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Erin’s Cliff Notes on Video Best Practices for Equine Brands and Media Compiled by Erin Hsu “It’s all about telling a story. High tech and super quality are secondary.” Scott Moore

• iMovie (standard on Macbook) Basics • Molavi Camera Compressing • You can product great video without a • Social media wants HD compressed. full setup. DSLR chips and lenses can 720 p is a good size for most uses. give great depth of field. GoPro is great • Good programs have ability to compress for moving and wide shots. files to an appropriate social media size. • If using a cell phone, a microphone Adobe has Encoder. Mac has attachment is key to getting good Compressor. TMPG is a paid option that quality. Use the kind that plugs in works well. directly. Horizontal orientation is • Free options: Handbrake, VLC, or Mpeg CRUCIAL. Use a tripod, even with a StreamClip phone, and also look into handheld gimbals for moving shots. • Movi is a new option– camera mounted on a stick with stabilizer embedded. Can The Shoot plug in mic. Good little setup and can do • Pre-interview is a good idea. Careful a lot. selection of location is also key. Do the Editing Software interview with a vet at the clinic rather than in a meeting room. This will give a Robust editing options; higher cost lot of opportunity to grab B-roll and • understand the real story. • Premiere Pro • Alternate between tight, medium, and • Filmora Wondershare (can also wide shots. compress and burn DVDs) • “You can fix that in post.” NO. Don’t ever • assume that’ll work. Get it right during the shoot. Extra important for audio. Good free options Have the subject pause until the plane • Avid First has all the passes. Ask the guy to stop pressure basic functions washing for 5 minutes. Change the • DaVinci Resolve situation. It’s annoying, but worth it. PAGE 2

• Aim for good sound, steady shots, and Audio can generally see what the action is. • Azden and Rhode Wireless Go are People are more forgiving about the recommended options. On a DSLR the visuals if sound is good. flash “hot shoe” on top can also take an • Get a variety of shots. Build b-roll library. audio receiver, plugs right into camera Always get a wide shot establishing the body for use with wireless mic. setting – outside of the building, sign • If picking up too much background out front. Also get the medium and tight noise, position the mic closer to shots. You’ll end up using them all. subject’s face. Can also reduce the • If you truly can’t use a tripod to be recording level and/or put a wind screen steady, make the motion purposeful. on it. If you hide mic within the Moving shots, pan the room, etc. The speaker’s shirt (just the clip visible) it’ll wider you shoot, the more you can get cut down on background sound. away with this. • Use earbuds or headphones to confirm • Always put depth into a shot. Place the levels and audio. interviewee away from background. Give • Instead of trying to capture audio of a it some scale. Don’t stand them against panel discussion or group, consider a wall; have them step forward 10 feet. doing individual interviews with each • Shooting action - When all else fails and panelist afterward. Can sometimes also you lose control of your focus, zoom record directly from the PA system in out. Go wide. the room to gather all. • Use drone footage in small doses. Okay to establish location, but then get onto Lighting the story. Best drone shots are 10-ft and • less (which can be difficult with horses). Cameras like light. Use natural light • If you shoot in 4k, you can crop in to when possible. Ask subject to come create a zoom effect. At 1080p you can stand by the window. Additional lighting crop a little in post, but it’ll be a bit fills in the shadows to bring up the level digitized. Instead, try to move the overall. • camera closer to the action during the For lighting in indoor arenas, set the ISO shoot. manually on DSLR. It’ll be either too dark • Interview—get the boring background or too grainy. Find the in between you on audio “can you tell us where we are can live with. • today.” You want to get the subject to Halogen lights work great, are super commentate the video. It’s ok to bright, but also get super hot so you rephrase the question. Be nice and look can’t pack up immediately to move perplexed and ask them to explain shoot, etc. These can be used to bounce what’s going on. off a wall. Only point a light straight at a person if it’s diffused with an umbrella or a gel or placed really far away. PAGE 3

• White balance – use a gray card or white • When starting from or fading to black, balance to establish the settings on the 16 to 19 frames is a good amount of camera so it recognizes what “white” is. transition. Redo this in each set of conditions. Recommended editing resources: Zoom into white object, then crank your exposure down. Zoom back out to shoot • Audacity – good program for audio interview. (When shooting on auto editing/enhancement. Open source. mode this isn’t strictly necessary—but Free. Can easily remove things like air won’t hurt.) Don’t think you’ll be able to conditioning hum. fix the tone on computer in post. • After effects and intro graphics—use • Outdoors ALWAYS try to put the subject Fiverr! Sometimes takes a couple tries, in the shade to even the lighting. Use a still worth it. reflective bounce if needed to fill • Pond5 – resource for b-roll footage. shadows. Move the subject to control • YouTube has great royalty-free music the environment. that can be used in videos offering with attribution and non-attribution options

that will not get flagged. Go to Video manager > Other features > Audio Post Production library. “Country Western” has a lot of Editing low-key instrumental stuff that’s good for outdoors/animal stuff. “Hardcore” • Go in with a plan, but realize it’s never has a lot of dangerous/dramatic options. going to work that way at the shoot. Roll Also has library. with it. • Transcribe all interviews to help editing Storytelling and see how to make it fit together. • Content is more important than the • Key editing point – keep each clip lighting or audio quality. Make the SHORT. Don’t linger. More cuts are conditions work and focus on the story. better. Get the good story and the quality • Transitioning between music and natural doesn’t really matter. sound is like starting a new paragraph. • Having a character is key to telling a There should be an audio cue that the story. Find the storytellers. Show topic is changing. announcers, etc. • Let things move into the frame. • Ask the question in such a way that the People/horses move in to create speaker tells a story. Avoid a yes/no transition. setup. Think ahead and ask the question • Average 6-minute story uses around 185 you need to fill in the potential gaps in of b-roll. That’s why you want to the interview. shoot everything, from every angle, • At conclusion, consider a call to action. wide/med/tight framing. You’ll use it. How should we wrap the story? What’s PAGE 4

the closing statement? What should the • Keep master file called “best of” viewer do with the information or story? separate in a folder. Color code on the file list and have a paper copy (dog Live streaming biting foot is on Drive H, X shoot, • You need an encoder (a device that minute xx:xx) in a flipbook. streams directly form the camera) if not

using phone. Ultrastudio Mini Recorder made by Black Magic Design. Converts video into laptop – like webcam. Recap • Program to allow it to stream is Wirecast Recommended Resources Studio—or there’s a free version called • OBS (open broadcast software). You can National press photographers specify where output goes—Facebook, association organizes seminars. • etc. Can login to Facebook through it, Central Kentucky library system has Final can select which Page you stream to. Cut Pro and other Mac software • Atim Mini – switcher, can plug in available in the computer labs and they multiple cameras and HDMI out to offer free classes. laptop and switch on the fly. Take-Home Messages • Livestream is 10:1 number of views— • gets a huge audience. Fix it in the field. Set up and manage • If using a phone, TURN IT HORIZONTAL. your shoot to minimize needed post- production. Archiving • When you get the voice that says, “I • Archive b-roll on external hard drives. should get this shot or ask that Drives have raw footage. Files are question,” but you’re tired or don’t want named by event. Project: import from to get the tripod out again, just do it there. Can later pull the b-roll out of the anyway. Because that will be the piece project or the original for other projects. you need. • • Suggest each client have their own Shoot wide, medium, tight. Find the external drive. Then they have a record light. Be steady; use a tripod. Get good of all their footage, it’s theirs if they audio. Next step is composition. Fill the move, etc. frame. Look for interesting angles, • Clips are named by project. Raw is the depth, reflections. That’s what will set bigger file by event. Keep journal of clips you apart. • and dates to cross-reference. Steady shots, good audio, vary your shots, use a light. Don’t zoom, just get closer. “If you know everything about what I’m shooting, I want to entertain you. If you don’t know anything about it, I want to educate you.” Scott Moore