All Parties tell a story and all events are epics - a guide to those who are new to shooting video

by Lance Albright

Every video you shoot should tell a story. It has a beginning, middle and end. 

Whether you are simply documenting your kid’s birthday party, a little league game or a wedding, every event has a structure. It doesn't matter how small the occurrence or how short the event. Unless you pay someone to watch your movies or have very cute kids, you need to motivate your audience to be interested in your productions. (Alright, the grand parents will watch anything with your little tykes in it...)

 Obviously the easiest structure to follow is chronological. First this happened, then this, then this. You don’t have to shoot in this order but your finished production should have a pattern and structure. 

For example, let's plan a video of a typical children’s birthday party.  

In the morning, you might want to start with interviewing your kid when he or she first wakes up. Then to be a little creative, you may then want to cut to a close-up of the invitation with some cool background music and graphics superimposed over it. This could serve as a great title section for the movie. 

Your next shots might be preparing for the party and getting everything ready. Your next shots could be a series of the guests arriving, then a montage of various party games cut to some cool rock and roll, and finally ending with everyone singing happy birthday, and opening up the presents. Document the guests leaving, the big mess in the house, and maybe then end with a still shot of your 5 year old napping after the big event. You get the idea. Create a story.

 I recommend that during the days before the party, write down the shots you will need. Don't do it at the last second. Take a few days and let the list evolve and improve as new ideas come to you. On the day of the event, carry around a checklist to make sure you get all the shots you need. 

Of course, be open to “found” shots. Things just happen and you should be open to catching the unexpected. If you have an extra camcorder or two, you might want to "volunteer" some of the other people at the party and let them do some taping. Many times they will get shots and angles you may have never thought of or even dismissed out of hand as goofy or unsuitable. However later those shots may turn out to be kind of interesting and just what your video needed to slice it up a bit..

Putting it All Together

Depending on your computer and editing gear, you might want to edit all this in the camcorder, carefully shooting one scene after another. If your camcorder supports it, you could separate the scenes with pre-created graphic still frames or title frames. Not only does this add a little pizzazz to your production, but it also gives you some leeway on your assemble edits.

You can also connect two DV camcorders together via their 1394/FireWire ports and assemble edit between them, building your final presentation. And of course, if you have nonlinear editing software on your computer, you can edit your final production together and add sophisticated titles, effects and transitions.

This same kind of planning can apply to all kinds of special events, occasions and parties. Weddings, bar mitzvahs, graduation parties - all of these events can benefit from a little planning before you drag gout the camcorder and start shooting.