YouTube Day 5

This is Ben’s lesson plan

Objectives: Students will

  • Know the three parts of filming
  • Make a gear plan
  • Know difference between a-roll and b-roll
  • Film basic shots with a camera they have
  • Identify good and bad lighting in their space
  • record clear audio

Intro:

Hook: anyone can cook clip

Question of the day: what is a hobby that you love to do?

We will be talking about the three aspects of video today:

  • Does anyone remember, from the first day, what the three phases of video are (pre, production, post)
  • Today we are talking about the production side, we have already done a little production when we filmed ourselves earlier
  • The three parts of filming are: video, audio, and lighting
    • Which part is most worrying to you?
    • Which part do you care about most when watching videos?
  • All three of these topics are huge topics, you can spend your life studying any one of them, but just a small amount of knowledge can make a huge difference
    • today is a day to ask questions!

Activity:

  • Princess Bride Wheel barrow clip (start 1:13)
  • Home Survey (just the top three boxes) take 5 min to survey your home for anything that can capture video or audio, and anything that can provide light

Video: You have to have a way to get video

  • What kind of cameras did you list on your home survey?
  • Do cameras intimidate you?
    • You won’t suddenly be gifted an understanding of cameras, you have to practice, that’s it
    • The only thing that matters is what is in the frame
  • Screen capturing is a way to not need a camera at all, but it limits what you can make videos about
    • QuickTime on mac, PowerPoint on PC, Zoom can be used too
    • PowerPoint or Keynote slides exported as a video
  • A Roll is your main clip, normally a talking head. B Roll is what you put on top. You have to remember to capture b roll

Activity: grab your phone, or other camera, take an object and shoot some b roll of it (3 min)

Audio: Viewers are actually mostly listeners

  • What did you put on your list for recording audio?
  • Almost everyone has some time up mic somewhere, but a better mic can be a quick and fairly inexpensive upgrade (although nice mics can be very expensive)
  • How mics connect: 3.5 (just because it plugs in does not mean that it works though), USB, XLR, Bluetooth
  • background noise, record in place where noise is dampened, not by fridge, cover your heat vent or turn it off, wait for your neighbor to leave on his motorcycle
  • If you cannot get a clean audio recording while you are filming you may want to record voice over instead (this can work quite will with screencasts or overhead shots

Activity: look at the audio options on your list, determine how they connect and how they match up with your video options

Lighting: always be mindful of the light, you can’t always change it, but often you can

  • What light did you find in your house
  • Three types of lighting are natural, practical, and studio
  • Three point lighting is a simple way to get good lighting
    • Key light, the most important light
    • Fill light, less strong just filling in the other side
    • hair light or backlight, gives you separation from the background

Library Resources:

  • have any of you ever filmed something at the library before?
  • The library has great resources for you
    • Equipment checkout
    • Production Studio
    • Sound booths

Real Talk: the only way to improve is to practice, and the only way for practice to get real is for you to actually upload something. Practice, and keep learning a little at a time

Keep moving forward meet the robinsons clip

Wrap Up:

  • today we talked about the middle part of film making: production
    • we went over video, audio, and lighting
    • We talked about the library’s resources to help you
  • Next time will be editing
    • Download and install DaVinci resolve
  • Remember you can earn badges!