How to Shoot Memorable Videos

These days, anyone with a smartphone can create pretty good videos. Here are some tips to help make yours great: 

Use landscape mode. That way, your videos will fit the dimensions of a TV or computer screen. So, unless you have a specific reason to film in portrait mode, avoid it. 

Shoot for variety. Instead of filming the odd bit here and there and sharing the results one by one, think about how you can tell a story through a variety of photos and clips. An assortment of close-up and wide shots will help make your video more dynamic. For instance, you may want to film a pan of a landscape to establish where the action is taking place. Then get a few close-ups to highlight details and use medium shots to show people doing something or moving through the frame.

Assemble your project. Gather your elements and think about how you’ll piece them together. Maybe the story will be completely linear, or perhaps you’ll want to tease the ending before letting the narrative play out. To get started, think about the old home movies your parents may have filmed, with lots of little clips strung together.

Take advantage of software tools. Apps like Google Photos practically automate the editing process, though they let you manually select clips and images, change their order, select music, and make other small tweaks. This is a great starting point if you don’t want to spend much time on editing and want to share quickly. Software like Apple’s iMovie and Adobe’s Premiere Rush provides the ability to edit with finer detail, work with multiple audio and video tracks, and add on-screen text and effects. Editing with such tools can become addictive because it’s fun to figure out the right elements to tell a great story.