Video is here
I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to be blogging very much, but realized that the move provided a good opportunity for me to play around with the FLIP camera I have on loan. The video above shows our car being loaded on the truck to go to California.
I used the annotations feature in YouTube to point out places in my shoot that I could improve. I would really appreciate your shooting tips .. leave them in the comments.
OK:
To steady your hand you can put one hand under the elbow of the arm with the camera. I think a bit of wobble is fine if you're walking - this is rough 'n ready stuff - and flip's don't really have enough heft to them to be wobble free. However there's a couple of things you can do.
1 Don't walk, swivel your body to pan.
2 Dont pan at all. If you're going to edit it is really good to let things leave the frame, because hat give you a natural edit point. To do that you sometimes need to get closer.
On the subject of closer, do you remember the interview tips, shoot wide and then shoot the same thing close, that way you can easily shorten by cutting from the wide to the close and back again.
Close wold also be good here - it makes things a bit more interesting. When the car is being driven onto the trailer you might want a wide and then step in quickly and get a really close shot of the car as it moves across frame. If you make those moves quickly and with confidence then you might not even need to edit.
I think it's best not to use the zoom. I would generally recommend just get in closer!
One last thing. I have been using the HD flips for social reporting, now I'm gonna use a standard defintion flip. The files are smaller so uploading is faster and once it's seen on a typical youtube embed there's little difference in quality.
Well that's a start. California is a long way a way you know! Good luck.
Posted by: Nick Booth | June 27, 2009 at 04:19 AM
Seeing little moments from your whole trip will really make this series good. The "car loaded onto truck" will just be one piece of the larger story. With that flip camera, you can take us along. Are you driving to CA with all your stuff?
Anyway...congrats on the big move. I know it couldn't have been easy juggling all the details big and small.
Posted by: jay dedman | June 28, 2009 at 08:13 AM
No constructive comment here, but I love that you have a Honda Fit! Just finished the first 2,000 miles on mine and I love it!
Posted by: Marc | June 29, 2009 at 10:50 AM
Cool. I'm 20+ days late to comment but I adore all that you've done here. Really does like Jay says "include us" in the move. I adore connecting with others' lives even that much more. Video so lets us.
COOL! too that you have a Fit. I'm desiring trading my Element in for one...don't need the size of the Element anymore.
I didn't feel bothered by the movement. Nick's suggestions are very helpful (thanks Nick!). Okay. onto the next. (I am kinda glad I didn't comment on day of. When I said bye bye car see you in 5 days, it was more like 4 months. kid you not. my car was lost in my move from CA to Boston). Finally got it tho. Hope you have yours now.
Posted by: Tresha Thorsen | July 17, 2009 at 12:17 AM