What Is Watchable Video?

What Is Watchable Video?

For better or for worse, what's on television today defines what's "watchable." Next time you're watching television, pay attention to the following elements.

First, in most shows, note the relative lack of camera motion. Specifically, while the show shifts from camera to camera, there is very little panning (moving the camera from side to side) or fast zooming (changing the zoom magnification either into or away from the subject). You'll almost never see the shaking typical of a handheld camerawork.

Second, note how transitions are used as the behind-the-scenes producer shifts from camera to camera. Transitions are visual effects that help smooth the change from shot to shot. Inside of a scene, or within a series of shots from a single location during a single time period, most directors simply cut between the various clips. One camera angle stops, and the other starts.

When television shows use a transition to alert the viewer that the time or location is about to change, it's almost always a simple dissolve (an effect that briefly merges the current clip with the next clip and then displays the second) or fade to black. On kids' shows and "zany" sitcoms, you may see more "artistic" transitions, but they're not random. Typically, the effect relates to the subject matter of the show for instance, a crocodile dragging the second clip over the first in Crocodile Hunter.

Finally, note the pace of change. Few, if any, shows (or movies) display a static screen for longer than 10 or 15 seconds. News and sports shows use multiple text streams to keep viewers' eyes occupied, along with frequent background updates and cuts to reporters in the field, while sitcoms and other shows change cameras and camera angles frequently.

So here's the bar: videos worth watching use stable shots filmed from multiple angles and don't introduce random special effects, but they still manage to introduce some element of change every 5 to 15 seconds. If you want to produce watchable video, that's your target.

You really can't produce watchable video without shooting well and capturing well. For the most part, this chapter discusses how to shoot well, while the remainder of the book covers the capture and editing side.