Have you ever videoed an indoor performance. You probably notice that the focus is unstable in poor lighting and the lighting is over exposed on the area of interest, the subject in the spotlight. These issues are easily managed by the professional and person willing to understand the camera. It requires their attention as they manually focus and control the exposure manually as well.
Now a solution for the general public that wants a simpler solution and requiring less concentration. Many camera are coming with a touch screen. Let the user utilize the touch screen to select the spot or region to be used for selecting focus. Same technique would be used to select area to use for deciding exposure.