cost much. But I don’t have an idea on how much anything in video should cost.

Can you give us some guidelines?

–Jason Black

This will sound at first like a non-answer to a good question, Jason, but the truth about video is that it can cost as little or as much as you want to spend.

For example a big feature film might cost $1 million per minute. That same $1 million might only buy you :30 seconds of an action-packed Superbowl commercial. Or you could use it to … Read the rest