We'll look at some common problems and see how you can fix them while you're shooting. We'll also examine some common visual effects (VFX) techniques that can be used to fix bad chroma shots. How the Magic Works Compositing Keying is a compositing technique, but it’s not the only o

During a TED talk, legendary filmmaker James Cameron admitted he chose a story involving the Titanic as an excuse to use his love for deep-sea diving and to explore the wreckage of the Titanic itself. But, he also did this under the umbrella of one of the greatest love stories of all time. He used

Making drones simple is no easy task and Squadrone System separated itself from others at CES and aims to make the HEXO+ right. Their Kickstarter campaign went way over goal, so we know there’s great investment behind this drone. The app makes shooting with the HEXO+ as hands-off as possible.

Keying and compositing. The act of removing and replacing portions of a shot to put together something new. For most of us, most of the time, this means keying out a green or blue screen (or any other solid color, for that matter) and placing the subject – usually a person rambling about somet

Aerial videography is no longer restricted to the helicopter flying crowd. Even more exciting is that aerial drone videography is moving beyond the tech DIY, maker crowd and starting to show up in the mainstream. Parrot, the maker of popular aerial drones such as the AR.Drone, have announced the Par

Shooting great green screen shots and pulling clean chromakeys may seem daunting to the uninitiated, but with the continual improvements the industry has made to camera and editing technology, going green is easier than ever. A producer with a high quality video camera and an editing application lik

The concept of focal length used to make more sense when everyone used the same size sensor (35mm film). A director of photography on a film set would say “we’re going to use the 35mm lens here,” and everyone knew exactly what that result would be. Today’s vast number of sensor sizes make talk of fo

Shooting on green screen can be very tricky. So much so, that often the viewer can easily tell that the footage they're watching was shot on a green screen. It can take many years until one perfects this art form, but these 5 tips might save you some time and some of the trouble.  1. Camer

CES has come and gone. This year's show was packed once again with all sorts of innovative technology. One technology trend that continues to grow is aerial videography. Miniaturized cameras and stabilized remote control drones are the new methodology for getting pie in the sky shots. Aerial vi

Do you ever experience a creative shooting version of Writer's Block? Sometimes it's hard to find inspiration when you're a creative artist. What do I shoot next? How can I make my next shot different? This week marks the first week of summer – let the Summer Sun be your inspira

Do you know what the shutter speed function on your camera does? Most of the time your camcorder will do a good job setting the shutter speed for you, but sometimes you may need to manually change it yourself. Why mess with that? Wait, what exactly is shutter speed? This 4 step do-it-yourself “home

Maybe I'm getting old. It used to be that shooting video included staring down the barrel of a viewfinder. Though in black and white, picture was clear, and void of stray light. Today, most video is shot with the shooter looking at an LCD screen, often a foot or more away from their face and wi

If you follow Videomaker closely, you’ve likely seen us use the terms raw video and uncompressed video. We might say “Camera A captures uncompressed video” or “Camera B shoots raw.” Hopefully we’ve never said “Camera C shoots uncompressed raw video.” While they sound similar, they do mea

Green screen is a cool technique and it makes movies magical. Everyone knows the special effects and stunts in movies like The Avengers and Spiderman were created using green screen or blue screen backgrounds and computers. Those same digital tools are available in almost all video-editing software

Last year my friend Lorraine phoned to say that I should fly out and see her roller derby team play. I’d never done any sports videography and this seemed like a good chance to learn. I packed up a DSLR and a couple of lenses and headed out. The action was furious as skaters circled the track,

Understanding camera angles – meaning the placement and view of the camera – is something that is critically important to directors and directors of photography. A vivid understanding will ensure that your videos are vibrant and engaging. Chances are, your eyes are somewhere between five

If you spend much time on Twitter or the blogosphere, you've probably noticed the extreme number of time-lapse videos that are going viral around the web. What's the deal with their sudden popularity? I chalk it up to a number of factors. The first is that modern digital cameras can shoot ti

“Alright,” barked Bob through the papier-mâché megaphone that had the word “director” stenciled on the side in crude black letters, “When Herman comes out the door, Joe, I want you to leftmove the camera along with him.” Herman sighed. He was an aging 1

There are so many ways you can build a character in a movie besides dialog. Dialog moves the subject along the timeline, sometimes going back in time to reveal that back-story but its still dialog. This is a means of verbally letting your audience know who your character is, but there is more than j

The ability to add high quality 35mm lenses to a professional, prosumer or consumer camcorder can give more control over the depth of field, which is the range of focus in a shot. This will help in achieving a film-style short focus usually reserved for more expensive cameras and lenses. We will dis