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How to Make a Video
(Quality First)

Content Below at a Glance: Pre-Production | Video Recording | Video Editing
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"The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being." - Lee Iacocca
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Things to do below should help create a professional video.

Pre-Production:

1. Setting a goal for the final edit is a must. A plan to achieve the goal should be the checklist. For example, the goal is to get viewers to visit my SEO website. The plan is to give helpful SEO Tips and mention the web address.
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2. Recording Preparation: The most attractive video clips will be those that...

a) show the subject(s) smiling for a good reason at the beginning.

"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love." - Mother Teresa

b) record truthful ideas being said. The goal here is viewer trust for the subject(s).

c) have subjects who specifically answer questions. The one being interviewed should be aware of this ahead of time.

"Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone." - Colossians 4:6

d) have ideas top company officials like to hear. Anyone who has an interest in the video can review relevant Mission Statements. Respectable companies that have a web site may list this info on their "About Us" page. The goal here is to understand the bigger picture.

e) answer who, what, when or where.

f) show the subject's: 1. Stillness (being like a statue), 2. Upright posture 3. Expert ability (knowledge) 4. Good grammar and no "ums."

g) show reactions of people to things.

h) minimize movement of the video cam.

i) have smooth camcorder movement, like when using a wheelchair or dolly.

j) point out a conclusion to the video at the end.
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3. The one recording should read the cam manual. The one doing the editing should read the software's manual. Most of the time, these are included with the hardware when purchasing and can be found using a search engine.

The company who made your cam or software should also have answers to all common issues at their web site. I would not rely much on solving problems using internet forums or third-party video making sites.
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Video Recording:

4. Two or more video cameras will help keep the final edit alive.
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5. The set must be much brighter than normal everyday lighting. Video lights, table lamps, and reflectors (bounce) are always good.

Three-point lighting should always be priority. This is one bright (Key) light on the front side and above talent. Then two dimmer lights for Fill (to remove dark shadows) and Backlight.

When outdoors, the sun is best used as the Key light. Using shade from trees will reduce the harsh light, making this daytime shot more natural.

Displaying the camcorder's Zebra pattern is helpful. What must be done after the pattern shows up on the LCD screen is the lighting of the shot needs to be reduced. This will avoid things showing up too bright in editing.

The focus here should be minimum bad darkness and no extra brightness on subject.

Some cams come with an ND Filter. Using this is a must. The cam can reduce brightness recorded, within its unit. The cam should recommend the proper ND setting in the LCD screen.

It is possible to add brightness during video editing, but doing so likely adds white graininess to the picture.
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6. Professionals prefer to white balance manually, using a white flat object (cardboard or paper).

When the lighting or camera angle ever changes, white balance should always be redone unless it is in automatic mode and the setting has not changed. The automatic white balance feature on your video camera should always record quality images. There should be an Indoor and Outdoor auto setting.

Checking the white balance before every shot needs to become a habit. This means the video cam operator should use one second to question whether or not the cam is set for proper white balance.
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7. Manual-focus (not auto) is a must when shooting stationary subjects. Knowing this comes from experience in getting blurry shots using auto-focus.

The video operator can zoom in on the subject's eyes, focus, then zoom out to the desired shot. The focus will stay at this set distance from the camera. This is how professional video camera operators prepare for shots. After doing this, when the subject moves closer or farther, the focus must be manually adjusted. Doing this without zooming in again on the eyes requires some guesswork on how much to hand-turn the focus ring. Good cam operators will practice this before it happens.

Auto focus is good at times when changing the focus manually will be too difficult.
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8. Rule of Thirds: Subject's eyes should be 1/3 from top of frame for viewer friendliness. This also includes photos.

Keeping the cam's guideframe on is helpful.
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9. When the subject's nose is pointing to the camera, the subject should be center screen. When the subject is turned from the camera, the space in front of the subject, on screen, must be more than behind them.
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10. The use of in and out zooms works for high quality productions. However, standard business videos could cause viewer nausea, when pushing-in and pulling-back the lens.
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11. For handheld (shaky) shots, the image stabilization (Steadyshot) feature should be enabled (turned on). Some cams have low, medium and high Steadyshot settings.

When the camera is stationary, the image stabilization feature should be disabled (turned off), to allow for natural image recording.
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12. Quality Sound: Microphones must be placed as close to the talent as possible. They should be set along the imaginary line of the subject's voice projection.

Sometimes the camcorder makes undesirable noises on its own. Using a lavaliere (small mike clipped to shirt) or hand-held will solve this issue.
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13. Background Check: Nothing in background that keeps attention of viewers off subject. Example: No pot plants appearing to sprout out of people's heads.

Moving the video camera further from the subjects and zooming in to original shot will reduce background width seen on screen.
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14. Keeping the camera's CCD chip safe: Video cam cannot be pointed at really bright lights. The camera should be turned on before taking off the lens cap. If you take the cap off then switch it on - light could stream-in and cause a damaged chip.
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15. Shooting everything helps when editing.

Ideas when shooting: Close ups, buildings, reactions from other people, and anything that comes to mind.

Quality silent clips in the middle of shots can be copied and pasted on the editing timeline to get rid of bad sounds. This will keep the ambient noise continuous. Lowering the volume in editing, to get rid of bad noises, produces sound choppiness.
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16. Good shots will record someone saying answers to the following: Who is the person in the video, what are they doing, when are they doing it and where are they?
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17. I have found that the best quality for High Definition video images occur when avoiding editing zooming, cropping and plug-ins. In other words, only using the shots exactly how they were recorded. This is why it is important to record using proper lighting and eye position (framing). I am 100% sure this is the case for my medium budget video making.

Regarding medium budget video making: Editing plug-ins and cropping that look good on one new TV, likely, will show lower image quality on older sets.

In the next few weeks I will be testing image quality using a higher end super micro computer (12 gigabytes ram and two Intel Xeon processors).
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18. Checklist between shots:

1) Proper lighting using Zebra pattern
2) ND Filter (for cams that have this)
3) White balance
4) Should Steadyshot be on (low, medium, high) or off?
5) Can I manually focus the whole shot?
6) Quality sound
7) Can I record an answer to who, what, when or where?
8) Can I record a good reaction from someone?
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Video Editing:

"Where I think the most work needs to be done is behind the camera, not in front of it." - Denzel Washington

19. A good start: Capturing and placing all video recordings of the project on (editing) time-line, in order they were recorded. A next step could be to add quality audio recordings that need to be matched up with poor audio. The clips can then be grouped (mended, locked) with each other to avoid slipping (timing issues) of the sound caused from dragging (moving) clips.

When the audience is one minute into watching the video, they should basically know what it is about. This should help them comprehend.
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20. When editing, most frame shots should be kept to under 9 seconds, to keep video alive.

It is ok to extend frame shots to 30 seconds when subject is talking.
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21. Smooth transitions between clips:

Continuous action scenes should mostly use no transition type. This is a straight cut (no fades) with zero time between clips. The same thing that works for live sporting events on TV.

Jump cuts should be avoided. This is two clips next to each other that are mostly the same shot. This occurs mostly because the camera angle and zoom has not changed enough.

A cross-fade is overlapping the end of one clip with the beginning of another. This is done by dragging one onto the other in the editing time-line. Cross-fades are good for thoughtful or relaxing scenes. They can also be used in changes of location or time.

Matching shapes or movement that have the same location on screen between two clips, then using a long cross-fade is a one of the best transition techniques. The camera operator should knowingly record these shapes or movements.

Fade-to-black transitions can be used to let viewers know the clips were recorded at different times. Example: Two clips that have a gap of 24 hours between them could have a fade-out, short (in time) black space, then fade-in.

Wipe transitions can be used to let viewers know the clips were recorded at different locations.
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22. Background music can be used to help reduce undesirable sounds in video.

Instrumental (no words) songs can be purchase at Amazon.com for under $1.30. I do a search using keywords of the video's theme + "instrumental" or "background."
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23. When deciding on what clips to show, a good approach is use shots that help achieve the goal of the video.

To mask over bad image shots but still use the recorded sound, high quality photos relevant to the subject will work. Important low quality photos can be used but at a minimal show time.
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24. Things that help answer who, what, when and where: A big title slide at beginning stating name of the video, maps, and words at bottom of clips that answer these questions.
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25. Reviewing the first final edit with a mature person will help. Seeking and finding their points-of-view will help make things easier.

I use about 98% of editing suggestions from others. Sometimes, I do not understand why the edit is needed. I just do it.