So now you’re ready to go for it.

If you have done your planning you should be ready for anything. Even if you’ve never had any formal training with a camera, there are some things you can do and learn to maximize your experience. If you don't have time to read everything in this section - check out the Shooting Quick Tips at the end.

Field Preparation

The first thing you should do is to get familiar with your equipment especially your camera.

Besides your camera, there is an assortment of items that you’ll want around when you’re on a shoot. Here is a quick list of other items that you may want to include when you’re in the field:

1. A good camera bag – this one seems obvious, but believe me there are a plethora of inadequate camera bags out there. If it only fits your camera, then it is inadequate. A good camera bag should be able to hold your camera WITH battery mounted, extra batteries, extra tapes, charger and AC adapter, lens cleaner, and your A/V cables at a minimum. I recently saw a design for a camera bag that was very novel. While it had the traditional strap for over the shoulder carry, it had an additional strap which went around the waist, similar to a hip strap on a hiker’s backpack. This kept the bag firmly attached to the camera person, but allowed very convenient access to all of the items. If you travel a lot, you should also consider purchasing a hard case with a good lock.

2. A Tripod or Monopod - tripods come in basically two different flavors - Friction head and fluid head. The friction head tripods are the ones most commonly found in the consumer industry. Fluid head tripods are much more expensive and can cost upwards of the thousands of dollars. Monopods are handy as they’re more compact and give great stabilization in a pinch. Remember, if you use digital image stabilization, you’re going to sacrifice a bit of image quality.

3. Extra camcorder batteries - at minimum you’ll need one extra battery, two is preferred. Don’t forget to bring the charger along as well. As soon as the first battery goes dead you can charge it while you use the second. It is important that you become familiar with how long it takes your batteries to drain. If your shoot outlasts your batteries, you’ll need to be near an outlet.

4. White Poster Board - This can come in handy for providing subject fill light and to use to white balance your camera.

5. Electrical and Duct Tape

6. Extension Cord - If you’re doing indoor shooting you can use the AC Adapter for your camera and plug into house power - no need to waste your field batteries. You also don’t want to be hampered by a short connection to the wall.

7. Field Microphone - Sometimes background noise can make it difficult to hear the audio from your primary subject. A field microphone can come in handy when you want to be sure to capture the audio without interference.

8. Shot List - We discussed the shot list in the last chapter. If you prepared this list of shots that you wanted to get, make sure you bring it along. Check off shots as you get them on the list.

9. Shooting Log - This is optional but can save time after the shoot. The Shooting log is a record of the shots that you get in the field, in the order that you get them and their approximate duration.

Telling a Story

It doesn’t matter what type of video footage you gather, remember that you’re ultimately telling a story. When you think of the attributes of a story, think beginning middle and end. Think tempo and rhythm. A story is never made up of just one continuous sentence. When you’re in the field what you’re really doing is capturing the building blocks for the story. Each building block is made up of an individual shot. As you shoot, think about how the shots will ultimately go together during the edit.

Resist the urge to push the record button and leave it running thinking that you’re capturing all of the action. All you’re really doing is making an edit session very difficult and making it very hard for your intended audience to have a sense for what you’re trying to show them.

And, most importantly, remember that no rule or principle discussed here is absolute, but you should have a good reason to break it.

Lighting

The importance of good lighting cannot be overemphasized. Light can be used in so many ways to help your project look really professional. In contrast, poor use of lighting can make your project look dismal.

Our family has a tradition when we’re all together at reunions-we watch old home videos. The best are the ones of Christmas morning for content-they’re the worst however in terms of lighting. The first video camera that we owned was an RCA VHS Camcorder (circa 1982). This was large camera which took the full-sized VHS tapes. Almost without exception, the video taken of Christmas morning is dark and grainy. Now this is partially due to the fact that small children tend to start Christmas morning just after 4am. The only light comes from the single lamp in the living room along the lights of the Christmas tree.

The general rule of thumb when considering lighting is to keep it simple, but ensure that the subject of your scene has the proper or intended amount of light. This is called proper exposure. I draw a slight distinction between “proper” and “intended” because it may be the intention of a director to keep their subject cast in shadow for example to convey an emotion.

Proper Use of Light

When I worked in news production, I was stunned to see the amount of lighting that was on the set. The entire ceiling of our studio was covered with a lighting grid that held all kinds of lights. All of them were wired back to a control panel which controlled which lights were on during the newscast and their intensity. The set would get very hot, and the anchors (the people reading the news) had to wear a lot of makeup in order to appear normal on camera.

The cameras that we used were very high end studio cameras with large lenses. They required an enormous amount of light in order to take a high quality video image. The lighting engineer used instruments called an incident light meter that would measure the amount of light falling on the anchors to ensure they were properly lit. She would walk around the set where the anchors would set ensuring the light was even everywhere. If she found a spot that was unusually bright, she would adjust the light intensity back at the control panel, or by physically putting a filter over the light.

The lighting engineer used a very standard method of lighting each anchor using a key light, a fill light, and a backlight. Looking straight down on the set, this is how the lights were positioned on each anchor:

The lights were positioned at roughly a 45° angle relative to the anchor and were positioned height-wise so that they angled down 45° degrees.

The Key light provides the primary source of illumination on the subject from the front. The angle offset provides shadows across the face which gives depth to the subject’s face. This shadow is often too harsh however with a key light alone. The fill light is added to soften the shadows created by the key light. The fill light must not cancel out all of the shadows or the subject’s face will look flat. So, the fill light is reduced in intensity by 50% or so to “fill in” the harsh shadows and soften them up. This is accomplished through the use of scrims – small metal filters which fit over the light itself to reduce the output intensity. A fill light can also be created by bouncing the light off of a reflector. The backlight is then added to provide lighting around the edges of the subject. This produces somewhat of a halo effect which clearly separates the subject from the background.

The lighting engineer would also work to ensure that the reflection of the light be seen in the anchor’s eyes. The lights were positioned low enough that that a reflection of the light in the anchor’s eyes were achieved. These reflections are called “catchlights.” They make the anchor look alive and bright in the eyes. Without the catchlights, the eyes appear dark and lifeless. Catchlights are always present in professional photography and video. Thumb through any magazine and take a look at the models used the ads. You’ll see catchlights in all the pictures. You might even notice more than one suggesting the presence of multiple light sources on the subject.

All cameras today have the ability to measure light using their auto exposure function; however, these built-in meters measure the light bouncing off the subject. If you’re fanatical about lighting, you may want to look at picking up an incident light meter especially for shoots where you will be able to control the lighting as in the news example above.

The example I’ve mentioned here is by no means the only way to light a subject and set. This is only one example. Lighting on a film set is very different using light not only to expose a subject, but to communicate other messages to the audience. There are many great books out there on lighting for different types of shoots. While I won’t go into any advanced techniques here, I’ll provide you with some very brief .tips here to get the most out of he lighting situations you may encounter

The projects that you work on will be varied. Sometimes you’ll have the opportunity to control the lighting and can implement proper lighting. While you won’t have all of the control of a news set, there are some “low budget” ways to get the lighting just right.

1. Keep it simple. You will rarely have an opportunity to spend more than a few minutes getting the lighting right in any particular location unless you’re on a professional shoot. This means you’ll have to work with the ambient light. If you’re indoors, get as many lights on in the room as you can to bring the ambient light level up as far as possible. Remember to white balance if you want the colors to look natural otherwise everything may have a yellow or orange cast to it.

2. If you’re outside, avoid direct sunlight, which can cast harsh shadows. Also avoid having your subject in a mix of sun and shadow. This is a sure way to have the auto exposure function on your camera go haywire trying to expose for both light levels.

3. Have a reflector handy. A reflector is anything that can re direct light to places where you want it to go. A white poster board can work well to reflect light. A more efficient reflector can be made from a cardboard box and tin foil. Cut a cardboard box open and trim the excess sides off until you have the following shape:

Take advantage of the natural folds in the box. Purchase some heavy weight tinfoil-the kind used for barbecuing works well. Tinfoil has a shiny side and a dull side. Using duct tape around the edges of the box, attach the shiny side for more reflection, the dull side for more diffuse reflection. If you must shoot in direct sunlight, you can use a reflector as the fill light softening the harsh shadows created by the sun.

4. Avoid backlighting. Backlighting means you have a very bright light source directly behind the subject you are shooting. Unless you place your camera on manual exposure, your subject will appear to be underexposed. Simply shoot your subject from a different angle, close the curtains or blinds if you’re shooting against a window or sliding glass door, or have your subject move. It is better to have that light source behind you and the camera illuminating your subject. Some cameras have a backlight feature which can help to compensate for a very bright background.

5. Consider using manual exposure instead of auto exposure if you are in a challenging light environment like the situation mentioned above. Zoom in on your subject, allow the exposure to lock, and then set it to manual. You can now shoot your scene and be confident that your subject is properly exposed.

6. Use a portable light kit. If you have the budget, rent or purchase a light kit. These kits typically come with several spot lights, reflectors, gels and scrims-just about everything you need for a simple setup. In a pinch, use desk lamps or other directional lights to pour light onto your subject. Any light will do – don’t think you need to rent lights that are specifically designed for video production. In a recent production, we purchased lights from Home Depot that worked very well.

Use of a Headlamp

Many cameras today come with a built-in headlamp as discussed earlier. True lighting professionals dislike using the headlamp because it tends to flatten the subject out by blasting them straight on with light if they’re too close, and it isn’t quite powerful enough to light things beyond a few feet. However, it is better to have a source of light than risk underexposing a subject. You can always turn the headlamp off if your scene is lit adequately, or if you have brought supplemental lighting, BUT you’ll be really glad you have it in situation where you can’t control the lighting and the scene is simply too dark for your camera.

Color Balance

The other key aspect of lighting to consider is color balance. Normally you want to reproduce the colors that you capture as accurately as possible. This is best done by ensuring that neutral colors are reproduced correctly. Most camcorders come with an "Auto White Balance" system which attempts to identify the correct white point within the space being viewed and adjust the balance of red, green, and blue to accurately reproduce white. If white is reproduced correctly, then all of the other colors will look right.

The lighting of an incandescent bulb (yellow/orange) is very different from a fluorescent bulb (white green). Likewise, colors outside look different on a cloudy day than on a sunny day. This variance is known as "color temperature" with reds and oranges on the warm side and greens and blues on the cool side. Many cameras have manual settings that allow you to specify the lighting in the location you're in - incandescent bulb, outside sun, outside cloudy, etc. If you're shooting on a cloudy day and set the outside cloudy setting, the camera will "warm up" the scene by providing a slight tint of orange to compensate for the amount of blue/gray present. Likewise, if you're shooting inside with incandescent bulbs and have set the camera properly, it will provide a slight tint of blue to "cool down" the scene.

Typical symbols for each of the various color balance settings are the following:

Sometimes the automatic settings are not adequate and you need to inform the camera of the white point manually. In this case, you would set the white balance to manual, aim the camera at something that should appear white, and press and hold the white balance button until the camera gets a lock on white. The white balance symbol typically looks like the following:

As you are setting the white balance, the symbol will blink rapidly in the viewfinder to indicate the white balance is being acquired. Once the blinking stops, the camera has obtained its white balance. Color LCD screens are particularly useful in the case where you want to get an idea of how the color balance looks.

Experiment with different settings under different conditions to get an idea of how your camera reacts. My advice is to always attempt to color balance properly - you can always add color effects during the edit session using color correction.

Framing a Shot

In one of my first broadcast production classes, I learned about the different types of shots: The Establishing Shot, the Long Shot, the Medium Shot, The Close Up, Over the Shoulder, Low Angle, High Angle, etc. etc, and many, many rules about how these shots were to be properly framed. Learning a few of the fundamentals about framing will help you be more creative with your shooting, adding variety to your coverage and make your edit session a lot more enjoyable.

Safe Areas

The first thing you want to consider when framing your shot is the TV that it will ultimately be viewed on. Talk about planning ahead! The reason you need to think about that is because TVs are plagued with something called overscan. When a screen is mated to the case that will house it, there are parts of the picture that are invariably cut off-roughly 10% in the most extreme cases. When you look in the viewfinder of your camera, and you’re able to see the entire video picture, you have to image a small border around the edge of the frame and ensure that the action that you’re trying to capture falls within that border. The other 90% of the screen that is usable is referred to as the Safe Action Area. When we get into editing later on, I’ll talk about the Safe Title Area as well.

Proper Focus

Once you have framed your shot, you’ll need to ensure that the subject you are shooting is in proper focus. Much of the time, the auto focus feature of your camera will be adequate to keep the subject you are shooting in focus. However, there are times when you will want to override the auto focus feature to ensure you’re able to focus on exactly what you want:

1. When the subject has finely detailed repetitive patterns. These types of patterns can confuse the auto focus of your camera causing it to continually go in and out of focus.

2. When one subject is close to the camera and another one is far away. In this case, the auto focus may select the wrong subject in the scene and you must adjust the focus manually. You may also wish to perform a roll focus manually, which is to focus on one subject that is near, and then change focus to the far subject.

3. When subjects are located behind screens, chain link fences, frosted glass or other see-through barriers. Any time you have a see through barrier and are trying to focus beyond it, you must use manual focus. The camera’s auto focus will tend to focus on the barrier instead of your subject.

4. When objects pass between the camera and the intended subject. This is a very common occurrence. You’re filming your daughter playing soccer and a fan in front of you sticks their head just into the framed shot causing the autofocus to focus on the back of their head leaving your daughter a blurry mess in the background.

When using manual focus, I recommend using the viewfinder rather than the LCD screen to set proper focus. Most LCD screens lack the brightness and contrast to indicate sharp focus. To set proper focus, zoom all the way into your subject, set the focus and then zoom out to frame your shot. If you’re shooting a person, zoom in and obtain sharp focus on their eyes.

Depth of Field

When discussing proper focus, it is also important to discuss the principle of “depth of field.” The official definition: Depth of field refers to the range of distance within a camera shot in which all objects appear in focus. I stress the word "appear" because really only a thin slice of your viewing area is actually in focus - everything in front and behind that point in space are actually in various states of "un focus." Ideally you've correctly placed that "slice" at the range of your subject so that it appears to be in sharp focus. There are three factors that determine how far in front, behind and around your subject other objects appear in sharp focus. By changing attributes of each of these factors, you can change the size of the circle depending on how you wish to set up your shot.

1. Distance to the subject. Generally speaking, focusing on something that is farther away from the camera will yield a greater depth of field than focusing on something close up. I'm not talking about zooming or changing the focal length - just changing your focus to an object which is physically farther away from the lens.

2. Size of the aperture. The wider the aperture of you video camera, the smaller, or more shallow, the depth of field. What this means for a camera with auto exposure is that in brighter lighting conditions, which cause the aperture of your camera to become smaller, your camera’s depth of field will be larger (deeper into the field of view), while in darker lighting conditions it will be smaller (more shallow into the field of view).

3. The focal length of the lens. You affect depth of field depending on how far you have zoomed in or out. At a wide angle setting (zoomed out), your depth of field will be much greater than at a telephoto setting (zoomed in).

I've framed Tyson in approximately the same place in each of the frames below. In the first frame, I'm using my lens on its widest setting. In the second frame, I'm using my telephoto lens zoomed in all the way.

Notice the very shallow depth of field in the second frame when I've zoomed in. Notice also how the background "compresses" behind the subject. These two frames tell two different stories.

Rule of Thirds

The basics of framing a shot revolve around the Rule of Thirds. This rule basically states that objects of interest placed in the left or right third, or top or bottom third create a more appealing shot to look at than when objects are framed dead center or at the extreme edges of the frame:

Typically the horizon should be positioned at the bottom or top third depending on whether the sky or the landscape is being emphasized. The rule of thirds can be especially important when shooting people or other moving objects. Frame objects that are moving so that they’re “walking into” the frame - giving them some extra space for them to move into.

Types of shots:

The following represents the various types of shots. Note the depth of field changes as the subject gets progressively farther away from the camera.

1. ELS - Extreme Long Shot. Use this type of shot for establishing shots.
2. LS/MLS - Long Shot: You can typically see an entire subject, head to toe with room to spare top to bottom. A Medium Long Shot is where the subject is cut off just below the knees (I’t's never a good idea to cut a subject off right at the neck or at a joint: an elbow or a knee. Its always good to give the eye the impression that the persons limb continues out of frame)
3. MS - Medium Shot: The subject can be framed with the shot ending between the chest and the waist or the waist and the knees.
4. CU/MCU - Close Up: The subject is framed with the shot ending at the high chest, just below the neck. With a Medium Close up, the subject is framed with the shot ending at about the chest level.
5. ECU - Extreme Close Up: Typically part of the head is cut from the top and just below the chin allowing room for the person to speak without their chin dropping out of frame.

Continuity

For those shooing a narrative continuity is extremely important by ensuring that all of the elements come together whether they are informational in nature, action-related, or have to do with the elements of screen direction. Because individual parts of a scene may be shot minutes, hours or days apart it is important that the scene come together in the final edit to appear as through it is one continuous scene.

Crossing the Line

As you’re shooting a scene, you should always keep your future viewer in mind. You want to ensure that your viewer can easily follow what is happening on screen. Unless you wish to intentionally disorient your audience (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), you’ll want to consider the “action axis” as you’re shooting and during the edit.

You can think about the action axis as an imaginary line that runs through your scene. Perhaps the easiest way to visualize this is to consider a soccer match and how it is filmed for television. The cameras are typically placed on one side of the game or the other and the game is only ever shown from that side. Imagine how confusing it would be to have cameras on both sides of the game. The teams would appear to continually switch places going first from left to right, and then in the next shot, going from right to left.

This is the action axis illustrated:

If we were shooting the game from the side that cameras 1, 2 and 3 were on, imagine what would happen if we suddenly cut to camera 4. The teams would appear to switch sides and the audience would become disoriented. This can also be referred to as “crossing the line.” It usually results in what is called a “jump cut.” Sometimes, however, it is desirable to cross the line. During replays, for example, the producer may wish to show a different angle on the play which shows more of the action. In this case, it is customary for the producer to put the words “reverse angle” on the screen to indicate that they are crossing the line.

There are other times when it will be desirable to cross the action axis. The primary reason is because you may want to establish a new axis or to simply cover the scene from a different, more interesting angle. Again, your primary concern is how the different shots will stitch together in the edit and how your audience will view the scene. If you wish to cross the line, there are several ways to do it without disorienting your audience:

1. Use a transition shot that sits directly on the action axis. Say you’re shooting a scene with an individual walking down a set of railroad tracks. In your first shot, they’re moving from right to left. In order to cross the line without disorienting your audience, you may cut to a point of view or POV shot – basically showing the audience what the subject is looking at through her eyes. In your next shot, you’re not free to put the camera on either side of the axis.

2. Construct a shot, which moves the camera from one side of the line around to the other without a cut. Using a camera stabilizer or a dolly track, you can create one continuous move across the line to the other side. Cable cameras are now used extensively in football games to put you close to the action. These cameras cross back and forth across the action axis continuously.

3. Use a cut away. A cutaway is an editing technique where a short shot is inserted which takes the audience away from the immediate scene. In our railroad example, a cutaway might show us a quick shot of the train coming. Upon coming back to our subject on the tracks, we’re now free to be on either side of the axis..

4. Have your actors move and cross the line for you.

Screen direction is another related element to the action axis. It is something you’ll want to establish and then stick to throughout a scene. Screen direction is established by the subject or subjects that you’re shooting.

Put your camera in motion

Zoom versus Dolly

For the amateur shooter, the zoom feature is easily the most overused feature on the camera. Let me suggest, as a general rule, that the only time you should zoom is when you are NOT recording. From there, by all means, break the rule, but you should know why you are doing it.

When you zoom, you do several things that need to be considered:

1. You dynamically change the depth of field. You may have noticed when you’re shooting that your subject appears to be in focus when you’re at the wide angle setting, but as you zoom in your subject will be blurry. When you have your autofocus engaged, your camera may compensate for this, but as often as not the camera will focus on some other object.
2. The move can be distracting to those watching it. A zoom is not a natural thing (our eyes don't zoom).
3. Motion becomes a problem when zooming. As you zoom, slight movements in the camera become exaggerated the farther you zoom in, as you’ve probably noticed.

The next time you want to get closer to something, let me suggest using a Dolly move. A dolly is performed by physically moving the camera closer to the subject. There are many ways to do this - the simplest being to walk with the camera. In order to keep the camera steady during the move, a doorway dolly can be used which is essentially a cart that the camera operator can ride on. A more expensive approach is to employ a dolly track which provides a very precise path for the camera to follow. Another option is to use a camera stabilizer.

Stabilizers

Videographers sometimes employ devices called stabilizers to give them smooth camera movements even though they’re performing complex moves with the camera. They’re typically moving over terrain that will not allow them to lay down a traditional dolly track-in other words, they must carry the camera themselves and still provide a very fluid shot. This is difficult, if not impossible to accomplish simply using the camera-even if the camera provides on-board image stabilization. Thus, external stabilizers are employed for this purpose.

Stabilizers are devices to which the camera is mounted and employ counterweights to balance the weight of the camera and a gimbal to keep the camera level.

One company, Steadicam, has been producing camera stabilizers for years and is the market leader. They make stabilizers for large format film and video camera as well as consumer camcorder size (cameras weighing up to 5lbs). These stabilizers can be quite expensive at $1000 or more. Recently, I did a Google search for homemade stabilizers and found a few sites with plans. One such site boasted a stabilizer could be built for under $14. I took the challenge and built the stabilizer and was quite impressed with the results. While it didn’t have many of the advanced features of its $600 cousin, I was able to perform several shots with some great motion.

Here is the site: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

Sound

In any finished film production there are many types of “soundtracks” that will be mixed together with the video imagery – voice, natural sound, sound effects and music are among the most common. The simplest sound is that which is captured by you when you’re shooting and may already contain any or all of the above whether you want those sounds in there or not.

This is where your microphone can either hinder or help you. Most camcorders come with a stereo microphone that generally picks up what is in front and for the most part to the sides of the camera. These Mics are generally built into the housing of the camera and in some cases can actually pick up noises from the camera itself (movable parts inside the camera, your hand rubbing along the case, etc). If capturing only very specific audio is important to you, then you'll want to invest in a good directional microphone.

It is also handy to have a set of ear phones plugged into your camera. Nearly all cameras have head phone jacks. The variety that completely cover your ear are best so you can hear exactly what your camera is hearing.

Directional Mic

Directional Microphones can be used to pick up just the sound that you want when you're shooting. They're called directional because they only pickup sound that is directly in front of them. They're very handy for recording dialogue or other sound and you don't want to pick up other sounds around the set.

Most cameras come with a Microphone jack which will allow you to plugin an external microphone. In the professional world, sound recordists carry a long pole with the microphone attached to the end. This pole is called a boom pole. The microphone is then attached to a long cable which runs back to the camera or to an external audio recorder.

When you're outside, it is very important that you keep wind noise out of your microphone - use a microphone windscreen (also referred to as a "Zeppelin.") Even if YOU can't hear the wind, the mic may still pick it up.

Wild Tracks

Wild tracks are extra sounds gathered to be dubbed into the finished video. They may be dialogue or other sounds shot on location or engineered in the studio.

If you're on a budget and you want to capture extra dialogue for your scene - shoot the scene, and then have your actors repeat their lines directly the camera. You can then dub the clean audio dialogue back into your scene. As long as they have repeated the lines in the same way they were originally delivered, you should have no problem matching lips to sound. It is important that you record the dialogue "on set" to the extent possible. The physical characteristics of a location will affect the sound of the dialogue - speech delivered inside a small room with lots of echo will sound different than speech delivered in the open air.

You may also want to gather ambient noise - background noise present in your scene. If you're in a forest, the natural sounds of the forest critters, leaves rustling, etc can be very handy. For example, if you shot the perfect scene, but the sound was lost to a jet plane overhead, you could replace your background sound and a wild track of your dialogue from the previous example to recreate the scene without the unwanted noise.

Sound FX

This is where you can really get creative with sound design. Many times, the natural sound of something (like a door closing, or footsteps on gravel, or the crack of a whip) isn't as dramatic as we would like it to be when you play back your video recording of it - or, it simply may be the wrong sound for what you're looking for. If so, you may need to "engineer" a sound to fit the picture better. This may be as simple as capturing the sound from much closer up (in the case of shoes on gravel or a door closing) to replace into the scene in post production; or creating a means to generate a sound that fits better with the action. In the case of the whip crack, "swooshing" a dowel rod through the air can give you a good "whip" sound, which could then be blended with a loud hand clap for the "crack" part itself. I know - there are probably much better ways to generate that sound - just an example.

Shooting Quick Tips:

Shooting Quick Tip #1 - Remember to Pad your shots
One of the biggest mistakes when shooting in the field is to forget to shoot some leader or pre-roll before your intended shot or remember to leave the camera recording for a few seconds after you have gotten the shot.  Padding allows you to adequately capture your scene and provide transition material.  Camcorders don’t actually start recording the instant when you hit the button - they can actually take a few seconds to “walk up” or get up to recording speed.  They can also “walk back” on you if you have turned them on and turned them back on again which means that you could actually cut into the last scene if you’re not careful.  Padding will help prevent both of these problems.

Figure on shooting at least 5 seconds of pre-roll and letting the camera record an additional 5 seconds after you have gotten your shot.

Shooting Quick Tip #2 - Shoot various types of shots for the same subject. 
You might not know what type of shot you may need of a particular scene so shooting more than one type of shot for any particular scene is recommended.  Take your time and shoot some close ups, some long shots and even a zoom in and zoom out.  Remember to hold your shot for several seconds to make sure you get enough coverage of the scene.

Shooting Quick Tip #4 - Change The Cameras Eye Level For Variety
High angle and low angle shots can add an interesting point of view to any scene.

Shooting Quick Tip #5 - Shoot For The Edit!
Remember that you’re going to be putting all the footage together at some point in time in the future.  Some camera work can make edits very difficult resulting in awkward transitions.  Here are some things to remember:

1. End your shot with the camera still - no movement, panning, tilting or zooming.
2. Use plenty of pad before and after your shots - 5 seconds is a good rule of thumb on both ends.
3. Use various angles of coverage for any one scene, that way you have a choice in the edit as to which angle fits the best.
4. Cover the Action:  Use long shots to establish the scene, and use plenty of close ups to get in on good detail.

Shooting Quick Tip #6 – Forget all of the Rules!
Look, it is your project, your camera, you make the rules.  Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things.  CNN and MTV have very different shooting and editing styles.  Watch how they shoot and cut their shows and see if you can match the style on your own projects.

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