Shooting Awesome Video at DVcreators.net

NOW AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD THROUGH DVcreatorsUniversity!

Shooting Awesome Video is the world’s best complete beginning course on shooting high quality video.

If your video footage looks like “Blair Witch” or “Cloverfield”, and you wish it looked more like “Amelie” or “Hero”, Shooting Awesome Video is the perfect learning experience. It is like a complete “consumer film school” for anyone who wants to dramatically improve the quality of the video footage they shoot.

Shooting Awesome Video is not meant for professionals. It was created for novices who wish to learn Hollywood secrets of camera operation, composition, lighting and location sound in a fun, family-friendly, fast-paced course. However, Shooting Awesome Video is such an excellent complete introduction to production it is the perfect prerequisite to more professional-level courses such as our DV Enlightenment lighting course.

Shooting Awesome Video was originally released on CD-ROM, and has already helped thousands of hobbyists, teachers, students, and budding filmmakers learn the essentials of shooting great-looking and great-sounding footage. The American Film Institute chose Shooting Awesome Video as the world’s best beginning production course for a program to teach Los Angeles District high school teachers about shooting digital video.

No one should learn alone. Each screen includes an ”Ask a Question” button that will post your question on our forums for us and thousands of other digital video creators to answer. You are always welcome to join us to ask questions, offer advice, and share tips with other students and your instructor.

What will I learn in this course?

Preproduction

This section covers tips on planning your project.

brainstorming
choosing a “model”
outline
script
storyboard

Camera Operation

This section focuses on setting up your camcorder to get the best results in a variety of situations.

zoom
auto/manual modes
focus
exposure
shutter speed
progressive scan
white balance
filters
preroll/postroll
timecode

Camera Aesthetics

This section focuses on the art of shooting awesome looking video.

rule of thirds
face space
high, low and dutch angles
background considerations
getting coverage of a scene
shooting for the web
shooting tips
accessories

Lighting

This section focuses on using existing lighting, professional lights and ideas for low cost, high quality lights available from a local home improvement store to create magically beautiful footage.

3 point lighting
key light
fill
backlight
background light
the final lighting setup
shooting outside
making your own light kit
using foamcore
making a backdrop

Location Sound

In Hollywood, they say “sound is half the picture”. Yet poor sound is the hallmark of hobbyist video footage. This section covers ways to capture quality location sound, from effective ways to use the built-in mic to showing the use of inexpensive lavalier, wireless lavalier, and shotgun mics.

using the built-in mic
lapel mics
shotgun mics
handheld mics
audio examples for all mics

The Shoot

This section shows a “behind-the-scenes” shoot that demonstrates the techniques shown in the rest of the course.

You’ll see a complete shoot for a short comedic film, watch the director direct the actors, show shots being captured in location order, see a disappearing special effect being shot two different ways, with cool picture-in-picture views of the main camera, and the finished edit of the shoot.

Available for Mac OS X, Windows XP and Windows Vista

Price: $19.95

Click here to ask a question about this course or production in general.

11 Responses to “Shooting Awesome Video”

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1 Jeff
November 15, 2008 at 2:53 pm

I have an older copy of this, love the information but is broken and doesn’t want to auto play. Takes forever to manually click .mov file and it actually play.

Has it been updated or is it just my PC? Replacement copy available?

[Reply]
Josh Reply:
November 15th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
We will get you all fixed up Monday!

[Reply]
2 Darren
December 3, 2008 at 5:19 pm

I use a copy of this in my teaching and it doesn’t seem to work on the new iMacs or MacBook. It will run when I double-click it, but the menus are missing. Is this a version of QuickTime issue?

[Reply]
Josh Reply:
December 6th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Yes, the good news is, we can fix you up with a free upgrade to our DVCU version. We will email you.

[Reply]
3 Oscar
December 15, 2008 at 6:59 pm

HI, by the preceding comments it makes me think this software is broken… is it?

[Reply]
4 grace
December 16, 2008 at 11:29 pm

This course was originally released on CD-ROM, which broke with the Quicktime 7.3.1 update. But, we have re-released the course as a download through the DVcreators University.

[Reply]
5 omh
May 29, 2009 at 11:39 am

How do you get to the goodies folder you are talking about on the video without the CD? Thanks.

[Reply]
Josh Reply:
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:37 pm
What are you looking for?

[Reply]
omh Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I was looking for the storyboard pages. Found some online, but just looking for the one they used in the video.

Thanks. Great product!!

[Reply]
6 Jon
September 8, 2009 at 2:40 pm

I am also looking for the storyboard blanks used in the video. I found an article on this web site from 2006 with a bunch of links but most of them were broken and none of them were to the storyboard sheet featured on the video.

Please make this available. Thank you for producing a succinct introduction to the craft.

[Reply]
Josh Reply:
September 14th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
I updated the page:

http://www.dvcreators.net/how-can-i-download-blank-storyboards-to-use-in-my-own-projects/

I deleted the broken links and added our Shooting Awesome Video storyboard:

http://dvcreators.net/media/shooting-awesome-video-blank-storyboard.pdf

Thanks for the heads-up.

[Reply]