Christmas is less than a week away. With a little planning now, you can have the perfect holiday home movies. Gather your gear now to avoid disappointing “equipment fail” on Christmas morning.
Test your camera now to make sure everything is working properly. If not, it has never been easier to get into HD video than now. Many HD consumer video cameras are under $1000.
Buy plenty of tape if you use that recording medium. If you use a hard drive model or one which takes SD cards, make sure you have plenty of free space. There is nothing so disappointing as missing that “perfect” moment because your tape has just ran out.
“Tape is cheap. Memories are priceless.”
Charge your batteries. If possible, buy an extra battery or two. You can charge one while you use one, and swap them out when you need to. Don’t be that parent that missed your child’s thrill and excitement when they opened their last, special gift – the one they asked for all year.
Shoot with as much lighting as possible. Open the curtains. Turn on the tree lights, the ceiling lights, the lamps… anything that makes the room brighter will make your footage look better.
Shoot “extra” footage. Professionals refer to it as B-Roll. Take some shots that tell the viewer where you were. Shoot a segment of the tree, and the lights. If there is snow, be sure to capture that on your video. All these elements help tell your story, and make the viewing experience richer.
Be candid. Life is not staged. Capture what really happened. In my home video collection, it is life’s little “bloopers” that my family asks to watch again and again. Go ahead and get video of everyone in their jammies and bed-head. These moments let future generations know what it was really like to be there, because, as I always say…
Christmas is less than a week away. With a little planning now, you can have the perfect holiday home movies. Gather your gear now to avoid disappointing “equipment fail” on Christmas morning.