Over the last few days I have been dabbling in the waters of HD video after a bit of a road test of the new Canon FX300 we used to shoot an interview with 4 Corners producer Wayne ‘Harles’ Harley. (This is still in post-production and will be uploaded as soon as we can – apologies for the delay).

During this time, I have been struggling with terms such as Bit Rate, VBR, pixel aspect ratio, resampling and other esoterica to make sure the finished video is as good as it can possibly be in all areas.

And it struck me yesterday afternoon how we can get so bound up in the minutiae of things, the basics go begging.

So the arrival of an email from Chatswood (Sydney) company Cheatsheet Network was fortuitous, as they have put together a video based training system (that can be downloaded) to take you through the essentials of shooting interviews. Wish I had seen this a month ago to get some extra pointers.

Individual lessons take you through all the things necessary to get the very best from your camera, mic, surroundings and of course the talent and yourself. There are lots of little hints and tips, concepts such as the Rule of The Rule of Thirds and Crossing the Line are explained and shown as are dos and don’ts – all presented visually with a voice over and diagrams etc.

The entire set of lessons costs only $27 and lasts just under an hour so is a bargain at that price. It is available from http://www.cheatsheetnetwork.com/. There is also a free newsletter on offer.

To get an idea of what you’ll get, we have managed to twist their arm to get an extract from the lessons.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com