Hollywood style for your home videos

	Tip 1: Use a homemade dolly
	Tip 2: Put together a budget-friendly light kit
	Tip 3: Stay focused

  Tip 1: Use a homemade dolly

Some of the smoothest, most cinematic moves you’ll see are dolly shots, where the director mounts a camera on a wheeled tripod and moves it toward or away from a stationary subject.

 

How can you do it? Simple:

• Fake a dolly with a skateboard or a baby carriage (minus the baby, of course).
• How about a rolling office chair? You’d need a dolly driver to maneuver for you, but with a couple of rehearsals, you could get an interesting new shot.

  Tip 2: Put together a budget-friendly light kit

Camera-mounted lights, though easy to find and relatively inexpensive, may not be the best answer to your indoor lighting problems. You–and your subjects–will be happier with multiple light sources spread around the scene. Try these tips.

• Turn on a few more lamps.
• Replace some of the low-wattage bulbs in the room with some 75- or 100-watt ones.
• Bring in a desk light and position it close to the action.

Do whatever it takes to bring the overall light level of the room up to a decent range.

  Tip 3: Stay focused

Relax, find something interesting, and enjoy your subjects. You can always cut it short in the editing.

• Don’t cut off the action too soon.
• Let the actions develop and play themselves out.
• Avoid changing your angle constantly as if you were a dog hunting for treats.