White balancing is the fine art of setting up your videocamera for good filming. By giving it a white background as a baseline, you can get better colors and natural lighting for your shots.
My crappy JVC doesn't have a white balancing feature, but most camcorders do. You set it to the white balance function and point your camera at a white piece of paper underneath a white light. Click the button, and your camcorder's good to go.
Some trickster wannabe cinematographers point the camera at off-white paper or shine really bright lights at the camera to change the baseline, making their shots brighter or darker. If you do it really bright, you can get some cool creepy shots, even in the middle of the day.
You can also "white" balance with different colored sheets of paper. There's a really cool website at http://www.urbanfox.tv/workbooks/anycam/paper_effects.htm with some pictures of how white balancing with different papers can produce different shots. Very artsy fartsy, but it can look good when done right. Don't get all crazy, though! Moderation is the key
Hopefully this will give you, Mrs. Amateur Filmmaker, a good start in creating your new masterpiece. Now show me what you got.
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