My eyes have been "blind" while processing videos these days. I worked on it without rest for more than two hours, and when I had to stop, I was about to stop cooking. What a troublesome process.
What is the trouble? I really couldn’t explain why at the moment.
This feeling of confusion, not knowing why, only knowing that it is difficult, is really what we often have when doing things.
Because the brain does not understand this state and is confused. To figure it out you have to think.
1. For a theme event, I shot seventy or eighty short clips. I had to import them into the software one by one and roughly select which ones were available and which ones were not. It was very time-consuming.
2. Arrange the clips in chronological order, moving forward and backward, and at the same time, pay close attention to which specific clips are needed and which ones are not. Because when there is no clear way to express the idea of ????the topic, making decisions will be very brain-consuming and time-consuming.
3. Matching text and choosing music are not skillful and time-consuming.
1. The reason for shooting too many short films is that there is no idea in advance. To subdivide a theme into several large steps, and then refine each part into small events, you must design it first.
For example, take a video of a delicious meal. It is divided into meal preparation, washing vegetables, chopping vegetables, cooking vegetables, eating, and cleaning up after meals.
What is the key point here? Can't shoot them all. The most important thing is to chop vegetables, stir-fry and eat.
What are the actions of washing vegetables? Take the vegetables out of the refrigerator, put them in a basin, and wash them with water.
Chopping vegetables is divided into the background of standing and cutting, and the process of cutting vegetables in the middle shot. Close shot, enlargement of chopped vegetables. The actions of cooking include turning on the heat, pouring the vegetables, stir-frying, plating, and serving.
Eating movements include the back view of sitting and eating, picking up dishes, tidying up including putting away plates and wiping the table. This breakdown will give you a clear idea of ??how many clips a video needs to be shot.
With this concept, there will be far fewer unused clips, which reduces waste of energy and improves efficiency.
2. The shooting subject has no key concept, which leads to the illusion that this should be photographed and that should be photographed.
I still don’t have the “feel” of shooting. Both shooting and editing require a lot of practice.
In the future, you can shoot several events at once and then edit them in a time period. When editing, discover problems in the shooting, think about them and improve them.
According to the above method, we have imagined in advance which steps the theme will be divided into, and at the same time what small details are needed to reflect these steps.
So I shot the video again, but when I actually shot it, I found that it was a mess again:
1. If I change the subject, my thinking will not keep up with the actual scene. (I have a sense of key points, but the scene has changed and I can’t find the feeling)
As I kept shooting, I felt that I needed to shoot here and there to reflect the panorama/details I thought.
When taking pictures of a restaurant, my plan was to highlight the chaos inside the panorama, but a panoramic view cannot highlight the particularly chaotic feeling, so I need to add a mid-range shot or a close-up shot. To highlight the messiness in the middle shot, you need to take pictures of tables, cabinets, shoe cabinets, and the floor. But in this way, all the framing is flat, and the shooting angles are similar. I feel like I don’t know how to highlight the details. A shot that is too homogeneous will have no focus.
2. When my mind was in a state of confusion, if I continued filming, I ended up recording the entire process of doing something. Because I didn’t know which ones needed to be included and which ones didn’t, I just shot them all. In the end, I almost didn’t have the energy to shoot. I just saved the shots when I could. I felt very tired. (Returning to the old thinking, the key points have been forgotten)
Like shooting many small clips, this is also extreme. The reason is still: I don’t know the key points to shoot.
I know I want to shoot the key points, but when I actually shoot, I still can’t find the key points & techniques.
For example, when tidying up a house, you need to tidy up the cabinets. This takes a long time. Is this process necessary? If it’s not all recorded, how will the changes be reflected at that time?
3. There is a misconception that when photographing a subject, the entire process of doing it needs to be recorded. When mopping the floor, I even wanted to record all three mops.
Rationally, I think it’s not necessary, but emotionally I worry about not capturing the details well. Details are very important. There are ideological conflicts when doing things, which also consumes energy.
In the end, rationality made me realize that shooting videos, writing, or any presentation is not a comprehensive truth, but can only present part of the truth. You can't have that kind of stubborn sentiment and tendency to be perfect.
When a person only wants to show the facts, it is an unrealistic desire in itself and can only show some meaningful part of what he wants to show. After all, your own energy is limited, and the energy of others is limited.
This is a limitation of personal character, which must be paid attention to and overcome from the perspective of fundamental human nature.
What are the most important aspects of the video theme that need to be captured? Which one is less important? Have a concept before shooting. When shooting, try to find out which details in the actual scene can highlight this most important link. Therefore, the underlying thinking needs to be established and strengthened before shooting!
Take the living room as an example. Some locations should be the most important and some locations should be secondary. If it is based on the chronological order of the beginning, occurrence, development and end of an event, the focus should be on occurrence and development.
My current problem is that there are only a few pieces of this key thinking. As soon as I encountered the actual situation, I was confused and went back to the original path.
4. Try to consider all aspects to avoid surprises
During the shooting, I found that I had forgotten to pack up the items that were not on the ground. This was an unexpected link. Unplanned, I did not expect at first that it would consume more time and energy.
Therefore, when conceiving the theme, you should think of all the key parts as much as possible.
5. When I was shooting, I couldn’t even remember the central composition method, the third composition method, and the golden ratio. Only push and move can be used. And there are more mid-range shots, less panoramic shots, and less close-up shots. Maybe it has something to do with the subject of the photo, or maybe it has something to do with my ability to find photogenic spots.
Suddenly I thought of what the book "Deliberate Practice" talks about, which is to achieve concentration and train with full concentration. This kind of training is done attentively, rather than lazily or haphazardly, as if to complete a task. Just like when doing abdominal crunches, you need to feel the strength of the abdomen. If you just practice casually and follow the rhythm, you will not exercise the abdomen.
The same goes for shooting. You need to deliberately train these methods in order to integrate them into your brain and provide efficient feedback.
1. Find unexpected discoveries and surprises in a theme
If you can find the shining point from this event when shooting, you can find something beyond your expectation. Accidental events and on-the-spot events are likely to become additional talking points on this topic. For example, the last time I took a photo of a community and met an auntie who was dancing in the square, it can be used as a topic point and added to the title.
It was like taking my brother to get vaccinated. The little girl in front was so scared that she cried. The younger brother didn't cry, he was calm and endured his fear, and he could also be a shining point.
In ordinary life, find the highlights that can be presented. This video can convey some meaning.
As mentioned above, shooting is also a technical job, and it requires great skills to produce good results.