Sue's notes on Al's tips

Here are some of the tips from Al about recording video in the field. This is a random assortment of tips. I am hoping I wrote all this down correctly. Please feel free to add or subtract. The stuff in caps is the most important.

? You want to have a large number of shots (or sequences) of all kinds: wide, long, medium, close-up, super close-up. But in general, medium shots are boring.
? Work as close as you can to your subject, and zoom out if you need to (as opposed to starting longer and zooming in.
? HOLD EVERY SHOT FOR A MINIMUM OF 10 SECONDS
? Stabilize. Use your body as a tripod, spread your legs and use your body/trunk by holding the camera next to you. Or use the ground, the back of a chair, whatever. If your shot is bouncing around, you've got nothing even if you hold it for 10 seconds.
? Always establish the opening setting by taking a wider, long shot to show the context of whatever you are trying to show.
? When you want to pan, you start with your body squared to what will end up being your END shot, so that you start turned (when you are less stable), and slowly pan until you are square with the final shot. This limits motion in your shot.
? ALWAYS BE ON THE SHADOW SIDE, meaning if you have someone where the light is illuminating one side of a person's face, you want to be shooting from the shadow side. This will add drama to your shot. OR, get the person into a gentle shadow where the light is more diffused.
? If the subject has dappled sunlight on it, you must have the reason for that dappling IN the shot (like a tree). Otherwise it just looks strange.
? Pick a 180-degree line and stick to it. Choose this carefully. The idea here is that the line represents the natural line of your eye.
? MAKE SURE YOUR CAMERA LENS IS CLEAN.
? COMMIT TO A SUBJECT. So do not shoot something where the viewer is left guessing what the shot is about (that tree? That bush? The people in the middle?)
? Frame your shots in thirds, using the trees, the lines of the landscape, people.
? Shoot the subject off center.
? ALWAYS LISTEN AND WATCH, keeping ears and eyes open for possible shots and interesting layering for your stories. Be aware of the under-thread of the audio (such as airplanes, traffic, etc.)
? Don't be afraid of moving the subject around, helping them look good, positioning them under lights, etc.
? Have the sun at your back whenever possible
? Think about your opening and closing shots. For example, try to let people walking out of the frame to conclude a piece. Let the interviewee hang up the phone, sort to speak.
? You want the motion to lead the shot (In other words, the motion has to have a reason for being there)
? Start with the shadows and move to the light.
? You will need cutaways. Shoot these first
? Be careful of aesthetic interruptions in your path (such as a stair railway coming into the shot from the left. Move your shot over)
? Reflection is good
? If you do a close-up, you need the viewer to understand what that close-up is of. What are we supposed to be seeing? So if you were to do a close-up of the statue in the courtyard, you would want a shot of the man with his newspaper, before doing a shot of the newspaper and his face reading the newspaper.
? Make the shot say something.
? Fill out the frame, using objects in the shot, so that your eyes have some kind of line to follow, some place to go in the photo. Also, related, be aware of how much "real estate" (or empty space) you have in your shot such as expanses of water (not all that interesting)
? You want the camera to be the eye for the viewer
? Do not fight the light. Work with it.
? Make sure you are on AF for Auto Focus, rather than Manual
? Make sure your mic is on
? To conserve batteries, use the eye lens, not the view finder (which you have to store)
? Make sure the lens cap.