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Video Viewfinder
Keith Kyker and Christopher Curchy
Teaching Students to Use the Camcorder: The Viewfinder is Your Friend!
Media skills and abilities are wide and varied when it comes to students’ experiences with video cameras and camcorders. A fourth grade teacher can assume students in his/her class have had prior experiences in Math with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. There is a logical sequence of Math skills that begin in Kindergarten and continue throughout the elementary and middle school years. The media teacher however, cannot assume that every child in the media class has had experience with camcorders and video production. In fact, it is more logical to assume that most of the students have had little or no prior experiences in media production and the use of a video camcorder. The skills needed to use the camcorder to produce video projects are not necessarily sequential, nor do most school districts even have a scope and sequence designed to guide students in media production classes. In a media production class, it is probably better to teach and instruct students at the beginning or entry level of video production….how to use the camcorder!
Beginning Instruction
To begin instruction in camcorder use, the following equipment is needed: a camcorder, camcorder battery, tripod, and a video monitor. Your school’s camcorder is probably a lot bigger (most home camcorders are small vhs-c or 8mm types) and probably more complicated to use than consumer/home video camcorders. Placing the camera on a tripod for initial instruction eases student’s fears about dropping the camcorder. It also makes instruction easier, as the teacher’s hands are free to point out camera buttons and functions. Connecting the camcorder to a video monitor allows students in the class, and the teacher as well, to actually "see" the camcorder’s picture composition without peering into the viewfinder one by one. Place the video monitor on a small A/V cart so it can easily be viewed and moved by the students. Most camcorders have a simple "video out" jack that uses an RCA connector and cable to plug into the video monitor. I have purchased several 25’ RCA cords so that the camera can easily be moved about the room without moving the monitor at the same time.
Using the Viewfinder
One of the first things I teach my students about the camcorder is how to use the viewfinder and its symbols. The viewfinder is the videographer’s "friend". It contains many useful symbols and information students will need when they are videotaping. For example, the viewfinder’s display will indicate how charged, or not charged, the battery is. Most displays feature an indicator that is like an automobile’s gas tank gauge. When fully charged, there are four "bars" lined across the display in -between the "E" and "F" letters (empty and full). As the battery’s charge decreases, the bars begin to disappear. How many times have students come running back to your room thinking there is something wrong with the camcorder only to find out the battery is "dead"? Leaving the room with a camcorder with a battery that is only ¼ charged is simply asking for trouble. My experiences have indicated that unless the battery is at least ½ to ¾ charged, very little videotaping will be done before the battery is dead. They seem to run out of power in seconds with only a small charge left in the battery. To give students practice with observing and noting battery power, I place a battery in the camcorder and have students peer into the viewfinder. Each student writes down on an index card how much power is indicated in the viewfinder. We then compare results. I will do this with several batteries, some of them fully charged, some not. It only takes a few minutes and all the students are adept at reading the battery levels in the viewfinder.
Another important feature to recognize in the viewfinder is the time and date function. To me, this is the most "hated" of all viewfinder features. After all, how many camcorders are even set to the right time and date? After viewing numerous student videotapes with that annoying time and date displayed in the center of the picture, I am determined to teach my students not only to recognize them in the viewfinder, but also how to turn off the dastardly date so it does not appear on the tape. That is the only viewfinder display function that actually gets recorded on the videotape. Most camcorders have a button labeled "DATE/TIME" on the camera body. Push it once, the time and date appear. Push it again, they disappear. I tell my students, and show them videotaped examples, that if you "see" it (time and date) in the viewfinder, you will "see" it on your videotape. Allow students time to experiment turning the time and date on and off with that button. By the way, there is usually another button labeled "OSD" on the camera. This stands for "on screen display". If you look in the viewfinder and don’t see the battery level, recording or pause indicators, or other viewfinder displays, it is because someone has turned them off using the OSD button. Simply push it again and they will appear!
I found it intriguing that a majority of my students have never actually used a camcorder or videotaped an activity. Therefore, it is essential that I instruct them on how to begin recording and how to stop recording. During this process, I also teach them how to use the viewfinder to actually tell if the camera is recording or not. Seems simple, yes, but I can personally vouch for several camcorder "projects" that included minutes and minutes of floors, ceilings, and blurred images recorded while walking because the camcorder operator did not know the camera was recording. They "thought" they pushed the trigger to stop recording, but in fact, never did. I know my wife will not mind me putting her in her as an example (I hope!!!!). If an Over-30 college-educated woman can do this routinely, so can your students. When the camcorder is recording, you can look into the viewfinder and see one or all of the following indicators:
- The display reads "Rec" (recording).
- The tape indicator numbers are moving 001..002…003…004, and so on.
If the camera is not recording, the display will indicate this by:
- The display says "Pause" instead of "Rec".
- The tape indicator numbers are not moving.
Funny thing about teaching students how to start and stop recording on the camcorder…the trigger does not have to be "held down" the entire time! Push it once, it starts recording. Push it again, it stops recording. Simple, but it has to be taught.
AutoFocus
Do you find the camcorder’s AutoFocus mechanism to be annoying? I simply detest the way the focus will go in and out during the course of taping. The viewfinder also indicates if the camera is on Auto or Manual Focus. Students can easily be taught how to manually focus the camera. Simply show them how to switch the camera to the Manual Focus mode. The viewfinder will usually say "Auto" for autofocus, or "Man" for manual. The Panasonic line of camcorders uses the symbol "MF" to indicate when the camcorder is in the Manual Focus mode. To focus the camera, simply zoom in to the desired shot, then turn the focus ring on the front of the lens until the object is focused in the viewfinder. During this lesson, I usually set up objects (stuffed animals, books, or toys) around the room and watch the monitor as the students zoom in and adjust the focus. They LOVE doing this, and enjoy watching their videotaped results as well.
These simple activities that might seem trivial or boring are actually great learning experiences for your beginning videographers. They are the basis for later skills they will need with the camcorder. Using the camcorder’s viewfinder correctly assists the students in their videotaping activities.
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