Fundamentals of Shooting Visual Sequences

The effective use of basic sequencing in visual clips is key to high-quality video production. Professional videographer, editor and media production professor David Burns offers tips for shooting video sequences gleaned from his ten years as a judge for the News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Burns is a professor at Salisbury University and also teaches electronic journalism workshops around the world most recently in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

My name is David Burns

I am a professional videographer, editor and media production professor.

I have also been a judge for the past ten years for the

prestigious Emmy Awards in the United States.

In my years of judging the one thing that remains consistent among Emmy Awards winners

is the effective use of basic sequencing of visual clips

The sequence is the foundation of all video storytelling. Sequences

one, help the editor compress time and create an interesting peace in the story

two, sequences satisfy the viewer basic human need for context and detail and

three, sequences allow the storyteller to efficiently and effectively

reinforce the narrative elements in his or her video story

To incorporate sequences in your stories should a variety of wide, medium and tight shots

this helps move the viewer through a story while keeping the viewer's interest

by changing shots and shot angels.
Here is how to do it

Sequencing helps compress time in a video

you can condense something that take several minutes, hours or days into a very brief time

Shoot a few establishing shots of the action to provide context

use medium shots from different angles to give the viewer a variety of perspectives

then, shoot about four times as many close up's as wide shots or medium shots

to produce the detail necessary to satisfy the viewer desire for detail

As its name imply, a close up shows a small portion of the larger scene

that means close ups help avoid continuity jumps in action

also known as jump cuts which confuse the viewer

Here is an example of a jump cut

You see can how it disrupts continuity and disorients the viewer

Another way to condense time and avoid jump cuts in your stories

is to make sure that people performing the action leave the screen

once a person leaves the frame you can show them again doing something else

or even show them in a different location without breaking continuity or creating jump cuts

Here is a suggestion

when shooting visual sequences avoid using camera movements like pants, tilts and zooms

Keep the camera still and let the action occur within the frame

Don't feel compelled to follow the action

remember it's ok to let the action leave and enter the frame

One reason to avoid camera movements is a camera movements

take time to present and they can disrupt the pacing of your story telling

once you take these shots to the edit room to assemble these visuals together

The best film makers, documentarians and news videographers utilize sequencing to tell stories

since you can make a video sequence as long or as short as you want

a series of ten shots oryou can tell the same story in two or three shots

video sequencing allows the editor tremendous latitude

We will talk about editing the visual sequence together in a different tutorial

but now you know the fundamentals of shooting a sequence of video shots.

Good luck and have fun.