Watch the video below, shot recently for Robert Scoble’s Why Russian Technologists Aren’t Cool post. This video is so distracting from a technique standpoint, that I can’t ever make my own decision about whether I think Russian Technologists are cool or not (I happen to know some I consider cool)? The story you are telling with your video should never be overshadowed by the techniques you use to tell the story.
I like Robert. I’ve known him since he spoke at Gnomedex 1 and I’ve been invited to his house on more than one occasion (hopefully this post won’t prevent me from being invited back again). Someone needs to help him stop shooting such awful video, I can only hope I can help just a little.
If you want to shoot video that looks just as bad as the one embedded above, follow these steps:
1) Don’t use a tripod
2) Don’t hold your camera far enough from your subject to get focus.
3) Move your camera rapidly to increase blurring and make it hard for auto-focus to keep up.
4) Shoot video with one hand to increase shake, instead of holding the camera with two hands for improved stabilization.
I’m fairly certain Robert used his iPhone for this video, but he could have gotten a tolerable to watch video with the cheap optics in the iPhone simply by thinking through how he was shooting the video.
The videos on my Kyte.tv channel are shot with my Nokia N95. The whole point of that method of shooting is so I can get the video up to the Internet within a few minutes.
I did a more professional interview of the Russian with my $4,000 Sony, which I +do+ have on a tripod, etc.