Pans, Zooms and Giddy Feelings

One of the cardinal rules I learnt from my regular internet resources, (Cyndy Green's VideoJournalism, Angela Grant's News Videographer etc) is this: Do not pan or zoom unless absolutely necessary.

And even if absolutely necessary, keep it to a minimum.

Now I had those instructions in the back of my mind when shooting Simrik, during my trip to Nepal. And the video I came back with, was sequences of wide, medium and close-ups, not a single zoom or pan. There was no requirement for that. After all, I was shooting an artist in his studio - no action to follow.

Then I got back to the editing desk, fired up Premier and inserted some still images to mix with the video footage. That's when the Zoom Devil possessed me and, using Premier's motion keyframe features, I introduced "movement" into the still images of the paintings I shot at Lok's studio.

The end result, while the video sequences were without any camera movement, the stills were moving all over the place! And I didn't even notice anything amiss until I received a critique from Cyndy Green.

Here's what she had to say:

A fascinating subject - one that I enjoyed learning more about. However, as my former mentor, Willie Kee, told me - zoom again and I’ll break all of your fingers. I realize you may have wanted to draw the audience into your subject with the zoom, but it was distracting. Either use a series of shots held longer so we can see the paintings and artists using cuts or slow dissolves - or if you must zoom, make it a barely noticeable zoom.
The story itself was very well produced and very educational.

Looking once again at the video I realised motion on the stills was really distracting and quickly made changes taking Cindy's critique into account.

First, here is the old version:


Simrik: Colours of Poubha from Gasper DSouza on Vimeo.

and now, here is the re-edited version:


Simrik - colours of poubha from Gasper DSouza on Vimeo.

What do you think?