1.3. Record a variety of shots
A frequent mistake made by beginners is the tendency to open up the shot too much. In this sense, it is necessary to consider where the real interest of what we want to show is. If it is the details, then it will be essential to focus on showing them, especially if our video will be viewed online on services such as YouTube or Vimeo with low resolution for mobile devices or websites. In these cases, it will be viewed on a 640 x 360 pixel screen, a size that does not facilitate the observation of details in very general shots. However, video sharing websites now accept higher resolutions of 4K and 8K. For videos uploaded to Instagram, we should keep in mind that the aspect ratio should always be 9:16 (16:9 in landscape mode). More information about video specifications on social media can be found on this page.
Another common tendency is to record sequence shots, i.e. to press the record button and record continuously until you decide to stop filming. Although this is a cinematographic technique, we should keep in mind that doing it this way also involves a lot more editing work afterwards, unless we do it in a specific and very planned manner. That is why it can be very useful to play with a variety of shots, and thus make the editing work more agile. For example, we do an initial take of a general shot to set the location, and then record other types of shots in different positions and angles. This allows for more resources and more visual play during editing.
In this video, you can see some cinematographic examples with sequence shots.
In these cases, it is advisable to take the shots separately and not to use the zoom of the camera, unless it is absolutely necessary. Remember that you can organise the shots during subsequent editing based on the narrative you want to develop, i.e. it is not necessary to record them in order. As for zooming, it is important to bear in mind that digital zoom is not optimal, unless you have high-resolution equipment. It is also useful to know the differences between digital zoom and optical camera movements. Rather than focusing solely on aesthetic results, it is important to consider the expressive possibilities that camera movements allow.
It is best to shoot short takes with varied shots, and to take into account close-ups and detail shots.