Hand Held Camera
Techniques
THANK YOU
DON GOBLE
ST. LOUIS, MO
Before I start talking about hand held techniques, please remember that you should
ABSOLUTELY USE A TRIPOD FOR EVERY SHOT POSSIBLE!
Do not get lazy and decide you can get a steady shot without the tripod. YOU CAN’T!
Don’t even try! If you watch professionals in the field, they always have their tripod
nearby and use it for 98% of their shots.
When considering hand held camera shots, I use what I call positions 1-5.
In Position 1, the camera would be held over your head, with your viewfinder tilted down
so you can see your shot.
Position 2, is the traditional position on the shoulder
In Position 3, you cradle the camera like a football and hold it about waist high.
In Position 4 you hold the camera with your arm straight down, letting it hang about
knee high. This is one position you can use if you walk with the camera while
videotaping.
In Position 5, the camera is placed on the ground.
It’s important to instruct your students to capture video with a variety of camera
positions to add interest to your video products. 95% of all high school stories that I
have seen have only used 1 camera position.
Remember that it is usually better to be close to a subject and be zoomed out rather
than being far away and zoomed in. Why? You will get much better natural sound on
your camera microphone this way. Natural sound, by the way, is a powerful tool in your
stories and other video projects, so pay attention that you are getting good sound levels
into your camera.
Anytime you get a shot on a video camera there is an area that is in focus and out of
focus. For example, if you get a waist up shot of your friend who is about 20 feet away
from you, there will be about a 15 foot area in front of your friend that is out of focus and
there is also an area behind your friend, maybe starting about 30 feet away that will be
out of focus. By manipulating various factors you can create a narrow or wide depth of
field. In a narrow depth of field the area of focus is small, and in the wide depth of field
there is a large area that is in focus.
There are complete books written on this subject, but for this discussion I’m only going
to offer this advice to make your student productions look more professional.
When your students want to do an interview and have the background out of focus, they
should create distance between the camera and the subject and also create distance
between the subject and the background. The more you zoom in on your subject, the
more the background will be out of focus.
Let’s say you are in a classroom full of kids and you are doing a story on one of them
who has won an award. After you get all the usual shots, get as far away from the
student as possible and zoom in and you will see that the other students in the
background are now out of focus. This draws our attention to the award winning
student, which is what we want.
Besides the five angles listed above you want to make sure that your students get a
wide variety of wide shots, medium shots, close-ups and extreme close-ups of whatever
event they are covering. Close-ups and extreme close ups are very important because
television is a “close-up” medium.
I ask my kids, “Where’s WALDO?” WALDO stands for Wide, Angled, Linking, Depth,
and Opposites.
W: (Wide) I can’t tell you how many times my kids have come back from a story without
a wide, establishing shot. It’s an absolute must for any story or project. Have them do a
few pans of varying speeds. Videotape is cheap! Always get more footage than you
would ever possibly need!
A: (Angles) I listed angles 1-5 above but there are literally hundreds of various angles
that kids can use. A large variety of angles in your shots are important. Also have them
think about the best angle to shoot objects. For example if you are shooting someone’s
house, try shooting it in other ways besides straight on, this can create interesting
“vectors” and keep the shot from being flat and boring.
L: (Linking) A linking shot is simply panning or transitioning from one shot to another.
For example, if you were videotaping a librarian, you could tilt down from her face to a
book. Then later you would have the option of saying as a voiceover “Judy Smith has
made books the focus of her life.”
D: (Depth) I talked about depth earlier but here is another idea. Look for an object that
you can put in the foreground of your shots to create interest and depth. If you are
shooting that house, put the camera by a tree, and put a tree branch in the foreground
to add depth or interest.
O: (Opposite) Always look for the other side of the action. If the story is about the
teacher, be sure to get her students, too. If you are covering a play, be sure to shoot the
audience. Teach your students to think action/reaction. Get the video of the touchdown
scoring, but be sure to get the fans going wild and the cheering players on the sidelines,
too.
Have your students watch professional news and feature stories, plus go to the movies
to watch for other creative hand held camera techniques.