Life hacker has an excellent post on shooting with a camera. Below is an excerpt from the post:

Nothing brings out the camcorders like the holidays, which is why this is the perfect time to admit an ugly truth: You suck at making home movies.

No, really. I’m sure you’re a nice person and all, but there’s more to videography than just taking the camcorder out of the box and pressing Record.

As with photography, good videography requires a bit of know-how. Luckily, I know how, so here’s my list of ways you can improve your home movies. You won’t come out Soderbergh on the other side, nor even Singer, but your Uncle-Henry-dropped-the-turkey-on-Aunt-Edna’s-head submission to America’s Funniest Home Videos will look a lot better.

Check out the entire post: 8 Ways to Shoot Video Like a Pro

gem·reel –noun

1. A cut and polished film reel (can be actual film, video, or digital) of precious quotes fine enough for use in benefiting people.
2. A series of reflections or thoughts held in great esteem or affection caught on camera.

How do you cut and polish a Gem Reel?

The above Gem Reel was cut and polished in less than four hours…from writing to the upload of the final cut. The result I must say am quite surprised with. How do you make a video like the above? Before I tell you, read the following short posts I’ve made in the past:

• Being a Camcorder Pro
• Professional Shooting
• Good Audio is NOT an Accident
• Attaining the “Film” Look

Step One – Concept & Writing

I got the original idea from a conversation I had with Ali (Baba Ali from Ummah Films). He mentioned that one time he tried making one of his video blogs in a way such that different people say one line of the video. In and of itself would work as a good marketing tool because each person in the video would email their friends the video, and them their friends. The video never made it to final cut. I figured I’ll give the concept a test…

I had an idea in my head and put it down on (digital) paper here: http://forums.almaghrib.org/showthread.php?t=24077

Step Two – Production

The idea was to come in and film the gem reel during the lunch break of the class (between duhr and asr salah). There are three aspects of production you want to keep in mind…social, technical, and creative.

• Social Aspect — getting people to be in the video. A lot of people are generally camera shy, even more if they don’t really know you that well. A technique that works is to greet the individual, shake their hand and don’t let go until you explain to them what you’re doing and they agree to be in the video. After they do their part, get their email address , and request from them to help you find the next person to be in the video. After the first few, people begin to fall in line. Do your best to do sequences in order. I helps in the post production.

• Technical Aspect — Knowing what tools you need is very important. You may or may not use the same tools as me. I believe you should have at least the following;
  • light source
  • microphone
  • camera
  • people to be on and off camera.

  The tools I used were the following;

  • Shotgun Microphone – Sennheiser MKE300
  • Makeshift Boom Pole – It was a broken window ice-scraper that I taped the microphone onto
  • Zoom H4 Handy- Audio recorder
  • Camera – Panasonic GS80
  • Lights – I used the sunlight from the window and two cheap homedepot portable construction lights. I used the lights in a three point lighting formation
  • Tripod – I had intended to use one on the day of the shoot…but I forgot it.

  Keep in mind, don’t let principals keep you from being creative. Some photography principals that I would recommend you follow if you wish:

  • Rule of thirds
  • Three point lighting
  • Framing and Composition

• Creative Aspect — Don’t stick to the norm. Be different. Be new. Challenge yourself. People always think or aspire to do things, but never actually do it. Don’t be like them. Be YOU. Don’t let the criticism, judgments, and discouragements of others keep you from doing it YOUR WAY.

Step Three – Post-Production

This part is quite simple and straight forward.

• You need to dump the footage (audio/video) from the camera onto the computer you will edit from.
• Have a video editing program. Free ones like windows movie maker (PC) and iMovie (MAC) can work great. You may need to make your audio into stereo if you used an external audio recording device. Use a program like Audicity (free) or get trails to professional programs like Protools (Avid), Soundbooth (Adobe), Sound Forge (Sony), or Garageband (MAC).
• Make sure the audio and video are synchronized. Especially if you used a separate device for recording audio.
• Play around with different color correction options if you have that available to you to get a certain look. With this video I simply increased the contrast of the video and desaturated the colors a little bit.
• Export the video. Upload it. Share with your friends.

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Remember the movie “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks? If you’ve seen the movie you may think the hero of the movie is Tom Hanks or even Helen Hunt. But oh no, what’s this…? The hero was… who?! Yup, that’s right. The hero was none other than Fed Ex. (and Wilson too <– major product placement)

A Fed Ex employee ends up stranded on an Island. The packages that were washed ashore with him save his life. In one package he even finds his best friend Wilson. And if you remember at the very end of the movie when he gets rescued and flown home, you have the Fed Ex headquarters throw him a welcome home party and there is confetti and you feel all happy and warm inside.

Fed Ex might as well have paid for the whole movie, because the whole movie was basically an advertisement for them.

For product placement to be really successful,  it has to be seamless. If it’s not seamless, it’s no good. Or is it? We had a big discussion about this in one of my Mass Comm classes. We sat there watching clips trying to count how many times we could see product placement. We looked for everything from people picking up a Coke to drink in the middle of their conversation to basically whole plots of episodes revolving around one product.

CAN YOU FIND THE PRODUCT PLACEMENT? This is a clip from the movie “The Mummy.” Watch verrrrrrrrry closely:

ok.. but seriously, the next time you sit down to watch something (clean) see how much product placement you can find.

Why are most people now switching to product placement in shows and movies? One word: TiVo. Tivo is an advertiser’s worst nightmare. People can zap past commericials and the number of households that are switching to TiVo is growing at a rapid rate . Oh yeah, and advertisers HATE you. Why? Because you’re a channel switcher. When commercials come on, you switch the channels until they’re over. That’s why they have to put their product in the show itself.

The question posed to you is, “Do YOU mind when you see product placement?” What if it’s obvious? Do you get mad? Or is it so long as the plot is good(and halal), you don’t care? Part of the argument is the fact that we are subconsciously being bombarded with all this advertisement and we don’t even realize.

Watch this clip of Darren Brown (subliminal Advertising) and see the genius (and scariness) of advertisements and their impact on our subconscious minds:

Again, I don’t advocate or support watching TV or anything that might have haram content.What other Movies or Shows, (or examples) can you find with obvious (or seamless) product placement?

~Shirien