I’ve been doing a lot of work on After Effects recently, and I’ve come along way. It really is just the first baby steps though as anyone who knows AE will tell you – you never really stop learning. To that end I’ve managed to wangle myself onto a five-day After Effects course, starting next month!

To celebrate, I thought I’d share this link: 60 Awesome After Effects Tutorials – guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing!

I’ve also added ‘Live streaming’ to my portfolio of skills. I recently helped train people on the technicalities of producing a live stream of an event so that it could be seen all over the world by thousands of people. It’s a skill I’ve always wanted to get to grips with ever since I first started working on a Tricaster in 2009.

When it comes to interviews, everyone does it differently. However there are a few very simple steps you can take to maximise the engagement with your interviewee.

1) Meet and greet!
If you’re on location, you’re busy, but take time to make time. Popping a camera on someone straight away can be quite difficult for most people to deal with. By having a brief and friendly chat before you get started you put the subject at ease and the answers you get will be 100% better and look a lot more natural.

2) Keep the eyeline!
I’m forever finding myself awkwardly stooped next to the camera! By asking the questions myself and keep my eye line level with the lens it encourages the subject to talk more naturally and in a way that looks pleasing.

This setup shows poor eyeline, facing up and away from the camera. The green line shows where the subject should have been looking.

I’ve seen a lot of otherwise great interviews spoilt by not following this rule. If you’ve gone to the effort of getting the exposure, white balance and framing just right why undo all your good work by having the interviewee virtually talking off camera?

3) Include the question with the answer!
Be prepared to ask this one a lot! Unless you’re dealing with a pro, people tend to jump in with answers straight away. Ask your subject to wait a beat before answering and then include the question in their answer.

What tends to happen:
“What’s your name?”
“John.”

What you need to happen:
“What’s your name?”
“My name is John.”

Don’t be afraid to jump in and make sure you get it right. It’ll save a lot of headaches in the edit.

4) Alternate shots.
A lot of people think this only really applies to the corporate model of interviewing but it can be just as effective in vox pops. Especially in situations where the number of cutaways you have is limited.

Capture a couple of answers in CU and then a couple of more in a mid-shot. As long as there is a big enough difference in the framing, they will cut. If the interview is long, it can also help build the pace of an edit, so get a couple of frame sizes – there really is no reason not to.

Two frame sizes can help build the pace of an edit, and give a 'jump cut' option when shooting vox pops.

5) Mic Placement!
Much more important than it sounds! (Pun intended)

If you are using a boom or a top mic, so be it. But if you’ve decided to rig the interviewee up with a decent wireless or lapel mic, go to the effort of hiding it. It just looks messy and has a very jarring effect on the viewer.

Two examples of mic placement. The right hand frame looks messy and is easily avoided.

Monitoring the audio is a whole subject in itself, but keep the headphones on during the interview and be vigilant for cracks and pops in the audio. If a question needs to be asked again because the subject touched their tie then so be it – audio is a major factor in any production, make it count!

HDV is still struggling on. Despite initial teething problems with ingestion and compression, HDV has held its own quite respectably for the best part of a decade.

As a format it was billed as an affordable way of shooting HD. At the time this was considered not just the future, but the Holy Grail. The shine however soon wore off as compression problems hampered its introduction and AVID refused to ingest the format without first down-converting it to SD.

HDV soon became the format of choice for many professional videographers. It was small, cheap and held its quality against some of the more expensive rivals of the time. It’s time, of course, was only 2003. Unfortunately technology years are a bit like dog years and many are now claiming that HDV has had its day. I disagree..

Still alive and kicking: The humble HDV tape

Certainly its role in the market has changed, but HDV has coped with this change admirably. In fact you could argue that it’s perfectly suited to the ever-changing environment that is video production – until shooting straight onto card becomes cheaper for the prosumers out there. A camera as versatile as a Z1E benefits from shooting on HDV, and HDV is – quite frankly – lucky to have it.

Bigger cameras are being made every day, and you can always buy something better. But the key is to always use the right camera for the job. This mean you have to consider time, budget restrictions, the environment you’re shooting in, light levels etc… for all of these things and more HDV has a strong and growing hold in the prosumer market. People who don’t want to, or can’t afford to spend five or six thousand pounds on an EX1 can pick up a Z1E for circa £1500. You won’t get the same quality that an EX1 would give you, but then it’s a third of the price.

“A camera as versatile as a Z1E benefits from shooting on HDV, and HDV is – quite frankly – lucky to have it.“

Independent production companies are springing up everywhere and HDV has in part helped drive the number of people shooting purely for the online market. Until the EX range (and comparable cameras) come down to the £2,000/£2,500 price range there will be a raft of young, driven and talented filmmakers juicing HDV for everything it’s got. The future isn’t HDV, but it’s a long way from being obsolete.

If the Christmas festivities and New Year merriment hasn’t kept me busy enough, I’ve also gone and got myself a new job!

I’m now working within the digital team of a communications agency and absolutely loving it. It’s a subtle change in industry but while I’m learning new skills I’m also honing my existing ones. Give me and edit suite and a camera and I’m at home anywhere!

Before I started at my new work I was doing a spot of shooting/editing for The Podcast Company of North London. I was lead camera op and editor for a great little project that rolled out ‘The Key’ in different regions of the UK. Here’s the result:

As ever, all feedback is appreciated.

I’ve been pretty atrocious with my updates recently, but there’s been a very good reason!

After spreading myself across a number of projects including My Transsexual Summer and various other programmes I’ve made a move into a new role. After a year of hoping from production to production I’ve joined a communications agency to work within their digital team. It’s a varied role with clients that I can’t mention yet, but needless to say they’re household names. I’ll be doing all sorts of work as part of my new role including plenty of shooting and video editing.

It feels like a whole new chapter for me and a perfect platform to start from in 2012. The company I’m now working for is brilliant, and so are the people. The new job has meant I’ve had to put a few personal projects on hold… but not everything. In the new year I’ll be working on a unique stop motion film, a short documentary and a reconstruction of some missing BBC material…

After finishing work on the Channel 4 hit My Transsexual Summer I’ve moved on to another excellent Twenty Twenty production. It’s a very sensitive subject matter and it’s in production at the moment, I’m not allowed to say more than that!

Sadly, this is my last week at Twenty Twenty, a company I’ve worked for sporadically over the past two years.

I’ve been involved with My Transsexual Summer (Channel 4), World’s Strictest Parents (BBC 3), A Hundred Years of Us (BBC 1), and Gareth Malone’s Extraordinary School for Boys (BBC 2).

I’m leaving to take up a new role at a Communications Agency in central London. I’m really excited about starting work there and cannot wait to get going.

I’ve boosted my production kit by adding a new Sony HVR-Z1e. (Model pictured)

A Sony HVR-Z1e

It’s coincided with an uptake in the amount of self shooting work I’ve been picking up recently.

If you’re looking for someone to film your conference, promotional film or online video, get in touch and get a quote.

I’ve managed to clock up 16 hour days and 7 day weeks recently working on a variety of projects and in a variety of different roles.

I’m currently working on a Channel Four prime time observational documentary. I can’t tell you the nature of it I’m afraid as it deals with, as you might expect, a delicate subject matter.

I’ve been working in the post production process mostly but I’ve also made it onto location last weekend to help with Location Logging and Data Wrangling. Exciting times and it’s great to add ‘C4′ to my credits list.

On location for a prime time C4 Ob-Doc series.

I’ve also been busy editing with Final Cut Pro for a series of adverts currently being created by The Podcast Company.

The brief was to create a short online video to show customers how to use the latest smartcard on the region’s buses. I had to work within a strict script and style guidlines and here is the result:

There is also a video for four other regions and a universal ‘How to use the bus’ video to come. It was cut on a very speedy turnaround using FCP.

I’ve been very busy recently with a number of freelance projects where I have been doing everything from editing and camera opping to producing. It’s been a real buzz and great fun to be involved with.

However I’ve joined Twenty Twenty (again!) for the next three months and I’ll be working on a new series for Channel Four. I can’t tell you the name of the programme yet or too many details but it’s a documentary series about gender transition. It’s really very enlightening and extremely well produced.

More soon!

It’s been a busy month! I’ve been working with the Podcast Company for last few weeks both on location and in the edit. The job involves creating six online video promos/guides for five of Go-Ahead’s regional bus companies – it’s an ongoing project with various regions’ videos going online over the next few months. I’ve been editing on FCP and I’ll pop them up here soon!

Go-Ahead's The Key