A Duck’s Guide To Video

VIDEO PRINCIPLES YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND:

Technical dimensions of video:
You need an understanding of these, to

– adjust shooting settings
– adjust editing settings
– adjust export settings for display / publishing / internet etc

What is a video codec? (What’s the difference between a codec + container?)
File formats? eg mp4
Video resolutions?
Aspect ratio?

Video colour science (Aka learn colour settings for each stage of capture, editing, and exporting, so that colours are accurate, skintones are preserved, maximum quality… )

How to create transparency in video? (What is an Alpha channel in video?)

Over time, it’s good to get to know more about how video is made up…
Programmer’s Guide to Video Systems  – explains why video systems have so many quirks!
(This is quite a deep read, but is worth at least skimming, to grasp there are many reasons why a video signal might not be working properly in a project… )

SOFTWARE 

Premiere (better integration with animation, photoshop)
Final Cut Pro (Arguably fastest editing software)
iMovie (fine for simple cuts)
Blackmagic Resolve (Best value, best colour grading, some editing + animation quirks)

Blackmagic Resolve – Is actually several apps in one, which you choose at the bottom of the screen:

Media – file + project management
Cut – A streamlined, simplified editor
Edit – Where you’d spend most time editing
Fusion – Visual Effects, motion graphics
Color – Colour correcting and colour grading
Fairlight – Audio processing
Deliver – Exporting / rendering

Learning DaVinci Resolve

General learning video-editing software process might be – across a few tutorials – learn:

– general overview of software
– each part of the interface, where tools are
– how file importing works
– how basic editing operations work
– important keyboard shortcuts for things you do regularly (so you use keyboard lots rather than mousing around to do stuff )
– how to export
– more nuanced details of editing..
– how to fade in / out on one clip
– how to transition between one clip and another
– how to change a clip’s speed
– how to add visual effects
– how to add titles
– How to use blending modes? (How one layer of video relates to another below it)

With Resolve specifically – you can get by without it, but eventually you’ll also need to learn what a node based system is, and how to use it. (Especially for colour-grading).

Basic RESOLVE principles / user interface etc 
See Blackmagic’s official learning tutorials (covers all mentioned above)

3 Good RESOLVE courses – see which tutor style suits you best..
– Introduction to DaVinci Resolve for Beginners (2024) – by Casey Faris (1 x 4.5 hour video)
– Beginner crash course (2.5hr) – Jason Yadlovski
– List of short resolve tutorials related to colour – Darryn Mostyn
– Mastering Resolve (videos around various principles) – Cullen Kelly

Realistically, you’d need to set aside at least 3 x half-days, to go through tutorials, and compare back and forth, with your own examples on your laptop, to get to the point of being able to start a project properly and confidently, knowing you can capture, import, edit and export in a way thats going to make everything work as it should.

HARDWARE

List of editor needs:

• • External monitor – how to set-up external monitor on mac laptop. (Editing feels easier, when interface on one screen, footage on another)
    (Considerations : mostly resolution…eg Do you need it to display 4k?
    Need minimum res of HD – 1920×1080 – more pixels will let you arrange more freely on screen)
  • External HD (why to choose SSD ) ( eg 1tb or 2tb )
    SSDs are faster, fail less, but more $ Good as main drive.
    HDDs are cheaper, and good for keeping back-ups.
  • Back-ups:  NAS or the cloud/online, or manually back-up, makes copies via ‘Dock + HDDs‘ like I do..

The Three Controllers of Light in a Camera

Mostly you’re dealing with various combinations of: Shutter Speed + Aperture + ISO:

Shutter Speed – aka For how long is the light coming in?
– eg 1/2, 1/50th, 1/100th, 1/800th of a second etc… 
– each gives a different effect (sharpness vs blurriness) 
– You can use whatever you like for photography…
– For video – to be perceived as cinematically pleasing to the eye the shutter speed needs to be half the frame rate…  eg 25fps – needs a shutter of 1/50th
50fps needs 1/100th (effectively half the amount of light per frame, aka darker, meaning slow-speed filming often needs more external lights… ) 

Aperture – How much light is coming in through the lense? (aperture = smaller or larger hole for the light) eg f2, f2.8, f4 etc

ISO – a gain / boost – brings noise / grain as you go higher.

Combining those 3 will give various effects, including blurry or sharp backgrounds, clean or grainy images, motion blur with movement etc. (explanation one, and two)

Native ISO – Cameras will be optimised to work best at a particular ISO, to give best image.
Some cameras offer a dual ISO or triple ISO – offering multiple ISOs they work great at…
eg Canon C80 – native ISOs of 800, 3200, and 12800, Sony FX3 native ISOs of 640, 12800.
Other cameras will have a very noisy image at an ISO of 12800, which is a lot of boosting, but both of these cameras can use this huge boost and still have a clean image in very low light settings.

Frame Rate… (frames per second) – eg 25fps / 50fps / 100 fps 

Most video in Australia is PAL / 25 fps – which means recording at 50fps, enables footage to be played at half-speed, at 25fps and still appear as smooth motion.

CAMERAS 

These are the questions I ask, when thinking of a new camera:

Quality of image? And esp Image quality in low-light?
Sensor size?
Dynamic range?
Recording format options + frame rates? (can it shoot for slow-motion in 4k?)
Does it have built-in ND filters?
Focussing? Whats the Auto-focus like?
Ergonomics? How does it feel?
Menu system and buttons? How streamlined and intuitive is it?
Professional connections for sound input, video output?

Low light capability
What quality image is possible, at dusk, at night, in low-lit situations?

Sensor size
Eg full frame / APSC – what’s the difference?

Dynamic Range – measured in stops of light
Higher number means greater range visible between darkest dark and brightest bright.
Canon C70 – 16
Sony FX3 – 15
Blackmagic 4k – 13
The human eye – 21-24 stops

ND Filters
Aka – a ’Neutral Density’ filter – effectively sunglasses for your camera…reducing the amount of light coming in…
Does the camera have these built-in, rather than having to add one manually in front of the lense(s)?

Why are ND filters useful? Example – You want to film Kamahl saying something at the beach, with the background a little blurred. You are shooting at 25fps, so need to have 1/50th shutter speed. You set ISO to the lowest it can go eg 100, and then adjust the aperture – but the brightness of the sunny day means you need to be at F16 or F22, to be exposed well… which means all background is sharp…

To be able to bring that aperture down to say F2.8 or lower, you need to limit the light coming in, by adding ND filters… If built into camera, you merely press buttons. If external, you have to get them from a bag, attach to lense, and attach a different one if need darker etc. and need to detach and re-attach if changing lenses to get a different shot.

Focus And AutoFocus
Example situation: interview where a blurry background is preferred, meaning shallow focus eg F2
With a narrow range of focus depth, someone leaning forward and back will be in and out of focus…

– Autofocus – Does the camera have quality AF – or will shots get because the focus is wandering / jittery?
– Manual focus – done with adjusting lense by hand, or by adjusting device attached to lense, to do more ergonomically while filming + walking.

Sound 
– Does it have XLR inputs? (eg to attach pro mics, or sound direct from audio desk)
– Wireless mics for interviews (best for ease of use, quality)
– External recording (for higher quality, and closer use of mic etc) eg zoom H4

Video Output
– HDMI
– SDI

Stabilisation
– Buy a decent tripod once, and have it forever, across many camera upgrades. Don’t have footage be unusable because the cheap tripod was wobbly, or panned jerkily.
– Some cameras have inbuilt stabilisation which reduce ‘jitters’ / make smoother movements / keep crisper focus while moving
– Some lenses have inbuilt stabilisation.
– Camera bag (for stabilisation with portable, documentary wandering)
– Gimbals – eg DJI RS4 pro

Time sync (for syncing separately recorded cameras, or camera and audio, in an edit)
– external time-sync, using time-code devices
– software time-sync (eg resolve)

Battery life / power
How long does the battery last?
Can external power be used? (eg V-Mount batteries, which can be used to power camera, lights, external monitors etc, and need related housing to attach to camera)

Lenses 
Ideally you can cover at least these 3:
1 x wide (lower than 50mm, eg 35mm, 24mm, or fish-eye type wideness with 16, or lower)
1 x ‘normal’ human visual range eg 50mm on a full-frame sensor = normal view
1 x tele/zoom (greater than 50mm, eg 85mm, 100mm, 200mm, 300mm etc)

Lense Considerations: lower F-number = better in low-light, in-built-stabilisation, quality of glass ($)
Ideally matches your camera mount… but adaptors are also available.

Primes vs zoom ranges?
Primes eg 50mm have the best quality
Zoom ranges can be more convenient for filming – eg 16-35, 28-70, 70-200 etc – but may not have the low-light capacity of primes within the same range, and may also get darker as you change zoom range.

Cameras with built-in lenses
A 2025 video camcorder style camera can offer a portable camera, ease of use, built-in zoom range, great value, and a decent image – just won’t reach the heights of the prettiest cinematic camera images.

Camera Monitor
What is the on-camera monitor like? And like in direct sunlight? (aka how bright is it?)
Many use a larger external monitor, to have a bigger image to more easily see if image is in focus.
You would attach this to a camera cage.
eg NINJA V / Blackmagic monitor – or Newwer etc
Better monitors will include features like ‘false colour‘ options, to quickly be able to test light levels in an image, or being able to load-on custom colour grading files (LUTS) to see live image as it will look when colour graded later.

LIGHTING + ACCESSORIES

Lighting can be hired for jobs, but worthwhile to get at least 1 portable light to help with shooting.

eg very portable, battery operated LED, for attaching to cage, or placing on set – Amaran / aputure / Nanlite / small rig etc
Or RGB tubes for placing on set, adding colour hints
Or small LED (eg 60W) with capacity to add lighting modifiers (eg diffusers) – eg Aputure / Godox / Zhiyun etc
(example range)

Which camera to get?

I’d weigh up all of the above, and find a sweet spot for value and what I want to shoot….
And yes, depends on budget… ie your available budget needs to cover –
either a camera body that has almost everything you need builtin, and whatever extras
or – a camera body, plus lenses, cage, cables, adaptors, etc

Depending on your budget, can compare equivalents to the
Blackmagic studio cam pocket 4k or 6k, that you’re interested in..

Canon?
Sony?
Lumix?
Camcorder?

IPHONE RECOMMENDATIONS 

– cage – or cage with handles
– combo cage kit with light, mic, desk tripod
– light
– microphone
– lenses ( eg moment )
– filters (for colour correction, style…eg these )
– external HD
– app / recording settings 
– Use Blackmagic app rather than built in iPhone app, to better control exposure / focus / colour temperature etc while filming…  

Courses