Lights, Camera … Um

My Weekend Mission: create some video clips showing students how to use measuring equipment (rulers, protractors, that kind of thing) and then upload them to TeacherTube.

How hard could it be? I was so confident that this would be the easy peasey bit of my big measuring project that I left the videos until last.

The fact that I didn’t have a video camera was admittedly something of a hurdle, but I borrowed a camera from school and all seemed well.

Except it wasn’t. My TeacherTube channel remains empty because all I have managed to create is a selection of completely unusable videos: all much too gloomy too see what’s going on – although my hands are alarmingly bright. In fact my luminous hands would put brilliant white paint in the shade.

Eventually I concluded that I need some brighter lighting – or a sunny day. 100W lightbulbs are on the shopping list for the first time ever.

My career as a film director sems to be getting off to a rather shaky start.

2 comments to Lights, Camera … Um

  • What you describe sounds a bit suspicious. Most modern video cameras on ‘Auto’ will work okay in indoor daylight or with modest lightbulb coverage.

    I’m wondering if you have somehow set the camera to ‘manual’?

  • At the risk of sounding like I’m blaming the kit (which obviously I am)…

    It wasn’t a proper video camera, just a very, very cheap and slightly naff digital camera. Now that my own camera has come back – it was faulty (Grr), but is now perfect 🙂 – I’ve tried again. Hey presto! The results aren’t bad at all. It’s still not really a video camera, just a point and shoot that does video clips, but I think it’ll be OK for what I need.

    Attempt two this weekend, I think.

    (And yes, you’re right. I probably hadn’t set the other one correctly)