Using What You Already Know

Many people are already familiar with taking digital photos. Shooting movies uses many of the same principles of composition and lighting. But there are a few techniques that are new for most people who are already familiar with photography: recording action, getting high-quality audio, and creating sequences.

Using what you already knows means you can put to work everything you know from watching the thousands of hours of television shows and movies you've probably seen. While most people don't usually pay too much attention to how movies and films are constructed, there is a lot of visual grammar that you probably already know but may not have thought much aboutuntil now.

So here's a suggestion: The next time you see a television program or movie, notice how long each shot lasts, how often the camera moves, and how the shots are edited together.

To focus your attention on the visuals alone, try watching a show without the audio. Analyze the shots and how they are edited together, and you'll see that series of shots edited togethercalled sequencesprovide the basic building blocks in the edited footage.