- Tips for Shooting for the Web
- Think About Contrast
- Use--but Don't Abuse--Close-ups
- Dressing Up for DV
Think About Contrast
Concentrate on creating compositions with high contrast between light and dark, but with consistent tones in medium hues. On the Web, contrast is more important than color. Colors will display inconsistently on different monitors, so its best not to rely on color as a means of identifying characters or objects that are critical to your story.
Use Contrast
Contrast can help isolate important actions or draw attention to objects, such as the letter the man is reading in this scene. The sharp contrast of his white shirt against the dark suit will help the compression software.
As a rule, keep details in the background to a minimum. While shooting your actors in close-up, adjust the focus to diffuse any distracting objects or patterns in the background. Make sure the background is an unchanging one, too.
A large brick pattern on a wall is all right; the pattern is stationary and the color tone is consistent. A scene that has bushes and trees blowing in the wind is undesirable, however, because they create shifting patterns and variations in color tone that will prevent the compression software from reducing the final file size of your movie.
Beware of Backgrounds
The actor appears in a tight, intricate patchwork created by the small bricks, making it more difficult for compression software to consistently track over many frames. The result will be a shifting pattern that jitters during playback.