VIDEO PRODUCTION ARTICLES

1. Slideshow/Outline: 10 Tips for Making Great Video on a Tight Budget
   
2. Five Tips for Lighting Faces for TV
3. Five Tips for Formatting Fonts
4. Do you want fries with that?

10 Tips for Making Great Video on a Tight Budget
by Chuck Peters

Whether you've been making video for 10 years or 10 minutes, chances are you'd like to make BETTER video, but don't have a lot of money to spend (or ANY). If you can relate... join the club! Every production company I've ever worked for, from basement-based editing operations to NBC affiliates, is in exactly the same boat. The good news is that money isn't the answer to most of your problems! There are some simple secrets that professional producers protect that can set you up for success. This Slideshow (Created as a lecture given at CPC 2009 conventions in Nashville & San Diego) identifies 10 of my personal favorites... PLAY SLIDESHOW.

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Five Tips for Lighting Faces for TV
by Chuck Peters

There's no substitute for good lighting. I'm always surprised at how many producers count on software to fix poor lighting in post. The GIGO principle certainly applies to lighting. The fact is, if you start with grainy, poorly-lit footage, your end result will be compromised. No matter what people tell you, it doesn't matter how good your camera and editing software may be, if you are a lazy lighter, your productions will suffer. Knowing this, the best thing you can do to increase the production quality of your videos is NOT to buy a better camera or a new color-corrector. The first thing you should do is learn to light. While these five tips can't possibly cover all there is to know about lighting, my hope is that they will inspire you to learn to light like the pro that you are.

#1 - SHOOT A THREE-POINTER
Three-point lighting is the time-tested standard for lighting talent for TV and film (Figure 1).

A three-point setup consists of a key, a fill and a back light. The key light is typically positioned to the front of the subject, slightly to one side. It provides the primary source of illumination in this setup and its quality and characteristics help to establish the mood of the scene. The fill light is less powerful than the key light. It is positioned on the side opposite the key and serves to soften (or fill-in) the shadows created by the key light. The back light (or hair light) is positioned above and behind the subject so that it casts light on the subject's head and shoulders. This adds depth and separates him from the background. Learning and using three-point lighting isn't difficult. It will make a huge difference in the look of your footage and in the overall professionalism of your productions. If you're not using it, it's time to start.

#2 - SET THE MOOD WITH SHADOWS
When a bright key light is positioned close to the camera, the result is "flat" lighting (Figure 2a).

A key light at the 6:00 position creates a flat, "ordinary" look that is absent of emotion. This look is often used for lighting news setups.
Figure 2a

Flat lighting is emotionally neutral. If you're doing news, this may be fine. But if you want to add emotion, merely flooding your subject with bright, flat, light isn't enough. Lighting can be used to move and manipulate shadows to create the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional screen. To add depth, position the key light so that it strikes your subject at an angle (Figure 2b).

The size, angle and intensity of the shadows cast by the key help set the mood of the scene. As you move the key farther to the side, the mood becomes more and more dramatic (Figure 2c).

Once the key is positioned appropriately, use the fill light to soften its shadows to your liking.

#3 - SOFTEN UP
The hardness or softness of a light can be determined by examining the shadows that it casts on your subject. A hard light casts a dark shadow with a sharp edge transfer (Figure 3a).

Hard light has a narrow shadow edge transfer and a dark, dramatic shadow		Soft light has a wide shadow edge transfer and a softer, lighter shadow. Soft light is typically preferred for lighting faces
Figure 3a		Figure 3b

Soft light casts lighter shadows with a wide gradient shadow-edge transfer (Figure 3b). Soft light is more flattering to the face than hard light and is preferred in most setups. Hard light can make a subject look intense and even wicked. Small, focused lamps cast hard light and shadows. Larger and more diffused lamps cast softer light and shadows. You can soften the effect of a light by adjusting its distance from the subject or by adding diffusion to spread the light.

#4 - HANDLE HARD-TOLIGHT PEOPLE
Some people are inherently more difficult to light than others. The top three problems you'll run into are: people wearing glasses, bald heads and dark skin. While the solutions are slightly different, the problem is essentially the same: bright reflections and specular highlights that create unattractive, glowing, hot-spots. When lighting a person with glasses, lights placed anywhere near the camera create specular highlights on the lenses of the subject's specs (Figure 4a). Bald heads are less of a problem, but you'll still get small hard light spots across the cranium. When you expose subjects with dark complexions properly, you often end up with hot spots on the tip of the nose, forehead, cheeks and chin.

Lights positioned anywhere near the camera will create ugly, distracting reflections on the lenses of glasses.		Eliminate specular highlights in spectacles by moving lights out to the sides and raising them higher on their stands.
Figure 4a		Figure 4b

For glasses, the solution is to go up and out. Raise your lights higher and position them as far to the sides as possible until the reflections are gone (Figure 4b). People with bald heads or dark skin need to be lit with very large, very soft lights positioned very close. The goal is to make the specular highlight larger than the subject's face, bathing them in soft light.

#5 - LIGHT THE WHOLE SHOT, NOT JUST THE SUBJECT
The job doesn't end when your subject is lit. You're not done until you've lit the whole shot. Save a light or two for your background. Pinch your barndoors down to create a shaft of light across the background or add a gel for a splash of color. Taking a little extra time to dress your set with light will greatly improve the look and feel of your shots.

~cp

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Five Tips for Formatting Fonts
by Chuck Peters

A lot of good editors struggle when it comes to creating top-notch titles. The good news is that formatting fonts isn't difficult if you follow a few simple rules. Whether you design graphics for TV, the printed page or projected presentations, these five tips will save you from the perils of faulty fonting.

#1-BE BOLD
When it comes to finding fonts, go for big, thick and bold (instead of small, thin and swirly) for one simple reason: readability. If something is important enough to reinforce with text, it needs to be presented in a way that's clean, clear and legible (Figure 1). For television applications and often for presentations, become a serif sheriff: Sans serif fonts are thicker, bolder and less swirly than fonts that stand on serifs. For the printed page, serif fonts are often the way to go (pull just about any book off your shelf and see for yourself).


Figure 1
 

#2-CHOOSE COLORS CAREFULLY
Choose a font color that contrasts well with your background (Figure 2). Certain font colors work well, while others can make you look like an amateur. White text on a dark background is almost always Okay. Bright yellow might be an acceptable choice if you need to draw special attention to a word, phrase or phone number. Dark text on a very light-colored background is fine, but it can be hard on the viewer's eyes if overused for TV or in presentations. Some colors should simply be avoided at all costs. Avoid using bright florescent green, baby blue, pale yellow and Pepto pink. Watch out for reds in broadcast video applications. Red tends to smear and bleed on screen.


Figure 2
 

#3-GO DEEP
Use drop shadows and outlines to pop your text off the background, create contrast and add an illusion of depth (Figure 3). Shadows and outlines are great ways to make your titles look better, but they also make text easier to read in most situations. Make sure all of your shadows all fall in the same direction. Shadows are almost always black and have the same level of partial transparency, too. The distance of the shadow from the font causes the text to appear closer to or farther from the background, but close is usually better than far. If the shadow is too far from the font, it just looks silly.


Figure 3

#4-BE CONSISTENT
If you're working on a project that uses multiple pages of graphics with text, be wise and templatize. Pick a look you like and stick with it for the entire project. If your fonts change in size, color, position and style from page to page within a project, you will definitely look amateurish. The key to looking professional is consistency. To avoid errors, copy and paste your original and use it as the foundation for each new graphic.

#5-STOP SHORT
Be brief. Don't write out long sentences or full paragraphs. Hit the highlights. Emphasize key points. Star Wars fans take note: The long "Lucas scroll" is not a good choice for most of your productions. Do any of us (besides our hardcore Jedi readers) remember anything beyond "...In a galaxy far away?" There are two exceptions to this rule: if you need to type out (1) a direct quote or (2) a disclaimer. In either case, it is proper to have a narrator (or live speaker) read long titles verbatim. Long textual titles accompanied by silence make viewers very uncomfortable.

In the end, you can apply one simple principle to all of your graphics: Every graphic you use should enhance your message and not be distracting. As soon as the audience stops listening to the message and starts squinting at small text, cringing at the ugly colors or reading paragraphs of text instead of listening to your message, you've got a problem. The best way to learn to build better graphics is to become a student of other people's work: Don't be afraid to imitate good design when you see it.

~cp

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Have a question or comment? Email me at cpeters45@gmail.com