MsKitka.com

Camera – Although I did not mention it in the previous part, I presume that you have already realized that you need a camera to film your video-podcast. Do yourself a favour and make sure you have a digital camera of some kind.

Kitkast uses a mere Canon PhotoShot SD200 (Digital Elph). Yes, you heard right. You don’t need a DV cam to make a video-podcast, but I hope that someday I will. The problem with the digital camera is that there is no place to plug in a microphone so the sound isn’t that great.

Positioning – This of the shots you time as a photograph, after all, movies were traditionally known as moving pictures. Try to remember what the focus of the shot is and make sure that it’s in the shot… no one likes those pictures where a person’s head is directly in the middle of the shot; the image is nicer when heads are closer to the top.

Since most amateur video-podcasters don’t have television monitors for the actors/news anchors to see themselves, it is helpful to take a picture of the shot before shooting the film. As someone who is slightly self-conscious wearing her underwear in front of the world, I always make sure that the shots are flattering before we waste space on our memory card to record. It would be nice if some day, Zod and I would have a list of great shots to use on Kitkast, but for now it’s still trial and error. Similarly, you should do some tests and determine what angles look best for your show.

Audio – Although audio is already included in the recording of the camera, you probably won’t like the quality. The best thing to do is to have a backup audio separate from the video or a microphone plugging directly into the camera.

When Kitkast first started out, audio was being recorded on the digital camera as well as on a U2 iPod. What we found, though, was that the audio from the iPod was horrible. The reason for this being that iPods have a sample rate of only 8 kHz. Apparently this feature hasn’t been improved much on the video-iPod. If you want to do yourself a favour, purchase a digital voice recorder or get a microphone to plug directly into your camera.

Silence – One of the challenges of filming is to ensure ‘quiet on the set’. Although not overly noticeable, there are times when background noises interfere with the filming of Kitkast.

Although it is forbidden in my apartment building to have pets, people still have them and they tend to cause a real ruckus when I’m trying to film. I’ve also had problems with the neighbors upstairs who are constantly renovating things and there are often ambulance, firefighting and police sirens blasting in my neighborhood (no I don’t live in the Bronx). The best thing to do is close all your windows, doors and cupboards to cut down on background noise. Even after trying to cut out uncontrollable sounds, it is also a good idea to turn off computers to try and cut out even the slightest hum that could disturb the audio.

If filming outside, make sure that the wind is under control. If you don’t have a special microphone to cut out the sound of the wind, make sure you are in a location that is calm. I filmed an interview with Violet from LiveCamNetwork and Mark Prince from 2Much only 20 feet away from each other, but the sound from Mark’s interview didn’t come out because we were too much in the open. I learnt my lesson for Violet’s interview and re-shot Mark’s interview a week later (this time in an echo-ey office!).

Lighting – How do those girls in the acne remedy commercials have such perfect skin? Lighting. If you flood enough light on your face, you can look like a million bucks. Take Celine Dion for example… instead of getting a nose job, she realized that if she flooded enough light on her face, her nose would look smaller.

Kitkast uses two lamps, but I wish we had more/brighter lamps because sometimes I see my nose casting a shadow on one side of my face! From my perspective, we usually have one lamp at 10 o’clock and one lamp at 2 o’clock. This balances both sides of my face as efficiently as possible without devoting too much money towards our budget (i.e. our own bank accounts). For a good tutorial on lighting, check out Steve Garfield’s lighting tips. Play around with the lighting and see what you can do… remember that shadows aren’t a bad thing; Alfred Hitchcock was a genius at manipulating shadows in his films.

If you’re filming outdoors, remember to film with the actor/actress’ face towards the sunlight… unless you’re trying to make someone look like Jesus, that is.

Props – Think about what you want to be in every shot.

Since I don’t really like the way my apartment is decorated right now, I try and limit the amount of background in the shot. The more you have in the background, the more it will look like clutter. Remember: less is more. If I could get a new apartment and decorate it to be Kitkast-friendly, I would make it spacious, bright and modern… something like the space station on 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Clothing – Props aren’t the only thing on video, try to dress (or undress) appropriately for the kind of show you are doing. Remember that if you wear an anti-Bush t-shirt, you will probably lose some pro-Bush fans…

Additionally, if you’re filming scantily clad - Kitkast style - make sure you have a blanket or a robe nearby between takes. I am often terribly cold on the set.

Hair & Makeup – I always find strippers more attractive when they have well-groomed hair. Similarly, if you have hair, you should always make sure that it is well-coiffed before appearing on film. It’s better to take care of it before filming than realizing what it looked like while editing…

Makeup is an optional addition, of course, but is helpful all the same (especially for women). If the lighting is good, you may not need makeup but sometimes it helps to outline/extenuate certain features in your face. Just remember what Oprah looks like on TV without her makeup and do what you can to make yourself presentable. Every detail counts.

Memorization – Depending on how much time you have to write, it’s important to try your best to memorize your script or talking points before stepping in front of the camera.

Since I haven’t quit my day job yet and I try my best to stay on top of sex news stories, the script is usually finished only a couple of hours before filming. I can only hope that someday I have more time to devote to memorization.

Helpful hints – Unlike me, not everyone took Film Production 101 in college. Go read a book about the process and watch your favorite shows/movies for inspiration. Since you may not have a lot of funds to devote to making your podcast look professional, try looking at old Hollywood classics for smart, inexpensive tricks.

Part 1: Creative Planning
Part 2: Technological Planning
Part 3: Filming
Part 4: Editing (Coming Soon)
Part 5: Marketing (Coming Soon)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Videoblogging, How To. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.