Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
GAIL BLOCK:
I think when people are new to camera work, they just go out and they take one shot that's quite a wide shot. But one of the key ways of making your work look really professional is to get up close to the thing that you're filming. And also film lots of different shots of the same thing.
A lot of young people like to film each other presenting. And the best way of getting a good presentation is to rehearse first. You might want to rehearse what camera angle you want. And I'm sure the presenter will want to rehearse their words so that they're really confident.
When you're filming an interview, what the professionals do is that they film the interviewee, but then they may well also film the interviewer asking the questions. That makes it easier to edit.
A lot of visual variety will make a better film, so why not do some drawing? You might want to draw maps, you might want to draw charts. If you have somebody artistic in the team, you could draw people and costumes. Challenge your young people to go out and film shots that will take different roles in the final film.
Landscapes can be really useful to give context to your argument. We call those establishing shots.
Small details like little street signs or works of art can really push forward the argument. Moving shots can give more of a sense of geography, can take us from one part of the argument to another, and can give a sense of dynamism to the final film.
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Give the edit as much time as you can afford to. Given the realities that there's not going to be as much time as professionals have, it's a really good idea to start off by concentrating on the story as a soundtrack. And then, if there's enough time, you can layer over the visuals. And if there's even more time you can add captions and even music.