Post by oxymoron on Dec 10, 2008 20:04:47 GMT -5
TAKEN FROM SKATE PERCEPTION
The Filming Bible
1. We know fisheye shots are dying so step it up with the long lens nuts. I like it because there is so much u can do with a long lens shot that you cant do with a fisheye. Look at your surrounding. Composite your shot. Look at what you have to use.
2. Compositioning Use certain colors to give the look you want along with the trick. Set your white balance to help adjust everything.
3. Exposure: usually filmers are going to run into lots of poorly lit settings. In a lot of cases their is nothing you can do. Its just you standing alone with your exposure controls. In this case pump that sucka up becaue the trick is usually the only thing you should care about here. make sure you can see it well. Use your white balance, ND filters, Exposure, and shutter speed all to your advantage.
4. Screw on your d**n death lens right: a lot of shots you can see little corners or the lens on the bottom and top. This is because the filmer hasnt read the directions to his century optics piece. Screw it on right , it has another knob just so you can adjust where the side panels are.
5. Framing: this is a big one. use your objects in your surrounding to frame your shot. You can make interesting shapes around the borders or your frame and have your skater do his trick in the middle. Just use the things around you (ex. trees). Or you can be really unique and black out some of your shot and control what the viewer sees be careful though. remember your main obligation is to get the trick on film successfully
6. Depth of field: Manual focus is such a useful tool on 3ccd cams. It isnt that great on single ccd cams but on 3ccd's you can do some great things. Your can place objects in the foreground and have your skateboarder in the background and rack focus back and forth. or vice versa. This is such an effective tool im hoping people will catch onto this
7. pass bys: The biggest trend these days. you saw it in menikmati and the transworld vids and it doesnt look that hard. but it is if you want to pull it off right. do pass bys from every direction to see what looks the coolest. also mix it up with some zooming and manual focusing and tada your pro.
8. Get a lot of coverage of everything going on. You dont want to miss out on any angles. search everywhere around the skater and try it from every angle and actually film it. You might want to use it for soemthing later on while your editing.
9. Recording: press the button way early and end way late. You never want to miss out on those rare and special occurances that a lot of people do becaue they are concerned about tape.
10. Your not cool because you look through the viewfinder. Sometimes i find it a lot easier to film using my lcd. its a lot easier to frame your still non camera moving shots. It also makes you feel safer if you look through the LCD cause you never know when your gonna get a board in the face. but for types of pass bys and other moving camera shots i do reccommend looking through your viewfinder. Every time i see am filmers i see them never looking at their shots. they just point and record because they have a huge death lens and thats what the pro filmers do on the pro vids. Your not a fashion model your a f**king camera man and your job isnt to look cool its to make sure your shot looks cool. If you want to be stylish then pick up a skateboard and skate some ledges.
11. Why Im anti reviewing the footage after the trick: why because those skateboarders who want to watch their stuff over and over again never remember to rewind the f**king tape. and usually your going to miss out on footage good or better while your friends view the footy. So I say wait till we are in the car going to the next spot.
12. zooming in after a trick: yes the filmers in the zero vid did this and it looks amazing. But they have excellent flow in the way they do it. dont wait for 10 seconds after the landed trick to point your cam at the ground and then zoom in so u have some cool transition to edit too. make sure the camera moves with the skater and flows nicely and right after the landed trick pound your zoom into the ground just like the skater pounded his landed trick on the ground. You have to flow with the skateboarder too.
13. Cutting tricks together. get one long lens shot and one fisheye shot is the way i usually do it. but if u want to get tech heres a secret. go and learn about screen direction. If you can maintain screen direction while you cut tricks together then you will be a huge step ahead of 97% of the pro filmers.
14. Develop your own filming style dont rip off someone elses camera tricks. for example the Sorry video's filmer had shots where he twisted the cam around to totally distort the skate obstacle. Im not really stoke on this camera trick and im not sure why a lot of people try to imitate it, but thats lame. make your own style be original
15. Clean your lens off: always clean your lens off before and after every trick. even though you cant see the dust on their in the camera it will magically appear on a computer or tv screen TRUST ME those little specks are out to ruin you.
16. Set exposure while you film lines. keep your exposure on manual and before filming the line run through it on your board and test the exposure settins for every area you roll through and count how many small clicks back and forth each part is. this is hard and risky but once you master it well then you are d**n good.
17. Lighting: Soooo useful. Its your best friend and greatest enemy. play with the light on your shots. Lens flares can either be cool looking or annoying so watch out. backlighting is cool. play with your white balance and you can make all the light golden. Usually afternoons when the sun is getting low are the best times to shoot. always great lighting then.
18. Auto focus at lowly lit conditions: watch out this can hurt you. Always switch to manual during these times. cause the focus will go in and out because it doesnt have enough light to focus too.
19. kenko lenses: these are ok but whatever you do dont take the macro off and turn it into a super fisheye. that is the most ridiculous thing i have ever seen, dont do it, it looks very bad, thanks
20. Doesnt matter what you film with: It's how you use it. I've seen so many worthless 3ccd filmers i
21. Get the craziest angle. If it means climbing a tree or a roof then go for it. You only want the best shot.
22. Your cameras gonna get hit so get over it.
23. Film cameras: Super 8 is all over the place, its nice but be original with it. 16mm and 35mm cameras, expensive is all i ahve to say, I see a lot of this used without the filmers knowing its full potential. Film is great and their are limitless possibilities so dont jsut go around and film some skateboarder against a wall for his intro. be creative and use your money wisely
24. Mark 1 and Mark 2 lenses people say there is a big difference but why do most pro filmers have mark 2's these days. getting a mark 1 for your vx2 may not be worth all the trouble. I love the lens flares with mark 2's and i think its a great lens, so does Jon Holland i think hes that one dude who makes the transworld vids..
25. Vx1000 and vx2000 go with a vx2 the quality is a world of difference as well with the the way it picks up light when your setting is dim.
26. A steadily held camera makes a world of difference.
27. Gl's and Vx's I must say i go with Sony every time. I have used every 3ccd camera and the vx2 always prevails with quality. The low light filming is ridiculously good as well. So what Gl's have a record button on the handle, lazy not a very nice person.
The Filming Bible
1. We know fisheye shots are dying so step it up with the long lens nuts. I like it because there is so much u can do with a long lens shot that you cant do with a fisheye. Look at your surrounding. Composite your shot. Look at what you have to use.
2. Compositioning Use certain colors to give the look you want along with the trick. Set your white balance to help adjust everything.
3. Exposure: usually filmers are going to run into lots of poorly lit settings. In a lot of cases their is nothing you can do. Its just you standing alone with your exposure controls. In this case pump that sucka up becaue the trick is usually the only thing you should care about here. make sure you can see it well. Use your white balance, ND filters, Exposure, and shutter speed all to your advantage.
4. Screw on your d**n death lens right: a lot of shots you can see little corners or the lens on the bottom and top. This is because the filmer hasnt read the directions to his century optics piece. Screw it on right , it has another knob just so you can adjust where the side panels are.
5. Framing: this is a big one. use your objects in your surrounding to frame your shot. You can make interesting shapes around the borders or your frame and have your skater do his trick in the middle. Just use the things around you (ex. trees). Or you can be really unique and black out some of your shot and control what the viewer sees be careful though. remember your main obligation is to get the trick on film successfully
6. Depth of field: Manual focus is such a useful tool on 3ccd cams. It isnt that great on single ccd cams but on 3ccd's you can do some great things. Your can place objects in the foreground and have your skateboarder in the background and rack focus back and forth. or vice versa. This is such an effective tool im hoping people will catch onto this
7. pass bys: The biggest trend these days. you saw it in menikmati and the transworld vids and it doesnt look that hard. but it is if you want to pull it off right. do pass bys from every direction to see what looks the coolest. also mix it up with some zooming and manual focusing and tada your pro.
8. Get a lot of coverage of everything going on. You dont want to miss out on any angles. search everywhere around the skater and try it from every angle and actually film it. You might want to use it for soemthing later on while your editing.
9. Recording: press the button way early and end way late. You never want to miss out on those rare and special occurances that a lot of people do becaue they are concerned about tape.
10. Your not cool because you look through the viewfinder. Sometimes i find it a lot easier to film using my lcd. its a lot easier to frame your still non camera moving shots. It also makes you feel safer if you look through the LCD cause you never know when your gonna get a board in the face. but for types of pass bys and other moving camera shots i do reccommend looking through your viewfinder. Every time i see am filmers i see them never looking at their shots. they just point and record because they have a huge death lens and thats what the pro filmers do on the pro vids. Your not a fashion model your a f**king camera man and your job isnt to look cool its to make sure your shot looks cool. If you want to be stylish then pick up a skateboard and skate some ledges.
11. Why Im anti reviewing the footage after the trick: why because those skateboarders who want to watch their stuff over and over again never remember to rewind the f**king tape. and usually your going to miss out on footage good or better while your friends view the footy. So I say wait till we are in the car going to the next spot.
12. zooming in after a trick: yes the filmers in the zero vid did this and it looks amazing. But they have excellent flow in the way they do it. dont wait for 10 seconds after the landed trick to point your cam at the ground and then zoom in so u have some cool transition to edit too. make sure the camera moves with the skater and flows nicely and right after the landed trick pound your zoom into the ground just like the skater pounded his landed trick on the ground. You have to flow with the skateboarder too.
13. Cutting tricks together. get one long lens shot and one fisheye shot is the way i usually do it. but if u want to get tech heres a secret. go and learn about screen direction. If you can maintain screen direction while you cut tricks together then you will be a huge step ahead of 97% of the pro filmers.
14. Develop your own filming style dont rip off someone elses camera tricks. for example the Sorry video's filmer had shots where he twisted the cam around to totally distort the skate obstacle. Im not really stoke on this camera trick and im not sure why a lot of people try to imitate it, but thats lame. make your own style be original
15. Clean your lens off: always clean your lens off before and after every trick. even though you cant see the dust on their in the camera it will magically appear on a computer or tv screen TRUST ME those little specks are out to ruin you.
16. Set exposure while you film lines. keep your exposure on manual and before filming the line run through it on your board and test the exposure settins for every area you roll through and count how many small clicks back and forth each part is. this is hard and risky but once you master it well then you are d**n good.
17. Lighting: Soooo useful. Its your best friend and greatest enemy. play with the light on your shots. Lens flares can either be cool looking or annoying so watch out. backlighting is cool. play with your white balance and you can make all the light golden. Usually afternoons when the sun is getting low are the best times to shoot. always great lighting then.
18. Auto focus at lowly lit conditions: watch out this can hurt you. Always switch to manual during these times. cause the focus will go in and out because it doesnt have enough light to focus too.
19. kenko lenses: these are ok but whatever you do dont take the macro off and turn it into a super fisheye. that is the most ridiculous thing i have ever seen, dont do it, it looks very bad, thanks
20. Doesnt matter what you film with: It's how you use it. I've seen so many worthless 3ccd filmers i
21. Get the craziest angle. If it means climbing a tree or a roof then go for it. You only want the best shot.
22. Your cameras gonna get hit so get over it.
23. Film cameras: Super 8 is all over the place, its nice but be original with it. 16mm and 35mm cameras, expensive is all i ahve to say, I see a lot of this used without the filmers knowing its full potential. Film is great and their are limitless possibilities so dont jsut go around and film some skateboarder against a wall for his intro. be creative and use your money wisely
24. Mark 1 and Mark 2 lenses people say there is a big difference but why do most pro filmers have mark 2's these days. getting a mark 1 for your vx2 may not be worth all the trouble. I love the lens flares with mark 2's and i think its a great lens, so does Jon Holland i think hes that one dude who makes the transworld vids..
25. Vx1000 and vx2000 go with a vx2 the quality is a world of difference as well with the the way it picks up light when your setting is dim.
26. A steadily held camera makes a world of difference.
27. Gl's and Vx's I must say i go with Sony every time. I have used every 3ccd camera and the vx2 always prevails with quality. The low light filming is ridiculously good as well. So what Gl's have a record button on the handle, lazy not a very nice person.
