Six Tips for shooting digital video 

1. When shooting interviews, get the camera fairly close to your subject and try to interview them in a quiet area. There's nothing worse than shooting a bunch of interviews and then going back to watch them and realizing the audio is so poor that the footage can't be used. Remember: If you interview someone in a noisy area, there is a high risk that the footage won't be any good.

2. Keep the camera steady. So many videos are marred by having jerky camera movements that make them virtually unwatchable. If you need a tripod, use one (we have several that are available for checkout.) But even if you are just holding the camera yourself, just focus on keeping it steady.

3. No panning shots. This goes along with the tip above. Never do a shot when you are panning from left to right, north to south or any variation thereof. Panning shots almost always turn out badly. They lose focus and look jerky and amateurish. If you want to get shots of different locations, just do a steady shot of each thing you want to capture, then edit the shots together later. That will look much better than a jerky pan.

4. Shoot tons of b-roll. You can never have enough b-roll, so shoot as much as you can for every video you do. And remember, b-roll should be something that's visually interesting, meaning shots of activity. A shot of a book, for instance, isn't going to be very interesting because it's just sitting there. Get shots of people moving and doing things.

5. Make each shot relatively short. If you show a shot of someone being interviewed that lasts more than 10 seconds, it's going to become visually boring. So break up interviews with b-roll and try to edit the video so that each shot lasts no more than 10 seconds each, and maybe even shorter than that.

6. Get a variety of shots. Interviews are generally close-ups, but it's good to intersperse close-ups with wider shots. B-roll can be a mix of wide shots and close-ups. For instance, if you are shooting b-roll of someone playing the piano, get a wide shot of them sitting at the piano, then a close-up of their hands on the keyboard, and maybe another close-up of their face as they play. You can also shoot them sitting at the piano from different angles.