Chapter 2 — Exercises

Chapter 1 was mostly a way of thinking; this chapter is your first set of real controls, and the only way to own controls is to move them and watch what happens. Most of these exercises put a camera in your hand — a phone is perfect for nearly all of them — and ask you to change one setting and see the difference. That single habit, changing one variable at a time, is how every shooter who ever got good actually learned — and it is the one method that turns a confusing menu into a set of tools you understand. Take the starred items seriously: they build straight toward Project 1's camera baseline, and a few of them (the shutter test, the frame-rate A/B, the reframe proof) are experiences you will draw on for years.

Exercises are graded by effort and depth:

• ⭐ Warm-up — a few minutes; locks in a concept.
• ⭐⭐ Core — the real practice; do as many as you can.
• ⭐⭐⭐ Stretch — deeper or more ambitious; where the biggest gains are.

Model solutions and critiques for the starred and odd-numbered exercises are collected in Answers to Selected Exercises at the back of the book. Try each one before you read its answer — a test you struggled with teaches more than an answer you only read. One rule for all of these: watch your clips back on the biggest screen you have. The differences this chapter is about — a stuttery shutter, the 60-fps "video look," a softening crop — are subtle on a phone's tiny preview and undeniable on a laptop or TV.

A. Seeing the settings (Eye & Ear Training)

No camera needed — just attention. These extend your Frame Log from Chapter 1 toward the technical eye this chapter builds.

1. ⭐ Spot the frame rate. Watch a feature film (or a well-shot drama) for two minutes, then a live sports broadcast or a daytime soap for two minutes. Self-review: write one sentence describing how the motion differs — not the story, not the lighting, the motion. You are learning to hear the difference between 24 fps and 60 fps with your eyes, which is a skill most people never develop. (Answer provided.)

2. ⭐ The soap-opera hunt. Find one video online that looks "cheap" or "like local news" despite being about something serious or premium — a real-estate tour, a corporate promo, a wedding highlight. In one line, guess the technical culprit before reading the answer. (Hint: it is usually the frame rate, occasionally a TV's motion-smoothing.) (Answer provided.)

3. ⭐⭐ Motion-blur watch. Pause a fast-moving moment in any film — a punch, a running figure, a whip-pan — on a single frame. Is the moving thing blurred or frozen sharp? Do the same on a video-game clip or a phone slow-mo. Self-review: write down what you notice about the blur and how "filmic" each felt while it was moving. You are watching the 180° shutter (or its absence) with the film paused. (Answer provided.)

4. ⭐⭐ Find the rolling shutter. Hunt for rolling-shutter skew in the wild: footage shot from a moving car (fence posts, telephone poles), a fast handheld pan, spinning helicopter or drone rotor blades, or a guitar string shot on a phone. Note one clear example and describe the distortion in a sentence. Add it to your Frame Log — you'll never un-see it once you know it.

5. ⭐⭐⭐ The resolution can't-tell test. Find the same clip offered in 1080p and 4K (many creator videos let you switch quality in the player). Watch a section at each on the screen you normally use, at your normal distance. Self-review: can you honestly tell them apart? Write your verdict and one sentence on what it implies for how much resolution you actually need to deliver — as opposed to how much you might want for reframing. Then the honest follow-up: on the largest screen you own, at close distance, can you tell them apart now? Where you can and can't see a difference is exactly where your resolution decisions should live. (Answer discusses this.)

B. Reading Described Shots (Read the Sequence)

The Described Shot is how this book replaces "watch this clip." Reading one closely — naming the settings and the reasons hidden inside it — is the same muscle you use to plan a shot, so these pay double: they sharpen your eye and rehearse your own decisions at once.

6. ⭐ Name the setting decision. Re-read FIGURE 2.8 (the talking-head, technically decided). List the four technical choices it made (resolution, frame rate, shutter, movement) and, from memory, the one-line reason each was chosen. If you can't give the reason, you've memorized a setting instead of understanding it. (Answer provided.)

7. ⭐⭐ Diagnose the field — flip the frame rate. In FIGURE 2.8, rewrite THE EFFECT and THE LESSON as if the shot had been captured at 60 fps instead of 24. What changes about how the testimonial reads to a viewer, and why might a beginner think the 60-fps version is "better"? (Answer provided.)

8. ⭐⭐ Read the walk two ways. Look again at FIGURE 2.3 (the same walk at 24 vs 60 fps). Invent a story context in which the 60 fps version would be the better creative choice, and one in which 24 fps clearly wins. Justify each in a sentence, naming the feeling each frame rate serves. (Answer provided.)

9. ⭐⭐⭐ Write your own settings-Described-Shot. Choose a real shot you want to make for Project 1 and write a full seven-field Described Shot for it (Frame, Move, Light, Sound, Cut, Effect, Lesson) — but make THE FRAME, THE MOVE, and THE EFFECT explicitly name your resolution, frame rate, and shutter choices and tie each to the story. This is a dry run of the Production Checkpoint, and the skill Chapters 7 and 30 are built on. Self-review: read your finished box aloud and check that a stranger could both picture the shot and rebuild your settings from it — if any field could describe ten different shots, it isn't specific enough yet. (Model answer provided.)

10. ⭐⭐ Critique the case-study homage. Re-read FIGURE CS1.4 (the same soldier's stumble at two shutter angles) in Case Study 1. In your own words, explain the mechanism that makes the reduced-shutter version "feel wrong," using the vocabulary of §2.4 (motion blur, frozen frames). Then name one everyday shoot where you'd want that "wrong" look on purpose. (Answer provided.)

C. Your settings shoots (Shoot This)

The heart of the chapter, and the part that actually makes you better. Change one variable, watch the result — that is the entire method. A phone is fine for all of these; a manual video app helps for the shutter ones, and if yours is locked to auto, do the frame-rate and resolution shoots anyway and treat the shutter results here as your reason to install one before Project 1.

11. ⭐⭐ The three-shutter test. If you haven't done the 🎬 On Set from §2.4, do it now. Subject: one repeating motion (a hand waving, a fan, someone walking a short path). Constraint: shoot it three times at the same frame rate, changing only the shutter — 1/50 (or 1/60), then 1/500, then 1/24 (or 1/30) — with framing and light held identical so the shutter is the only variable. Self-review: watch all three back and write one sentence each on how the motion feels. Keep the 1/500 clip forever. (Model self-critique provided.)

12. ⭐⭐ The frame-rate A/B. Shoot the same simple motion (someone walking toward you, a hand pouring water) once at 24 fps and once at 60 fps, keeping the 180° shutter correct for each (1/50, then 1/120). Watch back-to-back on a large screen. Self-review: which feels like a film, which feels like a phone clip — and did you have to change anything else (exposure) to keep the two similarly bright?

13. ⭐⭐ Slow-motion for real. Shoot a splash, a jump, a pet shaking off water, or hair flipping — at the highest frame rate your camera offers (60, 120, or 240). Bring it into any editor and play it on a 24 or 30 fps timeline (or use your phone's built-in slow-mo). Notice how smooth it is because the frames were really captured, not invented. Self-review: write one line on exactly where you'd use this in one of your three projects. (Answer provided.)

14. ⭐⭐ Provoke rolling shutter. Deliberately create the jello effect: whip-pan the camera fast across a scene with strong vertical lines (a fence, a bookshelf, a railing), or wobble it while recording. Then re-shoot the same scene with a slow, smooth pan. Compare. Self-review: in one line, state the rule this teaches you for shooting anything that moves. You now know exactly what to avoid and how.

15. ⭐⭐⭐ The reframe-headroom proof. Shoot one locked-off 4K shot of a subject with a little room around them (a talking-head is ideal). In an editor, duplicate the clip and create two "shots" from the one take: a wide (full frame) and a punched-in medium (crop into 1080). Cut between them. Self-review: you've just made a two-camera edit from one camera — where, if anywhere, did the crop start to soften, and what does that tell you about how far reframe headroom goes? This is the single most convincing thing you can do to understand why resolution matters; keep the project file, because you'll want to point to it the next time someone insists they "need" 8K. (Guidance provided.)

16. ⭐⭐⭐ Sensor-size, felt. If you have two cameras with different sensor sizes (your phone and a larger-sensor camera, or two phone lenses), frame the same subject the same size in both and compare the backgrounds and the low-light behavior. If you only have one camera, shoot the same subject in bright light and in a dim room and describe how the image degrades as the light drops. Self-review: one sentence on which mattered more to the image — the sensor, or the light. (Answer provided.)

17. ⭐⭐⭐ The four-setup settings sweep. Take one subject and shoot them in two different anchor setups: a talking-head (seated, still) and a walk-and-talk (moving with them). Use the same resolution and frame rate for both. Self-review: which settings mattered most in each? (Hint: for the still talking-head, resolution/reframe; for the moving walk-and-talk, shutter and rolling shutter.) Write two sentences on how the setup changes which settings you fuss over. This is the anchor-setup thinking the whole book runs on: the same four settings, but a different one matters most depending on whether the subject — or the camera — is moving. (Answer provided.)

D. One subject, five ways (Five Ways)

The fastest way to feel how much a setting changes an image is to hold the subject still and change only the setting, five times, back to back. Differences that are invisible when you look at one clip become obvious when you watch five in a row. Shoot these with a phone and view them as a sequence.

18. ⭐⭐ Five frame rates / shutters of one action. Pick one clear action (a coin spinning, water pouring, someone tossing a ball). Capture it five ways, changing only motion-related settings: (a) 24 fps at 1/50, (b) 24 fps at 1/500, (c) 60 fps at 1/120 played at normal speed, (d) 60 fps slowed to 24, (e) the highest slow-mo your camera has. Watch all five. Self-review: which best serves the feeling of the action, and why? Self-select the winner and defend it in one sentence. (Answer discusses trade-offs.)

19. ⭐⭐⭐ Five resolutions / crops of one frame. Frame one static composition. Shoot it at 720p, 1080p, and 4K if your camera allows. Then, from the 4K version, crop to a 1080 punch-in and a tighter 1080 punch-in. View all five on a large screen. Self-review: where does cropping start to soften the image, and what does that teach you about how far you can push reframe headroom before it costs you? (Model answer provided.)

E. Settings and scenarios (Settings Drill)

Given a situation, write the camera settings and the trade-offs — the reasoning matters more than the "right" number.

20. ⭐ Write the shutter. For each frame rate, write the 180° shutter from memory: 24 fps, 25 fps, 30 fps, 60 fps. Then state the arithmetic rule in one line. (Answer provided.)

21. ⭐⭐ Four briefs, four baselines. Write resolution, frame rate, and shutter for each, with a one-line reason: (a) a filmic 60-second testimonial; (b) a fast-cut sports highlight for social; (c) a wedding you'll deliver with a few dreamy slow-motion moments; (d) a locked-off product shot you'll heavily reframe in the edit. Self-review: for each, could you defend your frame rate to a client who asks "why not just shoot the highest setting?" If not, you're guessing — go back to the feeling each piece wants. (Model answers provided.)

22. ⭐⭐ The bright-day problem. You're set to 24 fps / 1/50 for a walk-and-talk, you step into midday sun, and the image blows out white. List three things you could do that keep your motion correct, and one thing you must not do. Name which chapter fully solves this. (Answer provided.)

23. ⭐⭐⭐ The unfamiliar camera. A client hands you a camera you've never used, five minutes before an interview. Write your walk-up checklist in order — the first four things you set and confirm — and what you'd do if you couldn't find the manual shutter control. Constraint: no internet, no manual, a nervous subject already waiting. This is a real situation for working shooters, and a memorized order is what separates "I've held one of these" from visible panic. (Model answer provided.)

24. ⭐⭐ The social spec. You're grabbing a punchy 15-second clip destined for a vertical social feed (we cover vertical fully in Chapter 23). Would you lean toward 24, 30, or 60 fps, and why might "a little smoother/faster" actually help here in a way it wouldn't for a filmic testimonial? Note the aspect ratio you'd frame for. (Answer provided.)

F. Fix the shot (Fix the Shot)

Diagnosis is a real skill, separate from shooting — most working problems arrive as "something looks off and I don't know why," and naming the cause is most of the fix. Each of these describes a failed shot or edit; your job is to name the setting at fault and prescribe the specific correction, sorted by which stage it belongs to.

25. ⭐ Fix the stutter. A described clip: a beautiful outdoor interview, but every time the subject gestures, their hand "stutters" and the motion looks robotic and jittery. Name the single most likely setting error and the fix. (Answer provided.)

26. ⭐⭐ Fix the cheap-looking brand film. A described clip: a premium coffee brand's story piece is sharp, well-lit, and well-composed, but everyone who sees it says it looks "like a news segment" or "cheap." Nothing is out of focus or badly exposed. What's the likely culprit, and what would you change on the reshoot? (Answer provided.)

27. ⭐⭐ Fix the melting building. A described clip: drone footage where, during fast moves, buildings and towers appear to lean and wobble like they're made of rubber. Name the effect, explain its cause in one sentence, and give two fixes. (Answer provided.)

28. ⭐⭐⭐ Fix the impossible edit. A described situation: an editor has a 60 fps clip and a 24 fps clip of the same event and needs to cut them together in a 24 fps piece — but one keeps looking wrong. Explain what's happening technically, which clip behaves how on the 24 fps timeline, and what the shooter should have done on set. (Answer provided.)

29. ⭐⭐⭐ Fix the storage disaster. A described situation: a creator shot a simple three-shot 1080-delivery video in 8K "to be safe," filled every card and drive they own, and now their laptop stutters so badly they can't edit. Diagnose the two mistakes and prescribe the fix, naming the tool that would have helped and its chapter. Constraint: the footage is already shot, so your fix has to work with what exists — not a reshoot. This is a common real-world rescue, and it teaches that resolution choices are irreversible the moment you press record. (Answer provided.)

G. Recreate it (Recreate It)

You learn a look by rebuilding it with your own subject. These ask you to reproduce a famous feeling — never to copy footage — so you own the technique behind it and can summon it, or (far more often) deliberately avoid it, on purpose. The goal each time is a defensible sentence: this look serves this feeling.

30. ⭐⭐⭐ The reduced-shutter look. After reading Case Study 1, recreate the feeling of the reduced-shutter-angle war-film look with your own harmless subject (someone running toward camera, a busy street, a sparring drill). Shoot it once at the correct 1/50, then again at a high shutter (1/500 or higher) at the same frame rate. Compare, and write two sentences on why the high-shutter version feels tense and "wrong" in a way that suits chaos. Do not keep it as your default — you're borrowing an effect on purpose. (Guidance provided.)

31. ⭐⭐ The dreamy smear. Recreate the opposite look — the woozy, dream-sequence smear — by shooting a slow, gentle motion (a hand passing the lens, a slow turn) at 24 fps with the widest shutter your camera offers (near 1/24 or a 360° angle). Self-review: note when this look would help a story and when it would just look like a mistake. (Answer provided.)

32. ⭐⭐⭐ The slow-motion beauty shot. Recreate a high-end-commercial slow-motion moment: pouring liquid, a hair flip, a jump, confetti. Shoot it at the highest frame rate you have, play it back slowed on a 24/30 timeline, and keep the 180° shutter correct for the capture frame rate. Self-review: why does real high-frame-rate capture look better than a clip artificially slowed in software after being shot at 24? Try both if you can — slow a 24 fps clip to half speed in your editor and compare it to a true 60 fps clip slowed the same amount. The gap (real captured frames versus invented ones) is the whole reason you decide slow-motion on set, not in the edit. (Answer provided.)

H. A taste of the edit (Cut This)

You don't need advanced editing skills to feel how these settings live in post. Any free editor works (DaVinci Resolve is the book's reference from Chapter 26 on).

33. ⭐⭐ Conform a mismatch. Put a 24 fps clip and a 60 fps clip onto the same 24 fps timeline. Observe: which one plays in slow motion by default, and which plays normally? Now set the timeline to 60 fps and re-observe. Self-review: one line explaining, in your own words, why matching frame rates on set makes the edit easier. (Answer provided.)

34. ⭐⭐ Build the two-angle cut. Using your 4K locked-off take from Exercise 15, build a 20-second edit that cuts at least twice between the wide and the punched-in medium, timed to what the subject says. Notice you're editing "coverage" you created after the shoot. Self-review: where did the crop start to soften, if at all? (Guidance provided.)

35. ⭐⭐⭐ Mix a slow-mo insert correctly. Build a short sequence with a 24 fps main shot and one deliberately-slowed 60-fps insert (from Exercise 13 or 32). Confirm the insert plays smooth-slow while the main shot plays normal, all on a 24 fps timeline. Self-review: explain why this is the right way to mix frame rates, versus the accidental mismatch of Exercise 28. (Answer provided.)

36. ⭐⭐⭐ The delivery-rate check. Take any short edit and export it twice — once at the frame rate you shot, once at a different one (e.g., a 24 fps piece exported at 30). Watch both. Self-review: describe any judder or stutter the mismatch introduces, and state the rule it proves. (Answer provided.)

I. Interleaving with Chapter 1

New skills stick when you weave them into old ones. These pull Chapter 1's ideas — the video is not the footage, the three stages, story is the boss — through this chapter's settings, so the technical never floats free of the storytelling it serves. If a setting can't be traced back to a decision about the image, that's the flaw these exercises exist to surface.

37. ⭐⭐ Settings serve story. Take the Project 1 concept you wrote in Chapter 1 (who's on camera, the one thing they say, why a stranger watches). Now justify your Chapter 2 baseline from that story: write one sentence connecting your frame-rate choice to the feeling you want, exactly as FIGURE 2.8 did. If you can't connect them, your settings are arbitrary — fix that now, before you shoot. (Model answer provided.)

38. ⭐⭐ The three-stages check. In Chapter 1 you learned the three stages and "fix it in pre, not in post." Explain which stage a camera test belongs to, and give one specific setting mistake from this chapter that a test would catch for free that would be catastrophic to discover in the edit. (Answer provided.)

39. ⭐⭐⭐ Teach the four settings back. In about 200 words, explain to an absolute beginner why "the video is not the footage" (Chapter 1) is still true even though this chapter is all about the camera. Use at least two of this chapter's settings to show that the numbers only matter in service of a decision about the image. Teaching it is the strongest proof you own it — and if you catch yourself explaining a setting with no "in order to feel/do X" attached, you've found yourself treating a number as an end in itself, which is the exact habit this chapter exists to break. (Model answer provided.)

40. ⭐⭐⭐ The all-three-projects settings page. Write a single reference page listing your intended resolution, frame rate, and shutter for all three of your portfolio projects (talking-head, documentary short, branded piece), each with a one-line reason tied to the piece's feeling. Some will differ; note why. You are building the habit of deciding settings from the story — the exact habit FIGURE 2.8 modeled. Self-review: if all three pages are identical, either your projects are too similar or you're defaulting instead of deciding; a quiet documentary and a punchy branded piece usually want at least one different choice. Keep this page — you'll set your camera from it on every shoot day. (Model answer provided.)

When you've done these — especially the shutter test (11), the frame-rate A/B (12), and the reframe-headroom proof (15) — you no longer have to accept whatever the camera decides. You can set the foundation of an image on purpose and say why. Next, in Chapter 3, we follow the signal past the sensor into how the image is actually recorded — and discover which of your edit-day powers were won or lost the moment you chose a recording format.