Where Do You Get New Ideas for Your Videos?

Altair 4 wrote on 7/27/2009, 12:56 PM

I'm not talking about subjects...I'm only memorializing family vacations and kid events. But I'm starting to feel like the "look" of my work is getting predictable.

I've tried looking at stuff on YouTube, but alot of the stuff there is so poorly shot (camera bobbing all over the place) or poorly edited that I'm not learning any new techniques. I've seen slide shows on there that have every shot having a pan or zoom built into it or every transition known to mankind used in a 4 minute show. So I guess I've learned what "not to do."

Where do you get new ideas?

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 7/27/2009, 2:54 PM

Check the 100+ clips here: http://vimeo.com/groups/canonhv/videos
These are -- in my opinion -- some of the best videos ever created with the $500 HV20/30 camcorders. Most of these were shot and edited by enthusiasts, not professionals. I am sure you will get inspiration from these.

gogiants wrote on 7/27/2009, 5:44 PM

Eugenia's suggestion is a good one... Vimeo is great for ideas. I have a Vimeo album set up for lots of ideas I have gotten there.

Also, try a search on the particular camera you own... you'll see interesting things from people in the same "category" as yourself. The search works well so you'll find lots of ideas.

Vimeo is such a refreshingly different planet than YouTube!

gogiants wrote on 7/27/2009, 5:49 PM

OK, so you got me going on this one!

A quick little "family video" on Vimeo that looks great...
http://vimeo.com/1170451

Also, this is a book that gave me a lot of great ideas on what to shoot, how to mix in interesting shots, etc.

"The Little Digital Video Book" by Michael Rubin

Lots of practical advice on how to make even "boring" stuff interesting. Look it up on Amazon and look at Chapter 3 in the table of contents. Don't let the chapters that focus on managing tapes, etc. fool you: you'll get real value out of it even if you have a flash-based camcorder...

ritsmer wrote on 7/28/2009, 12:22 AM

Hi Altair 4

Normally the family and holiday-videos are made as a diary: Day 1 we saw this, Day 2 we saw that etc. etc.

One idea is to cut the footage in a non diary way - i.e. The Paris Metro, The Paris markets, The Paris museums, People on the street in Paris, Buildings in Paris, Cafe's in Paris etc...

The hardest thing doing this is to persuade the family to wear more or less the same clothes every day when you are collecting clips to one of the above situations - and also pray for more or less the same light every day :-)))

Altair 4 wrote on 7/28/2009, 8:12 AM

Thanks for the tips and the lead to Vimeo.

One style that I've used on vacation footage, like going to Disney, is to shoot from my daughter's viewpoint. I get down lower to the ground and video what she is seeing, then pull back to include her in the video. As my wife says, "Hon, it's all about her - don't try to video everything we see."

I also have broken the trip down into segments for the final DVD - with sections for "Characters We Met", "Things We Saw Along the Way," "Us," etc. This works pretty well, but I can't use it the next time we hit Disney.

I'll have to spend some time perusing those presentations on Vimeo. Thanks to all for the tips, but feel free to keep them coming!

Altair 4 wrote on 7/28/2009, 1:23 PM

Eugenia,

Your 'Paris Short Cuts' and 'Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk' videos blew me away. Incredible and a great (but probably unattainable) inspiration. Thank you.