Parc Entertainment - A Video Production Company - Birmingham, AL

We all take pride in the work we do, but our self-confidence can be shaken in a heartbeat when someone responds negatively to a project that we’ve devoted so much time and attention to. The creative world is a subjective one. Someone might look at a video and deem it a masterpiece. Someone else might look at the same video and ridicule it. Criticism hurts, but its affect on our future work can be either positive or negative, depending on how we respond.

• Some clients will always be deconstructive. There might be some clients out there who will never be happy, regardless of what you present to them. If you find that a client is constantly tearing your work apart, without offering any suggestions for improvement, it might be time to end the relationship. Perhaps there is a personality conflict. Perhaps your style doesn’t mesh with their vision. Whatever the reason, it might be time to refer them to someone else.
• Criticism can help you improve. Some clients genuinely want to offer up their opinions to help you create the best work possible. Early in my career I had a client that took a chance on me. He saw my potential and hired me. I was excited to work on the project, but when I submitted a rough cut, I received a call from my client who said he hated it. I instantly felt sick to my stomach. The following weeks were difficult for me as I tried re-cut after re-cut. He responded to each version with a long list of changes. Although the project was frustrating and stressful, I can confidently say that the client helped me improve the quality of my work. Today, my clients are incredibly pleased with the videos I deliver.

Receiving criticism is never fun, regardless of the spirit in which it is given. But we need to use criticism in a positive way. Let it motivate you to view your own work from a different perspective. Let it encourage you to try new things. Let it challenge you to better yourself.

I talk with many prospective clients who express interest in producing a video for their business. When all the discussions are over it’s time to sit down, fill out my budget, and submit the proposal to my contact. The cost of a video production is affected by several factors and so the budgeting process must be thought out very carefully. Otherwise, it can be easy to overlook certain items.

I have created a spreadsheet that itemizes just about everything that one could possibly have on a shoot. Those items are divided into categories for easy reference (Creative Fees, Crew, Per Diems, Travel, Editing Fees, etc.) One column lists my estimated costs and another column lists my actual costs. That way, at the end of the shoot I can compare both columns to see how accurate my original estimate was.

The main thing to do when budgeting a video shoot is to prioritize. In part one of this two-part series, I want to cover what I believe are your top priorities when creating a budget. In part two, I will go over those items in the bid that can easily be overlooked. Here are my suggestions:

Estimate Your Time

Start with yourself. Think about the amount of time that you will spend on this video project. Obviously you want to include the amount of time in production , but you never want to neglect the time you invest in the pre-production and post-production stages. Pre-Production includes conceptualization and scripting, scheduling the shoot, meeting with the client, scouting, meeting with the talent, and meeting with your crew. You’ll spend more time in pre-production than you might think, so budget accordingly. Post-production not only includes the time to edit, but it also includes your time to record the voice-over, meet with the client to go over the edit and make necessary changes. I always like to pad my post-production budget to account for revisions the client might ask for.

Estimate For Your Crew

After you ensure that your time is reflected in the budget, you want to allocate monies for your crew. Surround yourself with quality people and the entire project will turn out much better. Think about how many people you will need and how many days you will need them.

• If you aren’t as confident in your skills behind the camera, consider hiring a DP to handle the technical aspects of lighting, framing, etc.
• If you aren’t as confident in your abilities to manage the project and handle all the logistics of a production, consider hiring a producer.
• If you have on-camera talent, you might consider hiring a hair/make-up artist.

Aside from actual shooting days, will you need the crew to come in early for a tech scout? If so, make sure they are paid for their time. And don’t forget your post-production crew.

• Will you need an assistant editor to help you with the final cut?
• How about an audio engineer/mixer to record the voice-over?
• Will you need to hire a graphic designer to create a custom disc label and DVD warp-around?
• Will you need to hire a composer to write a custom music track?

Estimate Your Equipment

This is where you need to factor in the costs of any equipment rentals your shoot may require. Budgeting for a dolly or a camera jib will really increase the overall production quality of your video. In this category you also want to factor in the cost of your media:

• tape stock or solid state media cards
• hard drives
• blank DVDs (for when you need to send your client copies of the video for review)

Check back in on Monday, August 10 for part two on how to create a video production budget.

SMPTE color bars

Color bars are a necessary reference tool for anyone in video production. They help technical directors, camera operators, and editors calibrate their equipment to ensure accurate color representation and consistency across cameras and monitors. Knowing how to use them is important. A few years ago, I found a great tutorial at Video University on how to adjust your video monitor using color bars. Be sure to bookmark the article for future reference.

1. Allow the monitor to warm up for a few minutes
2. Dim the room lights and block any reflections on the monitor
3. Feed color bars to the monitor either from a camera or “house bars”from your editing system
4. Set the contrast also called “picture” to its midpoint
5. Turn the chroma also called “color” all the way down until the color bars
   are shades of black and white

Next, you will need to adjust the brightness and the contrast of the image by using the three narrow bars at the bottom right.

Brightness

Notice the three narrow bars labeled 3.5, 7.5 and 11.5 on the bottom right. Adjust the brightness control until the middle (7.5 units) pluge bar is not quite visible. The lightest bar on the right (11.5 units) should be barely visible. If it’s not visible, turn the brightness up until it becomes visible.

Since 7.5 units is as dark as video gets, you should not see any difference between the left bar (3.5 units) and the middle bar (7.5 units). There should be no dividing line between these two bars. The only division you should see is between 11.5 and 7.5

Contrast

The next step is to set the contrast control for a proper white level. To do so, turn the contrast all the way up. The white (100 unit) bar will bloom and flare. Now turn the contrast down until this white bar just begins to respond.

Color

Adjust the hue of the monitor until the Yellow bar is a lemon yellow, with no shades of orange or green. Adjust the Magenta bar until you eliminate the red and the purple. If you aren’t confident in your ability to “eye-ball” these shades, consider the following:

Many professional monitors have a blue-only switch. If your monitor has one, switch it on. If your monitor does not have a blue-only switch, you can use a piece of blue lighting gel. Hold it to your eye like a viewing lens. If you see any of the red, green or yellow colors, double the blue gel over to increase the blue effect.

By using the blue-only switch or a piece of blue gel, you have removed the red and green elements of the picture. Only the blue remains. If the tint and color (also called “hue”) are correct, you should see alternating bars of equal intensity.

1. With the blue switch on (or your blue gel in front of your eye) turn the chroma or color until the grey bar at the far left and the blue bar at the far right are of equal brightness. One trick is to match either the gray or blue bar with its sub-bar.
2. Adjust the hue control until the cyan and magenta bars are also of equal brightness.
3. You can also match either of them with their sub-bars. Now the four bars - gray, blue, cyan, and magenta should be of equal intensity. The yellow, green and red (which are black in the diagram) should be completely black.

You should now have a properly adjusted video monitor. However, if flesh tones don’t look right, you may need to make further adjustments to the chroma and hue.

Many of our video projects are shot on location, but every so often we have an opportunity to so some green screen work for a client. Shooting a subject against a green screen will allow the video editor to remove the green background and replace it with another of his or her choosing. Green screens are used every day on the evening news when the weatherman delivers the forecast.

Working with a green screen can be tricky, because if not done correctly, you will have nightmares in post production as you try to key out the screen and insert your own background. My recommendation is to shoot some practice footage first before you start work with your client.  Here are a few things I’ve learned from my experiences:

1. The green screen should have no wrinkles or folds. Any imperfections across the surface of the green screen will result in shadows and hard lines that will be difficult to key out in post.
2. The green screen should be evenly lit. There should be no shadows and no fall off. The light should be soft and diffused. A light meter will help ensure accuracy.
3. Create distance between the subject and the green screen. Any light reflecting off the green screen and onto the subject should be eliminated. If not, your subject’s edges will have a green glow when the screen is keyed out. Move your subject as far away from the screen as possible. Then use flags to block any reflected light coming from the screen.
4. Shoot on a format with the highest-rated color space possible. MiniDV has a color space of 4:1:1. You can use it for green screen work, but it isn’t the best option. Just be aware that there will be some challenges in keying with MiniDV footage. The edges on your subject won’t be perfectly clean. However, if your video is intended only for the web, MiniDV will work for you. Consider this video we produced. It was shot on MiniDV and the client was satisfied with the green screen work. Formats like DVCPro and DVCProHD have a color space of 4:2:2, making them better for keying.

Learning the proper video production techniques takes practice. There’s always something new to learn and the more time you spend shooting and editing, the better your craft will be.

In a post last week I discussed how camera operators should always properly prep and label tapes in an effort to make post-production a more efficient process. In today’s discussion I want to mention how patient camera work is vital to an editor.

Ideally, any director of photographer would love to have control over the location - lighting, grip, camera movements, etc. but by nature, some projects are suited for a documentary approach. This means that you have to capture the action as it happens, and often you get no second chances. Some cinematographers thrive on this run-and-gun approach, but others feel stressed by the environment, worried that they will miss something vital. Those that feel a bit panicky will often shoot footage that never seems to settle. This is a nightmare for editors, because they never have a really nice steady shot to work with.

So, the word of the day for aspiring cinematographers and camera operators is “patience.” Once you frame up a shot and get your focus, let the shot linger. Give the editor plenty of pre-roll and post-roll that can be used in the final piece. Even if some loud commotion from behind startles you, don’t be too quick to whip the camera over to see what’s going on. Get your shot first, then pan over to capture the other scene. If you spend your day constantly whipping the camera around from shot to shot, you won’t capture anything meaningful for the editor. As a documentarian, there will be things you miss. It’s inevitable. But sometimes, choosing not to shoot something leads to capturing a truly remarkable moment in places you least expect.

It can be incredibly monotonous to sort through raw footage, especially if the director of photography has failed to properly prep and label the tapes. Imagine sitting at your work station trying to organize footage that has broken time code, mismatched labels (or worse yet, no labels at all), or labels with incredbily vague information (like “Tape 1.”) Any good cinematographer should always think of the editor when prepping for a shoot. It will make post-production a much more efficient process. Here are some important tips to remember:

1. Pack Each Tape - When you unwrap a brand new tape, fast-forward all the way to the end, then rewind all the way to the beginning. This method of “packing” the tape is much like an athlete stretching before an event. It will help prevent drop-out and digital artifacting.
2. Stripe Each Tape - Pop the tape into the camera and roll about 15-30 seconds of color bars and 1KHz audio tone. This will help the editor calibrate his/her equipment before capturing the footage.
3. Label Each Tape - It’s amazing how often people simply forget to label the tape, or they neglect to put enough information on the label. Always label both the case and the tape itself. On the label I like to write the client’s name, the project name (and a project number, if applicable), the date, and the tape number.
4. Preset the Timecode - Set the “hours” mark of your timecode to correspond with the tape number. Tape #1 should be, “1:00:00:00,” Tape #2 should be, “2:00:00:00,” and so on. That way, when the editor is looking at the footage in studio, he/she can tell instantly from which tape a particular scene came. Also, if someone ignores tip #3, an editor will know instantly what number tape he/she has in the deck.

Video Production is a collaborative process and a professional courtesy is always appreciated.

Editors are happy when they have plenty of footage to work with in post-production. Shooting multiple angles of a particular scene is called coverage, and whether you are producing your own film, or shooting a long-format marketing video, getting good coverage has many benefits:

1. Flexibility - Ample amounts of raw footage gives your editor many options for structuring the story.
2. Variety - Staring at the same shot for too long can bore some viewers. You want your video or film project to engage and entertain and the right amount of coverage will offer fresh perspectives to your audience.
3. Control - In your narrative film project, your main character picks up the newspaper and stares in horror at the headline. The information in the article is a vital part of your plot. So, did you remember to get a cutaway shot of the headline? Shooting the right amount of coverage gives you control over the story. It allows you to direct your audience’s attention to what you want them to see or to understand.

Here are some things to keep in mind about shooting coverage:

1. Scout - Go to the location where you will be filming. Look around. Start blocking the scene. Figure out where you would like to place your camera. How many set-ups will you need? Once you have done your initial scout, make some time closer to the shooting date when you can conduct a tech scout. This is when you and your production team do a final walk-through of the location to discuss each set-up.
2. Utilize Set-Ups - Consider how you can combine multiple coverage shots with one camera set up. For example, if the camera has been set up for a wide dolly shot, can you keep the camera where it is and shoot a lock-down close up as well? How about a pick-up shot of that file folder in your actor’s hand? Can you raise the camera up more on the tripod and get a high-angle establishing shot? Combining coverage shots into one set up will save a lot of time.
3. Start Wide & Work In - It’s always a good idea to get the establishing shots first. Then you can push in and reset the camera for your close-ups and cutaways. That way, if your day runs too long and you lose the location, you will at least have establishing shots in the can. Imagine losing the location and all you have are extreme close-ups and cutaways. The viewer will be disoriented and won’t know the location, the characters in the scene, the time of day, etc.

Taking the time to prepare by scouting and creating a detailed shot list will ensure that you get the coverage you need for each scene. That will make you editor very happy. And it will give you a much better product.

If you work in a company or non-profit with a proud history, there will come  a time when a committee will be organized to plan an event that coincides with  an important milestone. The event will feature all the usual fanfare, including a brief video that documents the history of the company or non-profit.

During one committee meeting, the chairperson will turn to you with a stack of tapes and DVDs, place them in front of you, and say, “Here’s some footage and still images from the past 50 years. I’m putting you in charge of getting this video edited.”

This can an overwhelming task, considering the amount of raw footage you have to work with. And the costs of post-production can get out of hand quick if you aren’t careful. So how can you keep your costs down and come out the other side with a polished product?

1. Don’t Procrastinate - This is the first mistake that many people make and it results from the belief that any video can be assembled at the last minute. Start talking to production companies right away and give them your deadline. Look at our previous post for tips on production schedules. Remember that some production companies will charge more for rush jobs. If you are duplicating the final video, you want to give yourself at least two weeks so the duplication house can turn the job around in plenty of time.
2. Log the Footage Yourself - Sorting through a lot of raw footage is incredibly time consuming, but if you want to keep your costs low, you need to be the one to log all the footage. Create a spreadsheet listing each tape by its numerical designation. Then, when one scene starts, record the timecode. Record the timecode again when that scene ends. This log sheet will help your editor find shots quickly and efficiently. It’s also important to make a note next to those shots that definitely need to be included in the video.
3. Write the Script, If You Are Qualified - I’ve worked with many clients who have their own marketing department and by the time I’m hired, they have a script in place for their video. Having a script prepared will help you keep your costs low, but remember that the quality of your final video depends a lot on the quality of the script. If you have experienced marketing people in your company, then you might want to consider writing the script in-house. Otherwise, specify to your production company that you will need their writing services.
4. Stay Away From Copyrighted Material - Sometimes you might need additional footage in your video to compliment what you already have. If you are on a tight budget and a tight time table, it would be wise to stay away from copyrighted material. Securing licensing rights can be time-consuming and expensive. Use public domain footage as an alternative. You can also buy stock footage and stock photos at a decent price.

The last thing you need when you are volunteering your time to produce a video for a public event is an anxiety attack. So, take time to educate yourself on the production process and you can keep your costs and your stress level low.