Try a Tripod

As part of this blog, I want to offer tips on shooting great video as a part of telling great stories. For much of that, I rely on my partner, Marcelo Zolessi. He shot local news for FOX and Univision affiliates before we started Convention News Television.

When I asked him for some tips, he told me 1) use a tripod and 2) don't forget the b-roll.

Here's what Marcelo says about tripods.

"When I first started shooting my news director told me to not bother coming back to the television station if I didn't shoot off the tripod. I thought he was being over dramatic but I soon realized that only the best and most experienced videographers deserve the honor of not using a tripod. One of the goals when capturing video is to do exactly that: "capture" the scene. A tripod helps you do that because it imitates the eye. If the viewer detects the images don't move the same way the human eye moves you've lost a significant part of the realism.

Most hollywood productions are done with expertly calibrated tripods because the idea is to emerge the viewer into the scene and the only way to do that is to operate the camera in the same fashion that the human eye operates. No zooms, and use a tripod."

This applies to professional videographers, and to all of us when we use our flip cameras and smart phones. Rest the camera on a steady surface, and don't move. Skip the zoom, and if you're serious about creating great video... invest in a tripod.