Joey Daoud

Watch and read industry publications like American Cinematographer Magazine, CineD, No FIlm School, Filmmaker Magazine, VideoBrand, and VP Land

If I want a balance of auto-exposure because I'm doing a fast moving shoot, yet want to have some control over the camera and the way the image is recorded, shutter priority is the mode I go with - especially when recording video on a mirrorless or DSLR camera. It locks off your shutter angle and adjusts the aperture for exposure - great when you don't have time to manually adjust yourself but you don't want the camera to change the shutter speed, which could create a weird perception of how motion is captured (and ruin your video edit). Real video/cinema cameras work off shutter angles - 180 degrees is the default setting that renders motion 'normally.' If your camera can't do shuttler angles, set the shutter speed to 1/50.

Aperture priority is great for still photos but definitely not recommended for video. It will change your shutter angle shot to shot or even while recording, which can capture movement differently throughout your video. Not only may the movement look weird, having this inconsistency could ruin the edit when you try to put everything together.

Program mode is great for still photos, not so great for video. It keeps a combo of shutter aperture adjustments, exposing based on the exposure index you set (if you want your shots to be a little brighter or darker than what the camera considers at exposure). The problem when using this mode for video is you can get an inconsistent shutter angle from shot to shot, which can make each take look different and not consistent when you edit the video together.

There's a common misconception going around online that the fill light is at the opposite angle of the key light - it isn't. In a classic setup, your key light is at roughly a 45-degree angle away from the camera. It gives the subject shape and contrast. The fill light is used to fill in the shadows created by the key light - so you want to place the fill light as close to the camera as possible - ideally it's positioned right above the camera. Then you adjust the intensity based on how much contrast you want on your subject, to fill out the shadows from the key light.

When multiple stakeholders are involved, optimizing your editing workflow to get feedback at different stages makes the most sense. For example, the first cut for notes might be a radio edit, where only the spoken word is really paid attention to. Then you can do a rough cut, where shots are loosely laid in place, Then run through revisions of fine cuts. This way the editor isn't spending a ton of time doing a very polished edit on a scene that might ultimately not be needed and could've been cut in the early stages of reviewing the video.