Contents
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1 The Shooter’s Point of View
Your Story’s Point of View
No More Chasing Rainbows
Wearing Many Hats Now
Learning the Discipline
New Points of View
Look Who’s Shooting Now
Hire Your Clients!
You Have the Power
CHAPTER 2 Let Me Tell You a Story
What Makes a Good Story?
Know Your Genre and Make Sure Your Audience Knows
What Does Your Poster Look Like?
Know Your Log Line
Embrace Your Limitations
For Different Reasons
Your Comparative Advantage
Limit Your Canvas
Respect Your Camera’s Dynamic Range
Shoot the Magic Hour
Authenticity Matters
The Story Never Stops
Ethics Matter
CHAPTER 3 The Video Storyteller
Still Lofty Expectations
Put a Frame Around the World
Exclude, Exclude, Exclude!
Make ’Em Suffer
A Unique Perspective
Obscure, Hide, and Conceal
Matters of Perspective
Box-Girder Bridges, Anyone?
The Rule of Thirds
The Golden Rectangle
Evoking Pain
What Kind of Place?
Embrace the Theory
Craft Matters
Close-Ups Are Your Meat and Potatoes
Attack Obliquely
Shot Progression and Frame Size
The Power of Eyeline
Shooting the Less than Perfect
The Story Within the Story
Backgrounds Tell the Real Story
We Are All Liars and Cheats
Know What You Want
Working With the Ego-Crazed
CHAPTER 4 The Storyteller’s Box
Too Many Choices
Cameras Reflect the Changes
Framing the Argument
2K, 4K, and Higher Resolution
Grappling With the Technical
What You Need to Know
When the Technical Matters
The Technical Nature of the World
The Processor in Your Mind
Let’s Have an Analog Experience
Improving Our Digital Recordings
A Bit of Knowledge
The 10-Bit Workflow
Does Your Camera Pass the 10-Minute Rule?
Be Sensor-Tive
Size Matters, Sort Of
The Resolution Ruse
Human Limits to Perception of Resolution
Is the End Game Near?
Pixels in a Grid
Three-Chip Versus Single-Chip
Why Is Compression Necessary?
For Practical Reasons
Redundancy, Redundancy
You Don’t Miss What You Can’t See
Interframe Versus Intraframe Compression
Selecting a Frame Rate
Why the Goofy Frame Rates—or Why 24p Isn’t 24p?
The Many Flavors of 24P
So You’re Shooting 24p
If SD Still Lives Within You
Attention Laggards!
Once Upon a Time
CHAPTER 5 The DSLR Story
A Matter of Performance
It’s Not a Video Camera
More Than Low-Light Capable
Load Shedding
Setting Up
Jello-Cam
Narrow Depth of Field: Blessing or Curse?
The Operational Challenge
Seeing What We’re Doing
Unsound Thoughts
Getting to Work
CHAPTER 6 Your Window on the World
Control Your Space
To Flatter or Not to Flatter
Maximize Use of the Storytelling Tools
Go Long for the Touchdown
Beware of Dubious Claims
Optical Versus Digital Zoom
Going Wider and Longer
Tale from the Trenches
Why Lenses Look Cheap
Say No to Small F-Stops
Why One-Piece Camcorders Make Better Pictures
Chromatic Aberration Compensation
Making Peace With Your Not-So-Hot Lens
How Sweet It Is
Dubious Focus, Zoom, and Onion Rings
Cine-Style Lenses
Source of Enchantment and Frustration
Excessive Depth of Field
Lens Adapters
CHAPTER 7 The 3D Shooter
The Essence of 3D
3D Is a Technical Trick
Depth Cues, Anyone?
Monoscopic Depth Cues
Stereoscopic Depth Cues
Interaxial Versus Interocular
Where to Set the Screen Plane
3D Camera Setup
Avoiding Tolerance Issues
Screen Size Matters
Parallax: Getting It Right
Window Violations
Thinking About the 3D Story
The Roundness Factor
Shedding Your Evil 2D Ways
The Future Is Glasses Free
Is 3D Here to Stay?
3D Postproduction and Output
3D Is Coming—Again!
2D to 3D Conversion
Evolution of the Craft
Show Me a World I Haven’t Seen Before
CHAPTER 8 Story Command and Control
Auto-Everything: Who Needs It?
Down With Auto-Exposure
The China Girl
Riding the Waveform
I Shutter To Think About It
The Synchronized Shutter
Frame Rates and Your Story
Focusing on What’s Important
These Guys Are Not Artists
HD Focus Can Be Tough!
Following Focus
White Balance Your Story
To Preset or Not Preset
Setting Manual White Balance
The Illogic of Auto-White
Automatic Black Balance
No Gain, No Pain
Keep the Noise Down
The Timecode Swamp
Serial Digital Versus High-Definition Multimedia Interface
Interconnectivity and Streaming
Monitoring Your Work
More Power to You
Managing Viewfinder Clutter
Animation and Time Lapse
The Magic of Pre-Record
Here We Go Loopy Loo
Shooting in Extreme Conditions
Shooting Wild Life and Wildlife
CHAPTER 9 Tweaking Your Story’s Look
Getting Started on Your Look
Master Pedestal: Where Is Black?
The Legacy of Standard Definition
Respecting Your Camera’s Dynamic Range
Going, Going Gamma
Minding Your Highlights
Auto-Knee
Controlling Chroma
Matrix
Filtering Your Image
Getting Physical
Consider a Filter Last
Designed for the Task
Neutral Density
A Polarized View
Sky Control
The High-Contrast Dilemma
The Diffused Look
Christian Dior to the Rescue
The Matte Box
How They Stack Up
Warming Up
Out of the Fog
The Post-Camera Finish
Roll Your Own
Color Correction
Shooters, Take Charge!
CHAPTER 10 Making Light of Your Story
Think Small
Shooters Who Light, Edit, Produce, and Wash Windows
LED Lighting Comes of Age
HMI Lighting: Expensive But Worth It
Fluorescents and the Green Plague
Think Big
Soft Is Key
Choosing a Soft Light
Spilling the Beans
The Art of Diffusion
The Jelly Roll
The Standard Setup
Lighting Front and Center
Having Your Fill
On- and Off-Camera Options
Lighting in Planes
Lighting for Green Screen
Why Green?
Green Screen Alternative
Get a Grip
Kooks and Cookies
Being Snooty
Clamping Down
Tape Makes the Man (or Woman)
The Ditty Bag
Lighting = Craft + Ingenuity
CHAPTER 11 Supporting Your Story
Getting a Head in Your Support
What Pretty Legs You Have
Getting a Leg Up
Place Anywhere
You Shoot; Therefore, You Are
CHAPTER 12 Listening to Your Story
An Unsound Proposition?
Sound Advice
Bad Connections = Bad Sound
Keep Balance in Your Life
Mixing It Up
Setting Audio Level
For the Love of Mic
Riding (Short) Shotgun
Going Wireless
Going Boom
Noise Reduction for the Video Shooter
Shooting Double System: Is It Necessary?
You are Surrounded
To Improvise Is Good
CHAPTER 13 Going with the Flow
Not One Workflow
The Promise of MXF
The Beauty of Metadata
We Should Be Less Fearful Now
The Advent of SSD
Proxy Video and the iPhone
Outputting Your Story
The Decline of DVD
Eye on the Encoded Image
Encoders Have Personalities
Scenes That Spell Trouble
The Noise-Reduction Imperative
Know Your Encoding Mode
Blu-Ray, Anyone?
Reaching for the Clouds
The Archiving Challenge
AFTERWORD There Is No Best Button
Beware the Hype
Resist Complexity
Future of Viewing
Rapid Change Is Upon Us
Dog-Eat-Dog World
Index
