Thank you for agreeing to film a video to promote the NYSF Year 12 Program!
Your grassroots video will help show potential NYSFers what lies ahead of them and the amazing people they could meet, and inspire the next generation of NYSF participants to apply for the program.
We want to hear your story in any form of presentation, whether it be a direct piece to camera, a song, chant, or interpretative dance!
We will add titles and captions to the videos and post them on the NYSF social media pages, and may cut the videos together to make a joint promo vid.
We've put together this small guide to give you some tips and tricks for making good-quality videos.
Lighting
- Have as much lighting as possible but stay out of direct sunlight if you can.
- Avoid filming with bright light sources behind you, such as windows or other backlighting.
- Avoid filming in places where it is too dark.
- If you can’t avoid bright light behind you, try facing the window instead or use lamps to shine more light towards your face.
Audio
Aim for the best quality sound you can:
- Avoid noisy locations. If you’re filming outdoors, make sure it's in an area sheltered from the wind.
- If you need to, use headphones with inbuilt microphones to improve sound quality.
- If the location has too much echo, you can dampen this by placing pillows or cushions behind and to the sides of your smartphone.
Delivery
- Speak clearly and concisely. Don't feel like you need to rush through your lines.
- It is helpful to write out a script that you can refer to. Place this in your eye line to avoid looking down or away when addressing the camera.
- Practice in front of the mirror! It sounds silly, but practise really does make perfect if you’re aiming to nail a line you’ve written.
- Do as many takes as you feel necessary.
Image quality
- Set camera resolution to the highest resolution possible.
- Ensure you have enough space on your smartphone. Higher-resolution footage takes up more space.
- Clean your camera or phone screen. Another one that sounds silly, but we touch the screens all the time and often a great video can be ruined by fingerprints over the camera.
Framing
- Film against a plain, block-colour background and wear clothes that give a good contrast with your background so you don’t blend in.
- You can film either in landscape or portrait mode, but make sure you check that you’re in the frame properly.
- Stabilise your smartphone by placing it on a tripod or something like a stack of books at the right height.
- It is okay to film slightly wider and not cropped close. We can crop in closer during editing but we cannot zoom out if the shot is already too close.