I have blogged about this on my Internet Marketing blog, searching “Why Keen”
on Google yields a result on the first page!
I am utterly shocked. I have web presence! Woo hoo!
Considering that I hardly have traffic, and I hardly post anything, I think it is
amazing. So I am going to continue! 
I have been asked this question by taxi drivers, coffee shop uncles
and many of my friends. “Why do some people charge only 600 for a
full day Wedding, and some people charge up to 6 K for the same wedding?”
All I could say was, there are videos and there are VIDEOS.
Really. I have been wondering about this for a while now. How does a 6K
videographer justify for charging so much more than the 600 guy?
I think the difference, of course is in the experience, but I think the difference
is much more about the attitude of the videographer, which affects shooting
style too.
First of all, a disclaimer, I do not claim to be an expert in film. I only know how
to enjoy film, and I have a passion for film. I am aware that film is a vast area of
study, and I am but an empty vessel in all the theory on approach to filmmaking.
A conversation with my friend Marc (who studies film) is enough to reveal that I
am ignorant of all the theories and the terminology of filming.
I am slowly feeling my way at solving some the questions I wanted answered as
I was working on my videos. How do they do this in TV?
That’s how I learn. Studying in school is faster, of course, but maybe later.
I have been working on developing a better sense at composition
of frames in my work. I am actually just following in the footsteps of my sifu, Christopher.
He has moved on to capturing images at more expressive angles.
I am working to learn from the true greats. Wong Kar Wai is one name I can think from
the top of my head.
In The Mood For Love Trailer
Another is M. Night Shyamalan. I didn’t know how to express it at that time, but I knew
he made a conscious choice of camera angles to portray certain emotions in his scenes.
Scene from Unbreakable
Now the struggle I have is that in covering an event like a wedding, I had to make sure
that the events are covered fully, and that I do not miss anything, and also that I do
not use too much tape, or else my editing will be too tough.
It’s been almost a month since I have written, so I guess an update from me is due.
What had I been doing this past month?
Lunar Seventh Month had just passed, I had been working hard on completing the editing
for my previous work. I have a tendency to be overly critical on my own editing, so
sometimes I take too long to edit. That is something that I must improve on. Improve
but also shorten the time taken.
I have also done a charity shoot for Whampoa Senior Citizen’s National Day Celebration.
Editing, and will be putting it up soon.
I’ve been using a basic tripod for years now. I have been using the same
SGD 20 tripod for all of my camera work, with a still camera, and even with
the XM2.
I never realised how important a tripod was until I started putting it to
test, filming an event.
I used to think that a tripod was for still shooting. (Which was true when
I used it for a still camera.) I neglected, however, the fact that I need it for
movement shots as well.
I learnt the hard way, tripods are made for different purposes.
What is your tripod for?
The three basic movements you need a tripod for are pan, tilt, and pedestal.
Pan – Panning left and right.
Tilt – Tilting up and down.
Pedestal – raising and lowering the pedestal.
How smooth do you need these movements to be? How fast? Different kinds
of heads are made for different usages, so be sure to test it out.
Stiff Head?
I had a serious problem with my old tripod. Panning and tilting wasn’t smooth,
it was jerky and made squeaking noises.
I got around it by extending only one of the three legs into one, and
transforming the tripod into a monopod. Support the camera with your arms
and shoot as you normally do.
Panning and tilting movements are made with the single leg as a pivot. Much
smoother. The downside is that although movements are smoother, you still
need to use your arms, and after half an hour, your arms will still ache, and
muscle fatigue still causes shakiness in your footage.
Heavy Weight
All the above is fine and good, but it didn’t help me. Eventually, I discovered
that I was only prolonging the problem, because the tripod was not made for
the weight of the XM2, with mic and lights. It was just too heavy for it.
The quick release catch snapped in the midst of filming!
So the last tip is to find out the maximum weight the tripod is made for. I have
to shop for a new tripod now, so this is what I have to look out for.
On a Wednesday afternoon, my friend Alvin Phang and I visited Nishant
at his Katong office.
Nishant Kasibhatla has earned titles of International Master of Memory
and a World Record holder in the field of Human Memory. He also happens
to be an up-and-coming Internet Marketer
In this interview, Nishant reveals 3 really practical and simple tips on
memory retention. Enjoy!
In terms Video Techniques, I think I did pretty well planning for this
interview. After prior attempts at capturing an interview, I have taken
some lessons, and applied them on this video.
We looked around for a nice spot for filming. Some general tips apply.
looked for as uncluttered a background as possible. However, I generally
like a background that has good depth, and tells something about the
interviewee or the area of interview.
I tried to get Alvin and Nishant to sit in a V-shape.
How in the world do they do it on TV?
I started wondering when watching documentaries or interviews on TV,
and wonder how in the world does the camera crew (usually 1 person)
manages to go all over the place and still manage to get shots of everything
that is happening.
Then I tried playing around with camera angles and editing. Voila!
But does it necessarily mean I have to ask the Interviewee and Interviewer
to do a few takes of the same thing? I figured out the puzzle. Get the
Interviewer to talk to the Interviewee to prepare him for the shoot.
That was what Alvin did. Before we were officially rolling, I managed to
capture a few pick ups from various angles, which I finally edited into the video.
If you notice, behind Nishant are a few packet drinks. I had thought
that it was unnecessary to move the drinks away. I was wrong!
I am using a shotgun mic, which was already much better than the
built in mic on the XM2, but still picked up some ambient sounds.
There is a low hum in the background, and some shouts from the
building. Can’t seem to filter them away.
Finally, I think I can safely say that this blog is ready to be launched.
I still find hosting flash videos a big problem on my bandwidth, and
the webhost is not really very stable. Uploading to Google is an
idea, will have to explore that.
Greetings!
Welcome to my blog about videography. I have been blogging for about a
year now, and filming for about a year also, so it is a logical step to move
from blogging and videography to blogging about videography!
What will I say? I have no idea, we see how it goes!