Mar 18, 2011
Posted by Mike in Safety,Tips,Video Production
2 Comments
The Role of Kismet in Video Production
I was talking with a friend, and fellow video producer MadBrad Smith a few days ago about a piece he was producing for the USO of Illinois. At one point in his video, he interviews a Colonel just back from Iraq, and just over the Colonel’s shoulder, an American flag waves majestically. This is the kind of shot that video editors and producers dream of; sometimes they just happen, but they can never really be planned. They just sort of happen when you’re shooting “run and gun” as an event is happening.
The key to getting shots like this isn’t planning(although that’s very important), it’s the keen eye of the camera operator. When planning out a video shoot, it’s always a good idea to let the producer and camera operator scout out the locations you’ll be shooting in so they can anticipate angles for shots, or get an idea of the kind of thing they’ll be shooting, but in the case of the Brad’s USO shoot, there was really no way to anticipate exactly where the flags would be, let alone where the Colonel would be standing when the interview took place, or the “just perfect” amount of wind to make the flag fly in just the right way. Kismet, or fate along with Brad’s eye took over, and he was able to frame the shot that told the story.
I brought up a shot that we used in the opening & closing sequences of a safety training video we produced for PortsAmerica last year (see the video below). While no where near as patriotic in tone, the keen eye of Dan Blust, the cameraman on this shoot was able to pull away from the generic b-roll shot he was starting with, and capture something cool enough to make it the opening shot of the video. Kismet.
When we’re shooting on location, whether it’s at a manufacturing facility or covering a seminar, we spend a lot of time capturing shots of things the client may not understand. Known as b-roll in the video world, that extra 5 to 6 seconds of a machine in action or general overview of a facility results in a shot that perfectly defines what a speaker is talking about, or in some cases, provides a great opening shot for the entire production. So when you’re shooting your next video (hopefully with Brunswick Media Services) plan on the unplanned and let kismet, and the eye of the camera operator get that perfect shot.
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