Thank you all for making it out to videography meeting this past Thursday! If you missed the meeting or want to review what we talked about, here is a recap of Devansh’s presentation.
Settings and Frame Rate
First, the frame rate is how many frames are being captured by your camera every second. Usually, videos are shot at 24 or 30 frames per second (fps), but also higher frame rates can be used for smoother feeling footage or slow motion.
Next, the shutter speed is how long every frame is going to take in light to the sensor. This is usually should be kept at a “180 degree shutter angle”, which means that the shutter speed should be half the time as the time for which one frame lasts. This can be really confusing and that is why a lot of places online can confuse this. So for example, if you are shooting at a video at 30fps, every frame of the video will last for 1/30th of a second. So, to keep the right shutter speed you need to set the shutter speed so that the frame is exposed for half the time, which would make the shutter speed 1/60th of a second.
Shutter speed example for video
Why does this matter? This matters since if the shutter speed is too high the frames would be clear and have no motion blur, which may sound like a good thing but no motion blur would make the video look choppy and unnatural. The method described above results in the most realistic looking motion blur.
If you take a video that is at a frame rate higher than the usual 24 or 30 fps, like 60, 120, or 240fps. Then, play it back at 24 or 30 fps, the video would be slowed down and thus make it slow motion. For example, if a video was taken at 120fps, there were 120 frames captures across a span of 1 second. But, now if we play it back at 30 frames per second, those 120 frames would last for 4 seconds instead of 1, thus slowing down by a factor of 4.
So, this basically “locks in” our shutter speed. To get the right amount of light to hit the sensor for the video, we only have the aperture and ISO that can be changed to get the right exposure. This makes lighting control super important during videography because there is less freedom. If a shallow depth of field is desired and it is sunny outside, a wide open aperture might lead to an over exposed frame even with the ISO at a minimum. This is where ND filters can be used. These block some of the light coming into the sensor when needed.
Stabilization
As a person starting out, stabilization is one of the hardest things since shaky video can ruin a shot with any movement. So here are some tricks to decrease shake.
The T-rex. When shooting handheld, one thing that can be done is to give more support to the elbows to decrease the shake. So, if you tuck in your elbows about where your ribs end (and look kinda like a T-rex), it will give the camera more support.
The Ninja walk. If you are walking and shooting, it helps to bend your knees and take careful slow steps, like a ninja.
The lazy person. Just like a lazy person, find any reason to rest your elbows on sturdy objects when you are shooting handheld but not moving.
The strap on. This requires a neck strap with your camera. Put on the neck strap, hold the camera with both hands, and push the camera lightly such that the neck strap is taught. This gives another contact point to the camera, which reduces shake. This with the ninja walk can give pretty good results.
The dolly. Dollies are wheels that you can put on a tripod to roll it around to take moving shots. They start at about 20 dollars for the cheaper ones, so it is not too bad.
The chair dolly. The dolly is basically adding wheels. So, using a chair that can roll around would work just as well. So just attach a camera to any rolling thing however you want, and you have a dolly!
The rag dolly. It doesn’t even have to roll. Place a rag/cloth/paper towel on a smooth surface, put the camera on it and just slide it around the surface and that’s a moving shot.
The cheap ones that use physics. These are under the category of weight stabilizers. They use counter weights to make the camera more stable and much harder to shake. They are kind of hard to control but they tend to work really well and be the cheapest option to stabilize in any condition.
The throw money at it. If there is a problem, just take a bunch of money and throw it at it. In this case, it would be to buy an electronic gimbal. They use motors to make sure the camera is stable. They are also getting cheaper these days but still cost a few hundred dollars.
Lens choice. If you use a wider focal length, the less shake you will notice because the frame is less zoomed in. Also, image stabilized lenses will reduce camera shake. They are more expensive, but if you want to do video, keep this in mind when you are buying your next lens.
Phone cameras. Phones have really amazing software stabilization. You may not have as much control as you do with a dedicated camera, but they are still really good. If you download the FilmicPro app, you can have more control with your camera settings. Also, phones are small and they can go into weird places and can make for some cool shots.
Here is a video I shot over the summer for my kickboxing instructor. You can see some of the tips I give below being applied in this video.
A moving shot is the quickest way to make anything look high budget and interesting. The parallax effect can add depth to a shot. It happens when the background and foreground are moving at different speeds or direction. You can see this at 1:25 mark in the video. The punching bag moves right. The subject stays in the center. And the background moves to the left in the back. A parallax shot always makes for a pleasing shot. There is also a match cut. Match cuts require planning but are the easiest way to make an impressive transition.
Use different angles to make anything look more cinematic. The angle at 1:00 is an example of such a shot. It always adds to the immersion because it makes things more interesting.
Make a shot list before shooting. You do not have to stick to it, but you should have an idea of what you want to begin with. This can make the editing process much simpler because you already have an idea of the flow of the shots.
Take multiple takes. The focus pads scene at 1:20 took us about 20 takes to get right but it looks cool. Your hard work will pay off.
Don’t overuse slow mo. It’s like a big trend right now, but it can boring really fast.
That being said, slow mo makes things look cool automatically.
Also, sound is more important. If you are recording sound for the video, getting good sound is important because a project with bad audio is much harder to watch than a project with bad video. Fun fact: the final shot at 2:30 does not have any audio that was recorded on the day of filming, but it was added one punch at a time during editing. If you cannot record good sound because of gear limitations, then don’t. Just do it in post which is what we did.
But, the most important thing is that the narrative always comes first. A big difference between photography and videography is the narrative aspect, every shot is now connected to the one before and after and does not exist in a vacuum like with photography. So, as long as you can convey the narrative, you can basically break all the rules you want. In the video we purposely have a continuity error with the bike lights: they are diagonal when the bike is parked but straight ahead when the subject was punching the bag against it. But it does not matter because you will be surprised what people are willing to ignore and forgive as long as there is a proper narrative and the “mistake” is serving the narrative.
Oh yeah and embrace the jank to make shots work. This is how we got the final shot at 2:30.
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