Trade Tricks: Shoot For The Edit

You’re on a dream vacation in Europe, on a walking tour of an old walled city. You’ve got your camcorder, so naturally you want to tape everything. But will you want to watch everything again?

Getting a lot of video footage is great—if you’re shooting with the edit in mind. That way, you can condense your one-hour tour into an interesting, fast-paced presentation that your friends will be begging to see again, rather than begging to leave.      
       
Thinking As You Shoot
Like news videographers, you may not have time to plan and research your destination. But like them, you can consider how you intend to edit your video while you’re shooting.

The first shot in a scene is called the establishing shot or cover shot, a wide-angle view of the setting that gives the viewer an overall reference of what’s coming next. How many times have you seen a movie start with the Manhattan skyline? You know right away where the story takes place. It doesn’t matter if the next shot is in a restaurant, an office or an apartment, you know it’s New York City; you have the context for it.

Do the same thing in your videos; use the first shot to set the scene. If visiting a cathedral in a foreign city, start with a wide shot that would include features such as the street, adjoining building, skyline and people walking about.