Top Five Ways To Improve Your Videos
19 August, 2010
So I have been deliberating on what are the most common (but easy to miss) mistakes that people make when you start out doing videos.
I have narrowed them to five. I have called them “the terrible five!” dun dun dun.
1. Bad Audio
This for me is one of the biggest deal breakers in making your video either the best thing or the worst thing on the planet. It doesn’t matter how good your video is, it could be shot with the best prime lens on the RED camera and graded by Steven Spielberg himself, if the audio is bad, it will be perceived as pretty… erm bad…
Pay attention to your audio, it will save your life.
2. Title Safe
When you make your videos, make sure you titles are within the title safes. For me there is nothing that screams more “I don’t know what I am doing” than making your titles OUTSIDE title safe. Get the titles inside the lines, it’s so important.
3. Overexposed Footage
When you’re out in the field and your shooting your footage, overexposing your footage is what I like to call “destroying” your footage. In reality you can grade things in post-production to give that overexposed look, but you can never go back the other way. Once you lose that detail, you lose it forever. Digital video (apart from shooting RED) gives you little or no latitude when exposing things, so if you are losing that detail in the view finder, you’re gonna lose it when you bring it back to the computer.
4. Bad Lighting
This is an area that a lot of video professionals seem to neglect a lot. Lighting will set the mood and tell your story better than your camera can. It can take some time to set up right, but once you get it, every shot will look like a million bucks and then it means less time in post-production grading, and more time telling your story!
5. Too Many Fonts
Another thing that makes videos look quite amateur is when people use too many fonts. It’s so simple! Start with comic sans and work your way to windings… But seriously, keep it simple. Choose one or two (at most).
There you go, hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
Nick.
You might also like:
Disqus Comments
Hillsong Collected is a blog. It is an ongoing collection of thoughts and stories from the leadership and key team of Hillsong Church around the world, conveniently packaged in three different streams.
We want to inspire and encourage everyday people that your efforts and contributions can and will make a difference. So take a look around, make yourself at home and check back often.
For more information about Hillsong Church and our community initiatives please visit hillsong.com
Share this site 
Get Collected For You in your inbox.
