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108 P a r t I I Producing Your YouTube Videos

Watch the Background

Did you ever notice the background in a professionally shot video? Probably not,
and that speaks to the care in which it was chosen. You’re not supposed to notice
the background; your attention is supposed to focus on the main subject.

The point is that you need to pay particular attention to what’s behind the subject
in your shot. Don’t just point your camera at an executive sitting behind her desk
without also examining what’s behind that executive. If the background is too busy,
it distracts from the subject; the viewer’s eyes drift to the background instead of to
the person who’s talking.

What kinds of backgrounds do you want to avoid? The list includes things such as
open windows (especially with people walking by outside!), busy wallpaper, clut-
tered bookshelves, and just general clutter. It’s much better to shoot in front of a
plain wall, if you have no other choice.

Even better is to use some sort of professional background. Any good photography
store sells seamless background paper, as well as cloth and muslin backgrounds
with various unobtrusive patterns. If you do a lot of corporate videos, consider cre-
ating your own unique patterned background that incorporates your company’s
logo, either large or in a smaller repeating pattern.

A Little Movement Is Good…

Not all semi-pro videos need to be static. One of the advantages of using a cam-
corder is that, unlike a webcam, you can move it. Get your subject out of her chair
and capture her walking across the room, or moving back and forth between props.
Use the camera in a handheld fashion or, even better, turn it on the tripod to follow
the speaker’s movement. Even in a small YouTube window, it’s okay to have a little
action in the shot.

…But Too Much Movement Is Bad

With that said, one sure way to make your video look amateurish is to show off
your camera technique by zooming in and out, panning back and forth, and other-
wise moving your camera too much. Although some camera movement is good, too
much is bad. Don’t overuse the zoom and pan; it just makes your video difficult to
watch.

This is particularly so when your video plays in a small video window in a web
browser, as it does on YouTube. On the Web, extraneous motion is your enemy.
Even well-crafted motion can sometimes detract from the message. When creating
video for the Web, you want to eliminate all unnecessary motion from both the
camera and from the subject.