Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Training for Cooking Show

I am going to be doing a healthy cooking show on Bev-Cam. That is the Beverly Cable access network. In order to do shows at Bev-Cam training is necessary. This training involves learning how to direct, produce, camera techniques, host, audio, and interview. The training is four sessions for two hours each night. Last week was our first meeting. I met nine other people who are interested in being trained. We toured the studio and then learned about camera techniques. The first thing we learned about is making sure that we use the rule of thirds to help determine composition. If you envision a tic tac toe board the upper third center is where the eyes should line up. This is called the sweet spots. We saw all the different camera shots such as wide shot, mediium long shot, medium close-up, close up and extreme close-up to mention a few. We also learned the importance of using a tripod so the camera would be steady and smooth. Camera techniques differ with the types of events that are being shot. So a meeting, sporting event and cooking class would use different types of shots and perhaps more than one camera for sporting events.

Camera moves are supposed to focus the viewers' attention. Some of the different techniques we tried (this is hands on right away!) was:
  • Pan - moving the camera left or right on a tripod
  • Tilt - moving the camera up or down on a tripod
  • Zoom- Adjusting the lens to create the illusion of moving the camera closer or away from the subject without physically moving the camera in closer or further away
  • Tip - When zoomingout, tilt down as you go to keep the shot well framed and conversely as you zoom in, be sure to tilt up as you go
There are more techniques and it was amazing how much we learned in one week. We were able to take the camera and try out all of the different techniques.

The people at Bev-Cam are so helpful and knowledgeable. They have a great set-up and have won many awards for New England Cable shows.

I hope to have a great healthy cooking show. This will not get started until after the new year and hopefully will become a monthly event. Stay tuned for more...