Plan and capture video
Record coverage, sound, and continuity that can form a complete short story.
How to Set Exposure in Manual Mode
From Adorama · Master Your Craft. Watch here or open it on YouTube .
Apply the exposure video's shutter discussion to motion capture, then keep white balance and frame-rate choices consistent across coverage.What this lesson is really solving.
Plan a beginning, development, and finish, then capture wide, medium, close, detail, reaction, and transition shots with enough duration to edit. Prioritize clean sound, stable movement, consistent frame rate, and continuity. Record room tone and a safety take.
Understand the idea before touching the steps.
Editing can only connect the moments you deliberately capture.
Follow these steps in order.
Take the action in each step; then use the deliverable below to prove the lesson is finished.
- 1
Write the beginning, change, and ending of a 60-second story, then list essential wide, medium, close, detail, and reaction shots.
- 2
Choose frame rate and shutter behavior intentionally, lock exposure and white balance when consistency matters, and stabilize appropriately.
- 3
Record clean primary audio close to the source plus room tone and natural sound.
- 4
Hold each shot before and after the action, vary shot size and angle, and capture transitions and cutaways.
See the standard in context.
Kai's sequence follows clay becoming a cup: studio exterior, wheel setup, hands centering, artist concentration, shaping detail, wire cut, and finished piece. Each shot rolls five seconds before and after action; a lavalier records explanation with a second audio backup.
Inspect before you move on.
- The shot list covers story beats and edit transitions.
- Frame rate, resolution, white balance, and orientation are intentional and consistent.
- Speech is monitored with headphones and a backup exists for irreplaceable moments.
Your deliverable
A labeled footage set with complete visual coverage, primary sound, natural sound, and room tone.
Watch for this
Recording many near-identical medium shots that leave no clean way to compress time or hide edits.
Prove it—don’t just recognize it.
The footage contains a clear opening, progression, payoff, and enough variety to edit smoothly.
Quick knowledge check
Answer from the lesson—not from confidence alone. Score at least 2 of 3 to unlock completion.
This curriculum-aligned check is scored automatically and stored with your account when signed in. It is an objective learning signal, but it has not yet been independently validated as a standardized assessment.
Tools, templates, and references
Pass the knowledge check above first.
Completion unlocks after a score of 2 out of 3. Then confirm that you produced the lesson deliverable.
Go to the knowledge check