Lessons on video shooting

So a couple of days ago, I attended the Divine Word University Missioning Ceremony. It was great to see these young people get commissioned by the university and transition out in to the PNG workforce. This year I had taught 3 groups of Year Four students. They were in the Communication Arts Department, Health Management Department and Social and Religious Department respectively. That would be around 40 to 50 students across two semesters this year. Since the Missioning Ceremony was coming up, I thought is would be best to capture some their memories through a video. Of course, they were all in their best attire as this was such a momentous occasion for them. It has been four year journey and now they have reached the end. This ceremony marked their transition from being students to fully fledged professionals in the PNG workforce. 

I decided that it would be a good opportunity to use my cannon camera that had been sitting idle around the house. So I shot the video and uploaded it onto my YouTube Channel:

 

After shooting the video, I began to realise some of my shooting mistakes during the video editing phase. Since I used the AV mode and automatic focus on the canon camera during the different stages of the ceremony, I needed to click on the camera screen to create the autofocus. At times, while looking at the camera screen, I could not make out if the camera was on focus. It only became apparent when I downloaded the video clips to edit on my computer. Therefore, some of the clips were a bit out of focus. Its a lesson I have learnt here.

I think another huge lesson I have learnt too is that I need to get a good directional mic. There's a part in the video where I am recording a speech and there are background noises of these flying foxes up in the trees near to the building. So a good directional mic such as this one from Theodist is a good one. I have to save up though. Look at the price!

Well I still put the video together. You can see my mistakes in some parts of the video but wanted to showcase the event for the students. Let me know what you think of the video and comment below.