Experience with Video Camera

In last Internet2 class I was in charge of filming the video conference between NYU and UCI. Main purpose of the conference was to exchange possible ideas for the Internet2 concert on April 28, 2007. While holding the camera and filming the entire class, I raised the following questions to myself.

1. How do I hold the camera (without a tripod) steadily?

I found holding the camera in my hand for a long period of time extremely difficult and not good for my pianist hands. I overcame this problem quickly by simply placing on a desk and adjusting the height slightly.

2. Who (or what) do I focus on?

I assumed that the camera should focus on the speaker for the most part. However, there were times when the speaker was pointing out something on the screen. Then I turned the camera to the screen so that we would know what he was explaining. Zooming in/out was difficult to control, since I never remembered which side to turn to to zoom in/out. I ended up switching back and forth, which would make the picture not smooth and thus should be avoided.

3. How do I want to frame the picture?

This was very challenging. While the connection was active with UCI, I filmed mainly the projected image. But when two students from our site improvised using voice and flute, collaborating with movements of the dancers from UCI, I did not know how to frame the scene. I wanted to capture both the movements from UCI and the music improvisation at NYU. I ended up filming parts of the improvisation and most of the dance movements.

4. When do I change tapes?

Another challenge was to know when to change tapes so that I would not miss any important scenes. For this I waited for moments of simple conversations between NYU and UCI rather than exchanges of raw materials and ideas and I quickly changed the tapes.

I realized that a camera played an extremely important role in creating multi media projects such as this Internet2 project of NYU and UCI. I would like to explore further the possibilities of a video camera and use it as an inspirational tool.