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Susan Roderick: Creating a Video with Stills and Videos

Lesson 8 from: How to Boost Your Business with Animoto Videos

Ana Brandt, Sue Bryce, Susan Roderick

Susan Roderick: Creating a Video with Stills and Videos

Lesson 8 from: How to Boost Your Business with Animoto Videos

Ana Brandt, Sue Bryce, Susan Roderick

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Lesson Info

8. Susan Roderick: Creating a Video with Stills and Videos

Lesson Info

Susan Roderick: Creating a Video with Stills and Videos

All right, So now we're gonna talk about creating videos with photos and some video. So now we're gonna get into adding a few clips. And this is another video of a soup rice photo shoot with some mostly photos and a little bit of video. Another video that Sally created in an emoto. So let's watch that it's just so again, it feels like you're watching video, even though it's mostly photos in there with a few clips, it feels like a video you can't have. You don't even remember what part is is the video, and what part is the photos? And because the photos are also moving, it kind of gives motion to the whole thing. In video, you love to have that movement and animal toe moves those photos for you, so I mean, that's awesome. And that's just there. I think there's 55 video clips in that video, and the rest is like 40 something photos and five short video clips, and it feels like a video through out. It's absolutely incredible. I love that video. Nice job, Sally. All right, how to shoot vide...

o? So let's talk about what camera to use to shoot video. When you want to start, you want to put those five clips in. You can use your DSLR if you're intimidated by that. Everybody has a cell phone. You can shoot high resolution hi def footage with your cell phone. I work for filmic Pro. It's a video app company that costs, you know, eight bucks, and you can have high definition incredible video footage with your phone with your IPhone if you have an android phone if you have a flip camera. If you have a point shoot, you can use whatever you have to shoot video. E can't fill my pro with a C at the end. So instead of film it its filmic pro. And yeah, I mean, I shoot video with that and mix it in with my DSLR footage all the time, so you don't need to shoot video with your DSLR In order to have cool video, you can use your phone, so let's talk about if you do want to use your camera, how to get into video mode. Like I said before, when Ken and I first started, I was looking at this thing, saying, How in the heck do you turn it in a video boat? No clue. So I'm just gonna do a quick demo. It's pretty simple. So this is a Canon five D Mark two and everybody's camera's gonna be different. So is it, is it? You know, every camera's gonna be different, but, um, you'll you kind of have to figure it out on your own. But it's it's It's basically the same steps, so you don't want to turn your camera on. Let's get that bad boy on. And then what you're gonna want to do is press this button. So this is the live view mode. This is what makes your LCD screen go on, and a lot of people take photos like this with just their LCD. So just click that button and then you'll see that it's in. Get the back of the camera, you'll see that it's the LCD screen is on, so all you do is press the center button here. I don't and there's a red on screen. There you are now shooting video. It's a 12 live view mode and then press start, so there's a couple other things you need to know to shoot video um, but we won't get into all those I will say to get started and really do a good job. You need to shoot your shutter speed should be at 1/50 and also you should shoot. Your lens should be on manual focus, but that's a little bit complicated. We weren't going to get into that right now, but just so you know, that's how you get your video camera mode. Try it out and just, you know, just get started. So stabilization. This is another thing that the video guys taught us in the workshop. Three points of contact. Your hands are two points of contact 12 Stabilization is really important with video, because shaky video makes it difficult to watch. So this is two points of contact. If you can get 1/3 I would recommend it. 1/3 would be either a tripod or a mono pod. I use this viewfinder, which just magnetically sticks right here. I glued a magnetic strip to the back of my camera, and that goes up to my face. So it's 12 and then my face is three. And this makes all the difference in stabilizing a camera You don't need to have three points of contact. So she was short clips. 10 seconds. If you're shooting a short clip, you can easily do that and stabilize it. I would keep my elbows in. Keep this tight tight like like, in like this. And then just move the camera or hold still. Or you could just set it up like this. 10 seconds. Three seconds. Five seconds. But make sure stabilization Make sure you're thinking about that. Yeah, Lorenzo there as far as, like, your lands choices, that a big difference because you may shoot with a portrait style lands, but then you want to get a wide shot. I mean, do you have a problem? Do you Do you even switch lenses if you're gonna do video and yeah, but I my favorite lens to shoot video is my 72 200. So, I mean, I love shooting wide angle, but that that lens you wouldn't think to shoot video, but it creates incredible video. Beautiful video. The same boca that you get for a portrait on a 72 100. You get that video? Are you not using a tripod that you are was going to say I don't have I wouldn't handled that tripod mono pod. So then I have four points of contact. I might well have have three. Because I'll have this hand strap. It will be on, um, on a potter a tripod, and then I'll have this on. So I'm just like calling that as much as I can. Tripod would be ideal. But, I mean, you can shoot whatever lenses you want with video. They all work. It just depends on where. What spacer in You know what the look you're going for once again, shoot horizontally. Can't say that enough. Um, don't Don't turn your camera like this and it's automatic. We do it as photographers. We automatically do that, but just learn. We'll see that you'll see the video clips. They don't fit in. Just turn it horizontally. Also, when you're gonna shoot video, double check your battery in your memory. So think about these things because video does, it will tax both of those. All right, so quick tips about video clips, quick tips about video clips upload video files under megabytes and a motor will only take 400 as the max. But I would recommend when you when I say short clips. If you take a foreigner megabyte clip, watch that thing load on an Emoto. You want to do something more like 100 megabytes for fast upload, so keep the clip short. Once you go out and start experimenting and you shoot a 20 minute clip and you realize that you can't use it or you have to edit it, you'll get to shooting short clips pretty quick. So with, and that makes it cool. That makes it easy to short to shoot a short clip that just makes it. It just takes a load off to know you only have need a few seconds. Otherwise, you're just, you know, it's a little bit more pressure. So upload short clips, shoot short clips, and the ideal footage is 12 80 by 7 2020 form frames a second. You don't necessarily need to worry about that because an emotive will compress the footage. But if you have the option to shoot that, shoot that yes, canna Well, actually, people were asking about the frames per second, so you would say that the ideal for animados 24 frames per second but and then it will translate it. It will compress other frames. Okay, but that is what that is what they want you to shoot. I mean, that is ideal. That is optimal. So if you have that option, definitely do that. Little of those videos you've seen of sues there a shot like that. All right, so let's create a video with photos and video. So this is mostly photos with a little bit of video. That's like the shot that she showed you. So can we go back to my computer, please? There is snow people back to film Akpro people. Could you say how to spell it? F I l m I c So film. I see second word pro film I see pro. You're welcome. Yep. Because when I did, Olivia's instagram video started to bring up in stick around. You're so cute. But no, this is important because the video itself really sucked. I mean, I probably wouldn't have put that video that I shot, and anything would instagram to keep it small. And of course compared Teoh Alex doing video looks amazing. And so I was just using my phone on my camera easily I clip, So would I to get a higher rez video. What I have is that what filmic? It's basically the highest where it's basically the highest quality video you can get on your IPhone. It's like having a professional video camera that on your phone. So if you don't use that and you're just using your video, you should be OK. You should be fine with just her IPhone. But it doesn't look is great. It doesn't have as much control. It doesn't have as much control, but the IPhone doesn't create great video. Wasn't in love with the quality. Well, if you're used to DSLR footage, but I mean, this is what I mean. It's like people are seeing DSLR DSLR footage in these beautiful videos, which I love you love. But I also want to be able to do both. I also want to be able to, just even for my Children on the weekend when Alex isn't with May just do film for personal reasons using my phone, which is why there's absolutely filmic pro, because that helps people that are more on a professional level. Take it to the next level, so I think you should. All right, So, um, I I'm going to just open this project that I worked on, and, ah, so that we can kind of get to what it's like to do mostly photos, some video because I don't want to start from scratch because we might run out of time. All right, this is the same one. So let's go back to my videos. See what this one is? Yep. Is there I Can you Can you add as many videos clips as you want you can with the customizable ones? Okay. So, um, the ones that are the templates that don't have customizable right you can't do You can't do that as much. You know, without a motor, that's up to 20 minutes long. See, that can be, you know, 2040 50 video clips. However many it takes. But it could be 20 minutes long, and like Susan said, H clip can be up to 400 megabytes. That's normally on a cannon. That snow may I think about a minute and 1/2. But you could just continually add doors, um, and join them together. You can use the cross fade on the hard cuts to join them together. Thank you Came looking for groups. We're gonna get to this dashboard in a little bit. So I'm looking for the video where I did put in, like, five video clips. Here it is. So you'll see here. This is with a few video clips, so you'll see that the photos Aaron White and the video clips are with a gray border. So some few things you need to know about video clips. If you did record audio with your video clip, then you need to mute it. So you need to mute each individual clip on its own, and you can slide these clips and picks the few seconds that you want. So this is a 12th clip. I've picked two of the seconds, and the reason this looks pixelated if it does look pixelated to you is because an emoto is processing this stuff at 3 20 But when you export it, you can upgrade to 7 20 is it 3 23 63 60 When you up, you can get it to 7 20 you can get it to 80. So if you're watching this and you're like, why does this look low quality. It's just in the dashboard as you're creating it. It's 3 60 but it will be It will go up to 7 20 or 10 80. So just know that as you're kind of editing. So I picked these these clips, I manually controlling where in the clip that I want to add the video. And then you move it around toe where you want it. So same thing I took you to upload the upload, the video clips. It's the same place you go either to your file somewhere on your computer and upload the clips. Susan, can you just drag and drop them? That's one can drag and drop them just like that. Move him around however you like. But, I mean, from wherever they were on your think. So I think you need to upload them. Do Can't. You can. You can Maybe you can only you do it the way that you jay, but should I try it? I know you could do with photos. You can Yeah, Yeah. Learn something. All right. So that's basically, um what it looks like and you'll see. I've only got a few video clips in there. so that's just adding a few video clips. So let's go back to the keynote, and I'm gonna show you what that looks like. No way. So again, I just I mean, I spent 10 minutes making this. I just threw in a few video clips. I didn't even actually edit or color correct the video clips, but and they weren't even necessarily the best clips that I took. You know, one of them was kind of shaky, but it adds another dimension. It just makes it mawr like a video. The photos were great. Same song, same everything. But you see, it just it steps it up just a little notch. It makes it a little bit more inviting a little bit more enticing this five short to second video clips that were put in with photos. So this is how an emotive helps you go from photo into video, just slowly taking baby steps just moving along. The more you shoot, the more you get comfortable. I think that's very cool. All right. Can we go back to this the keynote? All right, So what to shoot? So let's talk about when we start shooting video use all the composition, compositional tricks that you already know. It's photographers were so far ahead in the game. People, we are like miles ahead of most people. As photographers. We know all of the tricks already. We know composition. We know about light. We, you know, we know the rule of thirds. We know what looks good on a camera. So you guys already are so far ahead. Use all of the things that you've already learned. So tell a story. We do that with photos. Think about telling a story with video. How do you tell a story? I shot a soup rice photo shoot and I told the story were in the studio she's got. She's getting hair makeup done. She's got putting on a dress. She's changing her outfit. There's the jewelry. I will say that telling a story. People think it needs to be really complicated. It doesn't. There's only so many stories that we're all telling. I was really worried about being cliche, you know, be click. Be cliche. Don't make it harder on yourself. Don't try to, like, come up with some new story that's never been told. Just tell the story. It's really it's what everybody wants to watch anyway. You know, it's what they want to see. So a couple of shots that you think about the establishing shot is basically the scene. So if it's a photo shoot, get the studio, the whole studio with the client and the dresses and, you know, and the close all the clothes that Anna has, like get for the babies, get the establishing shots. I kind of forget this one sometimes. And then I'm going back. Editing going ho. That doesn't help tell the story because they don't know how did I even get here? You know, so think about the establishing shot. Shoot wide, medium and close up shots of everything. So if you just use that as your rule, why meeting and close of every single thing that you dio? If it's if it's a baby, shoot with Anna So you shoot Anna. That's a that's a behind the scenes. I'd be shooting Anna, you know, opposing the baby with the whole studio. Then I'd go in and I'd shoot a close up of Ana holding the baby. Not a close about a medium shot, you know, from the waist up her holding a baby. And then I would show Anna's fingers like gently, you know, moving the hair on the baby's head. Just shoot wide, medium and close everything. You dio a few second clips and you'll be golden. You'll have everything you need you could just start from. There also should be role shoot details of everything I know. When I used to shoot weddings, I was over on the I was over shooting details on the tables. I was like, Oh, bride and groom where they I love all the flowers and the cards and I was just like I'm a B roll maniac. So be role is the details. Shoot the the back of the dress, shoot the shoes, shoot the makeup. A lot of the soup rice photo shoot. You'll see. There's a kind of a pan of the makeup table. This is B roll. This is details, and it helps you. It puts it in between different shots to help break up the story, so definitely get some B roll and change your angle of view. Think about different directions and different heights. Get down low, shoot from above change the different, you know, angle on this really helps this house make creative shots. Just you do this with photography, so do it with video. Also create movement. Usually at no time with video shots is something absolutely still. So either the subject is moving or your camera is moving at all times. Now, this is a different case here. Incredible. I've because I'm not really moving and cameras not really moving, but basically in any other type of video, something's moving. I guess I am kind of Louis, but something is moving, so make sure that you create movement.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials

Animoto - Why Video Slideshows Increase Sales and Make Clients Happier - E-Book.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Excellent ! really inspired me. If someone would of said to me use video I would have shrugged it off but after seeing this course I cant wait to have a go. I love how Susan put it all together, the video was amazing to watch and coming from me that has to be true as I am one of the minority who does not watch a lot of video's purely because I get bored after a few minutes but Susan's had me spell bound. Sue Bryce's work is amazing and Anna Brandt I could listen to over and over. Brilliant show

Rajiv Chopra
 

Yes, I would definitely recommend the course to anyone. So, here goes. My initial reaction to Anna Brandt was negative, but then I realised that she gave us some very valuable tips. These were not just on video, but also on 'market research'. It is interesting, because I spent years in corporate before switching to photography, and I had not applied my own learnings to my fledgling new career! So, some good tips from her. Susan Roderick was very good and systematic. She gave a very clear idea of how to put together a video, and the three examples she showed were excellent. I am not sure about the Sue Bryce part of the course. Since she had generously given her photos for the course, I suppose - yes. However, I am not sure of how much additional value she provided in terms of content

Roz Fruchtman
 

A class (GENEROUSLY) taught by true experts. Much information and visual demos were shared. Lots of inspiration and fun was had by all. I would MOST DEFINITELY recommend this class to anyone - whether you use Animoto or not. Video is the key to everything! On the other hand, YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY know about Animoto ~Without a doubt! ~Roz Fruchtman @RozSpirations

Student Work

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