Video Clinic, Part 3

Strategies for a Dive Vacation Video:
     A video tape of your vacation can bore your viewers to tears, or it can be a high-voltage production that anyone would enjoy watching. The difference is your choice of video shots while filming, and the smartness of your editing when you compile the footage into a final product.
     As we've discussed earlier, you need to complete each story -- the big story, the sequences within the big story, and the pieces within each sequence -- with a beginning and an ending. You must provide transition shots between sequences and between pieces within a sequence. Know the type of shots you need in advance. Envision your upcoming vacation as a professional video tape and plan to get the footage.

What's the big story here?
     Your first scene should tell the viewer what the video is about. I like to use a high-voltage wide-angle underwater sequence, like a school of barracuda swimming through a kelp forest, as a backdrop for the video title and credits. I add theme music to this sequence. After establishing that this is a scuba video, I give the viewer the "frame of reference" for this particular video -- whether this is somebody's dive vacation, a training video, or a scientific "fish identification" video. (I once made a half-hour video that was all three. Copies available on request.)

Even a quick trip to Deer Creek should have a beginning and an end to surround the below-water footage. At left, diver prep sets the stage for the dive. At right, a diver walks from the water to end the "big story."

     To establish the "big story" of your vacation, show footage of your dive buddies packing or kissing the spouse goodbye. Or show an airplane taking off or landing. Or show your group hauling luggage past the welcome sign of the dive resort. Whatever you show, try to keep it short and simple.
     The big story must also have an end. This is where most videographers run out of air, so plan the ending of your video ahead of time (so it's consistent with the scenes you used to begin the video). The story should conclude with something that gives a sense of ending. This can be divers hauling gear away from a boat, loading gear into a van, or cursing California traffic on the way home. It can be a plane leaving the tropical airport, divers greeting their families back home, or shots of your dive buddy putting his equipment back on the shelf. You can put your ending credits over this final scene.

A good ending should include packing the gear from the boat. If a fish lost its life during your dive video, show it being fried at home. Tie the vacation back to your life with some transition that ends the story at home.

Where are we?
     Establish the general location. Sometimes you've already done this with your "big story" introduction. A wide-angle shot of divers exploring the tropical resort, or footage of the dive boat, gives your viewer a sense of location. Again, the above-water "establishing shot" doesn't need to be long.

A few quick views of the boat at the dock, including divers stowing their gear, will give your viewers a sense of where the on-deck action will occur the next day.

Before I begin my first dive sequence, I show the boat and its surroundings (in this case, Isthmus Harbor on Catalina) to establish the above-water scene. I usually try to include a piece of the boat in the foreground.

Who are they?
     Introduce your cast of divers before they get in the water. For small groups, this is easy. Get closeup shots (head and shoulders) of each diver sometime during the pre-dive footage. This can be while packing gear onto the boat, listening to the pre-dive lecture, or gearing up.

For larger groups, it may be impossible to catch each diver in a closeup while still maintaining the flow of the story. For example, the Sand Dollar (out of Long Beach) carries 28 divers. See if you can get the entire group to cluster around the resort sign or on the dock in front of the boat and say "Hi mom" while you run the camcorder.

     Depending on the purpose of your video, you probably want to record the boat's crew. Unlike your cast of divers, you don't need to "introduce" the boat crew before showing the first dive. You'll usually record some above-water activity on your video, which is the perfect time to videotape the boat crew.

Show the crew member in association with a part of the dive trip. As you're filming the boat leaving the dock, cut to some footage of the captain at the wheel. Show the boat's cook as you record divers loading up their plates.

What's happening here?
     Show the transitional parts of the story. Don't jump from video of "boat leaving dock" to "octopus at 80 feet." Show the divers gearing up. It doesn't need to be long -- only a few seconds. Show a diver entering the water. Cut to below-water footage of divers descending. With about 12 seconds of video, you've shown the viewer what's happening.

	Shots of dive buddies helping each other gear up make strong video.		Catch a word or two from the divemaster about current or temperature.
	Every underwater sequence must start with a diver entering the water.		A swimmer's-eye view of a diver hitting the water is cool!
	An over-under shot completes a smooth transition to the undersea world, but don't over-do it.		Now a few seconds of your divers descending gets you ready for your first action story.

     Just as the "dive sequence" of your story has a beginning transition, it should have an ending transition. Film divers swimming up, hovering at the safety stop, grabbing the boat ladder, and ascending the ladder (from aboard the boat). Show divers stripping their wet suits and exchanging news about what they saw down there.

	Ending the dive sequence starts with a shot from below of diver heading up.		The safety stop, as two divers hang on the anchor line.
	Arriving at the boat, the diver reaches for the ladder.		From above, the diver climbs out onto the boat.

     On your final video, you can compile several dives into one dive. In fact, it works a lot better that way. You'll have all the transitions you need to make a complete video sequence.

Is the interaction complete?
     When you run into a friend on the street, you say hello, give some news, listen to his response, then say goodbye. The individual pieces within your dive sequence should also have a "hello," some "news," a "response," and a "goodbye."
     Let's take a shipwreck. The diver descending towards the propellor is the "hello," the introduction of the subject. Cut to closer view of diver shining light on the marine organisms growing on the propellor. That's "news." Cut to closeup view of diver's face as he looks up, then down, shining his light. That's the "response." Now maybe you go in for a diver's-eye view of an anemone on the propellor -- more "news." Cut out to long shot of diver pulling back and swimming from propellor towards another part of the ship. That's "goodbye." Each piece within your video sequence should be a complete little story, with a beginning and an ending or a transition to the next piece.

The video experience of catching a crawdad at Deer Creek is NOT complete until you've shown your diver interacting with the critter. Add a diver's-eye view (as at left) and a diver closeup (as at right).

Are your actors in the spotlight?
     Before the dive, tell your dive buddies to treat the camera just like another diver. Keep the action going, but it's OK to look at the camera and guesture or point at something interesting.
     Years ago, I told my teenagers to quit looking at the camera. Every time I turned on the video lights, they'd stop whatever interesting thing they were doing. They'd turn full-face to the camcorder, drift up from the fascinating subject and wave for twenty seconds. But now they've gone too far the other way. They won't even turn and acknowledge that the camera (and therefore the video's viewer) is looking at them.

Finding this blue shark head covered with lobsters isn't complete without the diver reaction. Tell your dive buddies it's OK to look at the camera, and it's good to make those "Hey, this is cool!" expressions.

     Let your divers know what you expect. Tell them to slow down so you can position yourself, but to continue their actions when the camera fires up. And it's OK to turn to the camera briefly. Have them pretend the camera is just a dive buddy they happen to like VERY much.

Try to catch all your actors swimming towards the camera at least once. And get a closeup facial shot of each diver while underwater.

What else is going on?

     Use the out-of-water video to transition between in-the-water sequences. For example, let's say you're going to show a reef dive and a night dive. If you show varied above-water activities between the two dives, it gives a sense of passage of time.

Putting  up-top activities between dive sequences gives your viewers a sense of what your vacation was about. It also gives them a break from a solid diet of fish and kelp.

Click on the garibaldi for the next lesson.

About the author: Bruce Argyle is not a professional videographer. In fact, he has trouble giving his videos away. But over the years, he's learned a lot of videotaping principles that he's failed to put into action, so he might sound like an expert to you.