Expert: Alessandro Machi - 5/27/2007

Question
Hello Alessandro,
I lead laughter yoga sessions which involve moving around and laughing with others.  I wish to use a camcorder to record myself for feedback purposes.  I don't want to enlist anyone to help me, I prefer to place a wide angle camcorder on my body and film.  Any thoughts come to mind?  I'm brainstorming here.  Any ideas appreciated.
Regards,
Usuff

Answer
Well, they say laughter is the best medicine so if you combine it with yoga you just might have a super lethal dose of good times, sign me up.

You should advise everyone in attendance that you are filming beforehand, perhaps even let them know at a prior session that you will be filming a specific future session.  Professional productions will actually post a notice at the entrance that states something like "by going inside you agree to be filmed with no reimbursement of any kind for perpetuity"...  I don't know the exact wording as I have always turned around and fled in panic. (haha)

If you plan on selling or reusing the footage that shoot you will need releases from everyone that will appear in the video or you'll have to put fuzzy spots over their faces, on the video, not on their actual faces. (haha) You might get away with the posted release only that I mentioned above but I don't know for sure, it wouldn't hurt to also mention it at the beginning of the session as well and give anyone a moment to gather their things and leave if they don't want to stay.

One problem with consumer video cameras is that they may not have an external audio in connector. If your video camera does have an external audio in connector you will need to test it out ahead of time with a wireless microphone set-up to make sure it works properly. Perhaps just try it out by yourself, but don't laugh too loudly since you are already in a padded room all by yourself and if someone else hears you laughing out aloud, alone, they may think the door needs to be locked and the warden called. (haha).

If you don't want to purchase a wireless microphone you basically will not get a very good video UNLESS the laughter is loud enough and continuous enough that a camera 10-20 feet away will still pick up the audio well. However keep in mind that during the quiet times the automatic on camera microphone will raise it's audio "gain" level and the sound quality may not be to your liking because of that, or you may find that you like the auto audio gain feature.

You probably will be better off wearing a wireless microphone and keeping the camera either on a tripod off to the side, or just sitting on a table or shelf.
Keep the lens in wide mode and make sure nothing near the lens obstructs the view because that can cause the autofocus lens to go haywire.  If you are using a battery to run the camera make sure the battery is fully charged and you have already checked how long the battery can power the video camera that is in record mode before running out of a charge.

If you decide to try a wireless microphone, keep in mind that your own voice will be picked up the loudest, so you may want to experiment with keeping the lavalier wireless microphone farther anyway from your mouth than if you were talking at a normal level.

Good luck!