No pans, no zooms but more close-ups

I've just seen a video about the Isle of Bali. What an awe inspiring place with such lovely scenery, wonderful seashore, mountains, volcanoes, temples and such colour. A wealth of material to record a holiday of a lifetime.

What a waste it turned out to be. Almost every shot wavering about, no tripod! A long series of zoom out zoom in shots, no cutaways and not a single close up of people, except for the odd accident of half a face. There were no details of the carvings and flowers. Endless shots of the back views of tourists walking away from the camera. Plus hose piping till you felt giddy. Then there were the very colourful dancers that went on and on with long shots all the time.

I know it can be inconvenient to carry a tripod everywhere, but there are monopods, stone walls, posts, veranda balustrades, even a friendly nearby shoulder, if you hold your breath. I despair about the opportunities missed. So much is written about basic rules of filming, framing shots, asking your companions to look at or point to something, giving the opportunity to take the close up detail, thus thinking about the editing later on.
We all have seen some of the best travel films either at the cinema or certainly on the television, so there really is no excuse for not making a mental note of how the film is made to flow by the way the shots are edited.

Recording that extra shot to complete the sound you will need. Holding the scene before zooming or panning is so important. A pause to give the viewer time to see that interesting place, boat or harbour is the one time when the shot length has to be carefully judged.

The more amateur films I see, the more I am amazed that movie makers seem terrified of using Close Ups, BIG CLOSE UPS VERY BIG CLOSE UPS!

So often, the use of this device, which brings life to a movie, is missing. In conversation scenes, cutting between Close Ups brings reality to the dialogue. In drama, tension can be created by Close Ups of hands, lips, feet - whatever relates to the story or to build up suspense between one scene and shooting.

Even if you have prepared a storyboard in advance, don’t miss an opportunity on location to shoot any unexpected happening or item in the vicinity of your shot - eg a small corner of a stained glass window, wall textures, a candle sputtering, a cat walking by, tree branches waving etc. In fact, anything in view that may be of use when editing. This will save trying to re-create a Cutaway on another day, using a still or even having to shoot something from a different location, as I have myself on occasion.

As we all now shoot on video, this extra thought is not costly, as it would have been in film.