With a story and professional setup ready, you’re now on target to get filming (catch up with this series by reading part 1 and 2). Now I want to look at the technical stuff – again, these are all important to getting your story across, and getting them right the first time will save you a lot of trouble further down the road.
If audio dialogue is important, then seriously consider an external mic – we’ve all watched videos with so-so audio quality, and they’re typically a chore to get through. Don’t let your audio make this cardinal sin and use a Rode SmartLav+ or a Mighty Mic to record quality audio that everyone will love.
On a similar note, digital zoom is a great invention – for personal videos. In pro videos, you’re just asking for blur in a world that wants pixel-perfect perfection. If you have zoom shots planned, think about what you can do to achieve the affect in another way, such as a cut scene.
You’ll also want to focus on your lighting, especially if your video is indoors. Don’t rely on auto exposure, as this can give your video slow adjustments which are distracting for the viewer. Ultimately, manual exposure with good lighting is the only way to go here, and thankfully, there are a lot of great online tutorials to help you master this dark and light art!
Finally, you’re ready to shoot – just remember that horizonal is best as 99% of social media platforms leverage this style of presentation. Shooting vertically gets you black bars, which mar the quality of the overall presentation.
Making a video can seem like a difficult undertaking, and it does take time to master each of these elements. However, once you have, you’ll soon be shooting like a pro: just remember, practice makes perfect, and you can always hire someone to help you!