In this one-week certificate program you will learn how to produce professional quality video using state-of-the-art equipment including cameras, audio and lighting gear. This class will give you all the necessary skills to be a videographer in a professional environment.

Program Description

This one-week intensive is designed to get you up to speed with using modern digital video cameras and lighting, with the ultimate intention of you finding work as a videographer or enabling your creative vision. The classes will take you through the "ins and outs" of shooting high-quality images with today's digital video cameras, both tape and tapeless. Of course, you'll learn the essentials like shutter speed, exposure, white balance, and composition, but we'll get much further than that by exploring and demonstrating how to get good professional audio using a variety of microphones, how to set up and create professional video lighting and recommended workflows for tape and tapeless aquisition to be ready for editing. Speaking of editing, you'll learn how to shoot for the edit - we'll show you what the editor needs for real-world, professional editing, essential to telling a good story. Sessions are split between our state-of-the-art classroom located at our Araphoe Studio and our professional production studio located at our Broadway facility.

Our instructor for this class has over 25 years of professional experience; he knows the reality of what it's like to work on a set shooting for a client; be prepared to be taught by somebody who does this very, very well - and truly enjoys sharing his knowledge. His goal is to prepare you to be able to start shooting video professionally - not only will he go over all the technical considerations, but he'll share stories of real shoots gone bad; how to troubleshoot problems in the field; the finer points of pre-production; plugging into soundboards and mixers when shooting live music; so much more!

Click here to read more about what makes our Transitions Certificate Programs unique.

Equipment

Students are encouraged to bring their own video camera if they own one. BDA will provide four industry-standard professional video cameras (one standard-definition tape-based, one high-definition tape-based and two tapeless high-definition).

After You Register

BDA is committed to making your week-long learning process as enjoyable as possible and making sure that you can focus on your learning. After you register you will be contacted by our staff who will get your meal preferences and who are available to help you with any logistical and travel concerns you might have. BDA provides a complimentary catered lunch every day.

Schedule

Monday

• 9am - Noon : Video Camera Introduction : BDA Arapahoe Studio
  Camera Controls
  To start the day off, you'll get to know various professional cameras in-depth: you'll learn all the functions in manual mode and auto mode, including white balance, iris, exposure, shutter speed, clear-scan, gain, gamma, and knee. You'll also learn and discuss when you need a monitor, as well as properly setting up a monitor. Also, if there's time, the instructor will give you a basic understanding of the waveform monitor, IRE, and how to read video histograms.
  
  Formats and Optics
  The instructor will discuss the various video formats & codecs, as well as their pros & cons, and which is best for what. You'll look at lenses, and discuss zoom lens characteristics, back focus, and fall-off. You'll learn the advantages of wide and long lens length, and how to use flags, matte boxes, and filters.
  
  Composition & Content Part 1
  During this session you'll learn how to make your interview segments really shine! Learn talent clothing options, especially what they should not be wearing. We'll talk about make-up, backgrounds, focus, eyeline, and visual context, as well as pacing & peaking. We'll go over shooting singles, groups, on-the-street, and special locations, including the art of listening to content. If there's time, we'll go over basic interviewing techniques.
• Noon - 12:45pm : Catered Lunch : BDA Arapahoe Studio
• 1pm - 3pm : Composition & Content Part 2 : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  During our first session at the production studio we'll begin with setting up an interview, including best practices regarding environments, sound and light. We'll talk about slates, release forms, and production stills, as well as filming objects and products, including their related challenges.
• 3pm - 5pm : Practice Time : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  Hands-on use of cameras and lighting/grip equipment to practice with instructor present for guidance and mentoring.

Tuesday

• 9am - Noon : Basic Lighting : BDA Arapahoe Studio
  This session is all about lighting - starting with the basics. We'll start with standard 3-point lighting techniques - working hands-on with a model indoors. We'll demonstrate this with an interview-style setup using tungsten lighting. We'll go over issues with fluorescent and other light sources including problems with frequencies. Then, we'll add a fourth light so we can start to manipulate the background. We'll go over using softboxes, diffusion material, and foamcore, as well as problems associated with shooting around glass and windows.
  
  Next we'll go outdoors and see how this all translates to shooting with sunshine and/or shade. You'll learn about white balance averaging, and techniques when using flexfill, shiney board, foamcore, silk, and drape. You'll also learn about shooting in the street, shooting on snow, shooting with rain, and shooting at night; as well as how to deal with problems like water on the lens, and wind, smoke, and dust.
• Noon - 12:45pm : Catered Lunch : BDA Arapahoe Studio
• 1pm - 3pm : Audio Techniques : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  In this session, you'll learn about recording audio for video in the studio and on-location. We'll go the different types of mics and their uses including hard-wired, wireless, handheld, dynamic, camera-mic and shotgun. You'll get hands-on experience learning about mic placement and various sound quality characteristics via side-by-side comparisons. You'll learn about ambient sound, wind, water, companders, and working with board feeds and podium mics. You'll understand audio levels, line-level, mic-level, limiters, and about separation, damping, phase cancellation, sibilance, popping and breath; as well as why headphones are so important!
• 3pm - 5pm : Practice Time : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  Hands-on use of cameras, lighting/grip and audio equipment to practice with instructor present for guidance and mentoring.

Wednesday

• 9am - Noon : Video Production Workflow : BDA Arapahoe Studio
  During this session we'll be discussing the essentials of any video production workflow. We'll start with pre-production including the script, shot list, call sheet, location scouting, detail checking, casting, rehearsals, budget, timeline, delivery formats such as Web/DVD/TV/HD, and managing the client. Then we'll move onto the production itself covering prepping for the shoot, things to pack, and planning the shoot. Next we'll go over the post-production process including logging & capture, digitizing, organizing media, and making the rough cut and fine cut. Finally we'll cover delivery which includes making approval files, outputing final master files, back-ups, and archiving.
  
  Getting Good Coverage
  After watching a short 5-minute video example, we'll pick apart the various shots it took to piece the scenes together in editing, while thinking about good b-roll, cutaways, and ambient sound. Now, we'll practice shooting a scene! We'll practice getting good cutaways and alternate angles, as well as discussing continuity, script persons, slates, and getting proper b-roll coverage. We'll also go over best practices for on-location shooting.
• Noon - 1pm : Catered Lunch : BDA Arapahoe Studio
• 1pm - 3pm : Formats and Workflow - Tape and Tapeless : BDA Arapahoe Studio
  In this session you'll learn best practices regarding logging & digitizing, working with meta data, media storage, media back-up, media management (at the end of each project), project archiving, and choosing your edit format (Apple ProRes, Photo JPEG, DV/DVCAM, XDCAM). We'll also cover color-correction considerations, as well as the migration from tape-based production to tapeless production and how best to approach it!
• 3pm - 5pm : Practice Time : BDA Arapahoe Studio
  Hands-on use of cameras and the BDA lab computers with Apple's Final Cut Studio. The instructor will be present for guidance and mentoring.

Thursday

• 9am - Noon : Camera Supports and Movement : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  In this session, you'll learn about camera supports including best practices when working with the pan, tilt, and drag functions on tripods. We'll also go over handheld techniques, and talk about moving camera supports such as jibs, steadicams-type stabilizers, car saddles, and dollys. We'll discuss dolly motions & marks, motion parallax, aerial shooting in planes & helicopters, as well as boats, and wheelchairs.
• Noon - 12:45pm : Catered Lunch : BDA Broadway Production Studio
• 1pm - 3pm : Intermediate Lighting : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  Here we'll start to dig a little deeper into the wonderful world of lighting including how to use HMI's, how to light greenscreen, lighting table-top, how to light in a car, even how to shoot in the dark! Then we'll get into lighting for two cameras, and lighting for a moving camera.
• 3pm - 5pm : Practice Time : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  Hands-on use of cameras and lighting/grip to practice with instructor present for guidance and mentoring.

Friday

• 9am - Noon : Shooting with Multiple Cameras Part 1 : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  In this exciting session, you'l learn how to shoot on a live multi-camera shoot, and you'll learn about camera angles, live switching, shooting ISO, using flash sync, as well as jam-sync timecode. You'll also learn about shooting controlled multicam events, music videos with multiple playback takes, and shooting multiple angles with single or multiple cameras. We'll also get into lighting for multiple cameras & backgrounds, and the process of matching multiple cameras.
• Noon - 1pm : Catered Lunch : BDA Broadway Production Studio
• 1pm - 3pm : Shooting with Multiple Cameras Part 2 : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  This fun exercise involves digitizing multicam footage then placing it in an Final Cut Pro sequence! Professional camerapeople know what an editor needs from them, so it's very important for a good shooter to understand the dynamics of what an editor will need. We'll capture footage from the practice session and analyze what works and what does not. We'll go over syncing multiclips, multiclip editing, and collapsing and exporting multiclips.
• 3pm - 5pm : Wrap Up and Q&A : BDA Broadway Production Studio
  We'll wrap up the week with a little time for a general re-cap of the week's instruction, with lots of time for Q&A.
• 5pm - 8pm : Optional Happy Hour : BDA Arapahoe Studio
  Celebration Time! Finish off the week with complimentary food and libations at BDA's Friday night Digital Happy Hour!

Instructor

Antony Cooper has directed and produced many award winning broad, corporate and documentary videos, here and in the UK. Several years in music TV production for MTV and Polygram Records include names such as the Rolling Stones, the Who, Elvis Costello and INXS. Other projects include Director of on-air operations for the Denver based Scandinavian Channel, and Director of Photography on award winning Environmental documentaries "The Nature of Cities" and "Transforming Energy". Recently Antony has written and directed videos for Miller Brewing, Olympus Cameras, the pharmaceutical manufacturer Roche, and national 9-1-1 database management company Intrado.

Evening Mentoring

BDA is committed to providing the best learning experience possible. One of the distinctive benefits of our Transitions Certificate Programs is evening mentoring from 6pm to 8pm on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Our evening mentors are different than the class instructors who are also working professionals in the industry offering you a broader perspective and a great opportunity to practice the skills you've learned, get particular questions answered or simply hang-out with peers and exchange ideas and conversation.

Location

This certificate program will be held both at the BDA Arapahoe Studio, and also at the Boulder Digital Arts Broadway Production Studio which is a complete professional production studio operated by Boulder Digital Arts for exclusive use by our members and training participants.