How to film a reference video worth practising to

The move you're learning is only as good as the clip you're learning from. A shaky, half-framed video makes every rehearsal harder than it needs to be. Two extra minutes of careful filming, and every session after it gets easier. Here's how.

Frame the whole body

Get your full body in shot — head to feet, with a little room at the edges. You need to see footwork and arms together, not crop them off. Shoot in portrait if you practise on your phone, so it matches how you'll rehearse.

Face the way you'll practise

Film facing the camera, as if it's a mirror. When you practise you'll mirror what you see, so a face-on reference is far easier to follow than one shot from the side or behind.

Light it simply

Put the brightest light in front of you, not behind — a window ahead of you beats a window behind you, which turns you into a silhouette. You don't need a studio; even light and a plain-ish background do the job.

Catch the whole phrase, cleanly

Start the clip a beat before the move and end a beat after, so the phrase has room to breathe. If you're filming to music, keep the count obvious — you'll thank yourself when you're matching timing later.

Quick checklist

• Full body in frame, portrait
• Facing the camera (mirror-style)
• Light in front, plain background
• One clean take of the whole phrase
• Steady phone — prop it, don't hand-hold

How DanceForm helps

Once you've got a clean clip, add it to your Move Library — give it a title, tags and a tempo so it's ready whenever you want to drill it. In the Studio, DanceForm plays your reference beside your live camera so you can mirror it, and the ghost overlay blends the two so you can check your lines as you go. Learning something fiddly? Slow-motion (a Pro feature) lets you drop to 0.5x to break a phrase down, then build back to full speed. And it all stays on your iPhone — your clips never leave your device unless you choose to share them.

One last thing

A good reference is the cheapest practice upgrade there is. Film one clean take today, drop it in your library, and give your next session a head start.