How to Become a Videographer

Video Transcript

"You are ready to take that next step with your camera work. Hi I'm Christopher Rokosz, actor, director and producer and I'm going to give you some tips on how to become a professional videographer. Well videographer or camera operator, director of photography or just camera man involves different things just like photographer, videographer or sometimes called photogs. It is important to know the lingo and the jargon and that's your first tip. The other thing is to get your camcorder out there and if you don't have one get one and film everything all the time. It's about practice, practice, practice and that is one of the things that separates a professional from an amateur is knowing their piece of equipment. Once you get your camera learn its features. Some of the things that you are going to want to master right off the bat are focus, and not just am I blurry or is my subject blurry or not blurry you also want to be able to master your gain, you want to be able to master your shutter speed, you want to be able to master whether your iris, or whether you are stepped up or stepped down too low and the overall picture of it. Now what you are going to find out is that your consumer brand cameras don't make those things manually accessible very easily so you may have to go into the menu function of them and change them. So what it is worth the time to set up the beautiful shot. You'll love this part, watch a lot of television and film. Seriously critically break it apart. How are they are filming that shot or composing that shot rather? Where is the tree is it in the foreground, the midground or the background? Are they in a close up wide shot, establishing shot, extreme close up, being able to identify able to identify those different shots and deciding when to use them. What type of thing are you starting to form is it going to be a videography where it is going to be plays and sporting events or is it going to be cinema style where the camera is almost always on a tripod or professional crane or steady cam type harness. All these things are things to take into consideration. Now breaking it in once you have got those which are the basic skills. It is difficult to get a job in the business if you don't know the terminology and the basic composition on how to operate a camera. From there start to produce some of your best work you want to put up on your demo wheel or on the web and look for camera operational or videography opportunities in your area. Can I videotape that play for you guys and maybe sell it at a small profit? Can I start to do this and then through that just like any other art your name will start to get out there. Here's a guy who produces awesome incredible work, like me, Christopher Rokosz. We'll see you on T.V."