Camera-Ready video tips are yours for the taking here at this edition of Bullhorn Media Blog. In a way, this blog is our early Thanksgiving gift to you, our readers and friends. Just in time for the holidays, we are helping you to prepare in advance for creating your own holiday videos.

You Don’t Need a Pro-Video Rig to Get the Right Moves. Use Our Camera Ready Video Tips.

Just because we are professional filmmakers does not mean we don’t enjoy making our own favorite memories with video, just like you do. So we thought you might like a quick review of some pro tips. These camera-ready pro-video tips will help you be camera-ready when those special holiday moments happen.

Likewise, we live in an area that is jam-packed with upcoming special holiday events. There are many great happenings in the communities around Orlando. And all of them are worthy of dusting off your real camera. Likewise, you can at least play amateur paparazzi with your smartphone video function.  But first……

Let’s take a quick look at the upcoming schedule at the Orange County Convention Center reveals a galaxy of holiday shows and excitement, public and private, for your enjoyment with family and friends.

Get Camera Ready for Orange County Convention Center Events

Yes, we have created a few tip blogs previously for your video and still camera, so consider our blogs a resource for your camera hobby and memory-making skills. But first, let’s look at some local events that are bringing out the best in both pro and amateur video makers.

If you and your family attend any of these and other special holiday events, then your own video magic can enhance and enrich your experience.  (Give us a wave, by the way, if you run into us as we create professional imagery and films for these or other fantastic Orlando events.)

Our Camera-Ready-Tips:  A Quick Video Guide:  Moving Camera Fun

We’re Sending You Holiday Camera Ready Tips Now, So You Will Have Time to Practice Shooting the Best Holiday Video Memories Yet.

As our videographers at Bullhorn Media watch families take video, one thing sticks out like a sore thumb in most scenarios.  The person taking the video stands carefully still and holds the camera still while friends and family act within the moment.  The problem is that our happy camera amateurs are not taking advantage of the camera’s ability to capture movement. You don’t have to be a pro to take advantage of a few tips. A little basic knowledge of camera-ready movement will help you create memory videos you and your family will love.

Get Ready to Move It!

Experts tell us “Beginning to learn to shoot video, whether for a hobby or a budding business, requires some knowledge of the basic moves that define good video.”

 If you are just capturing a frame of your folks waving at the camera with their event in the background, you are missing the best storytelling tool in video:  movement.  Now, this Bullhorn Media Blog is full of video tips about camera movement. Below we will show you how to create more excitement in your videos just by moving your camera properly.  Whether you are using your phone for a consumer video camera or a full-blown professional rig, these little moves will help you get more enjoyment from your video creation.

A Primer of Camera-Ready Moves for You

Let’s get you camera-ready for your holiday video creations. First and foremost, know that your video camera exists in a three-dimensional world.

To tell your visual story, it can move:

  • Up, down, left, and right,
  • It also moves forward and backward.

A few technical terms won’t hurt you as a camera operator. Also, knowing them will help you enjoy this great pastime. So this segment of our Video Hints for you includes a few basic moves we use in every video and film production at Bullhorn Media. These Camera-Ready, camera moves will make you feel like a pro with just a little practice.

Introducing the Tilt

The tilt means you are moving the camera’s lens from an up to down or down to up position, “while keeping the camera on its horizontal axis in one spot. The best way to explain this action is to slowly nod your head up or down. That is a tilt.

  • Reasons Behind the Tilt: This will get you from low to high or high to low.  It helps you introduce 2 things into the frame, but not quite at the same time.  For example, you might begin with a view of the Thanksgiving Turkey and raise up (or tilt-up, as we say) to Dad’s hands with the carving knives and his big smile as he slices.

Introducing the Pan: 

Zooming is a Wonderful Camera-Ready Tool, But Use It Sparingly.

Tilt and Zoom Your Way into More Beautiful Memories.

Okay, we know most people know this popular term. But it’s still fun to review it.  When you pan, you point the camera lens to one side or the other. Again, an example is to turn your head and look slowly left or right.  You just panned.  When filming, be careful not to pan too fast or too much, by the way.

  • Reasons Behind the Pan: You could pan around the group at that Thanksgiving Table or the group around the Christmas tree, showing all the folks present on your holiday.
  • At your child’s holiday play, you might pan from the center of the stage to the character who walks into the setting. This gives them a grander entrance than just a still and steady, non-moving wide-angle shot.

Say Hello to the Zoom

Zooming means changing the focal length of the lens. This has the effect of making the subject “appear closer or further away in the frame.”

Reasons Behind the Zoom

We must caution you about zooming. It is the most overused camera movement. So use it with care.

  • By definition, “Zooming “in” or “out” is the easiest way to get from far to close or the other way around.” For example, you might start with a wide shot of your child’s Thanksgiving play. That sets the stage. Then gradually, you can zoom in and capture a closer, better view of your child talking to one of the main characters.

Welcome to the Pedestal:

Different from the tilt, described above, the Pedestal shot moves the entire camera, not just the lens.

  • You move the entire camera up or down. You don’t change the vertical or horizontal axis.
  • “Pedestal up means “move the camera up.” Obviously, then you know, “Pedestal down means “move the camera down.”
  • Remember, you do not tilt the lens up. But you are moving the entire camera up. For example, if your camera is on a tripod, you can raise or lower the tripod head.

Reasons Behind the Pedestal Move: 

When pedestaling, you usually want to maintain the camera to subject distance. So you might start on two people kissing up against a wall, and, then pedestal up, and up, and up, and up until the camera gets to the sparkling, magical bunch of mistletoe, the cause of the encounter.

Terrific Take-Aways

Will You Tilt or Pedestal For the Kiss? Know Our Secret Moves for Video.

Now you have reviewed some of the major moves you can accomplish with any video camera for any event or project.  Of course, we have more moves stashed in our camera toolkit for a subsequent blog. But these will give you a great start.  Just try not to get stuck in the boring effects of a steady frozen frame technique.

It is important to have fun with your video, and remember, it’s all about moving pictures, not just pictures.  Happy Holiday Video Planning and Dreaming as we approach Thanksgiving and Christmas!  We wish you “Happy Shooting!”