Video Training Exercise

1. Keep elbows close to your body and bend your knees for stability.
   Always use the grip strap tightened over your right hand and place your left hand under the lens for stability.
   Utilize natural support in the environment by laying on the ground, leaning on walls, or finding flat, steady surfaces
 
2. Keep legs bent at the knees and your body at a lower height. Concentrate on "gliding", keeping limbs closest to ground as possible. Take soft, slow steps. Focus solely on steadying the camera and capturing the subject, but have someone look out for you as you walk blindly so as not to fall or ruin the shot.

3. Panning (moving camcorder right to left/left to right) and tilting (up and down)

4. Remaining on a particular shot for a longer period emphasizes it more and suggests that there is significance to be found. If one moves the camera too fast or unsteadily, it will disorient the audience and obscure what one is trying to emphasize or portray. Avoid "hosepiping", or the constant panning/tilting in an attempt to cover all of the subject. Be patient!

EXTRA CREDIT: 

Unless the work was produced over 70 years ago, it is likely under copyright. Using copyrighted material is considered infringement unless it follows the "fair use rules". One can use copyrighted material in order to create a critique, new report, social comment, or when teaching a class or researching.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation that gives artists free licensing and legal tools to both protect their work and make it easy to appropriate or share with others. It follows the same rules as copyright but is safer and easier to use, more user-friendly. Biggest advantage is that CC allows artists to state clearly in what ways they allow their work to be used. "Attribution" is the most common component, requiring anyone using a CC'd artform to credit the original artist. ShareAlike requires the appropriating artist to share the find product with the regional artist. Non-Commericial forbids people from selling or making any money with an already established work. NoDerivatives means that the original work can in no way be altered.

A video release form, also known as an Appearance Release form, is a simple contract that gives you legal permission to use the image of the person for commercial and non-commercial purposes. Generally when interviewing someone or using an emphasized image of someone, it is a good idea to sign a relase form in the event that someone presses charges against you for using their image in your work. The forms protect the rights of the filmmaker. It's hard to dictate when one is required, as rules vary greatly between jurisdictions and are constantly changing.