We’re at the point when we’re starting to think more about: 1. Why am I filming this shot the way I am? 2. What lens should I use? And 3. What does the image convey to the story?
We’ve had plenty of time spent behind the camera, aimlessly filming whatever we see. Now we want to take it to the next step in breaking it down.
I’m laying here trying to sleep, and I’m filming a commercial piece in my head. As I’m doing that, I’m asking myself the questions: What feeling does shooting down on your subject, shooting level to the subject, or doing a POV shot give?
If you have an idea of how a shot makes the viewer feel, then you have a lot more control over your story telling. From camera angles, camera movement, lighting, color and more. Because of the Glidetrack being our newest addition, I was thinking what different emotions it creates vs. a still shot. For example, if we’re shooting a scenery shot and we put the camera on a tripod and do some stills of the building tops, it creates a calm, peaceful, empty feeling. Now, if I were to use glide shot, pulling the camera into the shot to expose the building, it creates a since of awe, and excitement. I used this idea in our last wedding film during the shot of the Eiffel Tower ice sculpture. It alone was amazing, but by adding the glide shot coming into the reception room, it transfers that feeling through video.
We didn’t start producing videos with a $20,000.00 investment, but we took what we had, tried to use it to its fullest potential, and get to know the gear a lot better than you would if you ordered it all at once. We started off with a little Sony Handicam that I would shift focus by manually holding the plus and minus buttons on the LCD screen, to a Canon DSLR with a kit lens, then added a lens here and there, and now the glidetrack. We’ve also brought in a lot of other gear, and have used a lot of very cool equipment to try new ideas, like the tilt-shift lens, to see what other options we could explore.
So as we keep producing films, and learning from successes and failures, I can’t wait to see where we will be by the end of the year.
Keith Brown - F//M
