FILMING ADVICE THREAD

Maybe make this a sticky?

I know when I started filming I had no clue at all what to do with my camera, how to set it up, what angles to get or anything for that matter. So, I think a lot of kids who see the come up and want to make a video for it should have a thread to look at offering advice for filming. If you guys have experience filming, you should add on to this list.

These are just the things that would have been helpful when I first started.

1. Know your camera. It doesn't matter what kind of camera you have, knowing how to set the manual settings (if possible) will help the image quality tremendously. If you're camera allows you to set the shutter speed, iris etc. read up in the manual how to adjust them. If you have manual setttings and you put it on auto, you're not getting the best picture you could get. White balance before you shoot anything.

2. Don't think you need a fisheye to film riding. Seriously so bummed when kids buy a shitty wide angle from BestBuy or something and never take it off the camera. Filming with no lens on the camera (called long lens) offers the best possibilities for getting an awesome shot. Find something near the spot that sparks interest, put it in the frame of your shot and people are going to be pumped on it. Also, there's a huge difference between fisheye and wide angle lenses. Fisheyes actually distort the image, making some things seem bigger while the wide angle only widens the camera's lens and doesn't distort the image. Fisheyes have their place for certain shots, but don't just stick it on there and think you can film everything with it.

3. Smooth filming is clutch. Instead of following the rider around wherever he goes, focus on the spot he's riding and apply a rule of thirds. Let them ride in one side, do the trick around the center of the frame and ride out the other side. Obviously there's a million styles of filming a trick, but that little rule of thirds helped me a TON while learning to film. Smooth zooms look awesome too, work on them while your buddies are just fooling around on a spot or something to dial them in.

4. Editing: Don't use a song everyone's heard a million times, and try to keep the editing simple and clean cut while you're first starting out. There's no need to put in ridiculous titles and slowmo's if you're just starting, focus on doing a clean edit that people will be able to watch without cringing.

I guess that's it, by no means is this some sort of rules. Hopefully this thread helps out some kids looking for advice when first starting to film. If you really are into filming, go over to http://www.skateperception.com and search the forums for your answers. EVERYONE ADD YOUR ADVICE!

^^^^better than the bible

that is some very good advice.

Filming Lines- Make sure your Image Stabilizer is off, Keep your camera as low to the ground, and as youngwill said, keep your rider toward the back of your frame, allowing the obstacle to come into the picture before the rider does the trick. The shot must lead the viewers attention. I hate when the rider is in the front of the frame, and you have a split second to see the obstacle before they do the trick on it.

Another tip- Fisheye lens. Dont overuse the lens and when you do, get low. I use my fish primarily for lines, shots of airs from the deck, or when i need to get super close or exaggerate distance. Too many times, people purchase their $800 death lens and use it in every shot to get their "moneys worth." With your fisheye, do not be afraid to get close. The lens exaggerates distance, and when someone shoots further than 5-8 feet, the subject becomes super small and it often dwarfs the obstacle.

Try not to re-use a song in DVDs. I don't mind if someone uses a song that has been used from a skate part. Skaters have practically skated to every good song and it is hard to avoid it. But re using a song from a bmx vid gets to me is lame. When a song is reused, i often find myself comparing the two segments or just annoyed.

CLEAN YOUR LENS. Keep that shit clean.

Use a capture camera to protect your heads. If you have a nice prosumer camera, use a cheap mini dv camcorder or a deck to capture your footage. Your camera and its heads will last much longer without the wear and tear of playing back footage.

Dont totally overexpose all your shots. Use a ND filter to cut down some of the light and open up your iris.


Experiment.



Maybe i will shoot a short vid with some tips on filming lines and put that online.

1.I hate this one, don't zoom with a fisheye on it gets out of focus and just looks like shit.

2.Don't zoom into the ground all the time. Alot of people started doing this. Its not to bad everyonce in awhile, but dont go overkill with it.

3.Just because you have a fisheye doesnt mean you can stand right next to the irder. May sure you can see the trick and the obstacle. watch the new shook trailer. There are some clips were you dont know hwats going on because its so close.

4. When shooting long lense try to find interesting angles, film from a higher angle or try rolling by on a skateboard or bike.

haha these arent that good but i wanted to contribute

i think thatd be so sweet as long as you dont make it say "do this, and do this, and this".. we dont want every bmx edit from here on out to look exactly the same haha

by pointing out the "what not to do's" youll allow people to get much more creative and whatnot.

probably obvious but just sayin.

such a good idea. do it.

all the advice given so far is awesome, noticed a couple things I could improve on as well, thanks guys and keep it going

Auto Focus
- Never use it!
- For long lens shots, zoom in and set your depth of field.
- If you use auto focus with a fisheye lens, and there are any specs of dirt on the lens (or anything at all on the lens), the camera is going to focus on the dirt and put everything else slightly out of focus. This is such a common mistake.

Steady Shot/Optical Image stabilization
- This comes in hand for long lens
- Fisheye is out of the question, even if your fisheye doesn't vignette keep steadyshot/image stabilization off when using the fisheye.

Customize
- All the prosumer and professional Sony, Canon, and Panasonic cameras have customizable image settings. Familiarize yourself with them to get the best results.

ND filter/Shutter Speeds
- On sony cameras I never use the ND filter. Its basically like putting sunglasses on the lens. They tend to flatten the colors.
- Use your shutter speed controls and avoid the ND filter.
- Higher shutter = less motion blur
- Lower shutter = more motion blur

Filming Fisheye
- The fisheye is a really great tool for making small objects look bigger. But if not used correctly it can make big objects look smaller.
- Get low and keep the rear end of the camera pointed down and the front end of the camera pointed up.
- Avoid cutting off heads as much as possible.

Night Filming
- Don't abuse the gain if you don't have proper lighting
- With vx2k's/21k's the gain is really not noticable below 9db. Try not to go above 6db
- Don't go below 60 shutter

Shoot to Edit
- When filming I always try and think about how everything is going to look when edited
- You can plan your shots out and make them transition much better and make the editing process easier
- Don't break the timecode on your tapes

Tapes
- Keep them consistant
- If you get a new camera and the first tape you use is a Sony tape, then keep using Sony tapes. Different tape manufacturers use different lubricants. So switching between tape brands can clog your heads over time, causing glitches.
- Have the heads on your camera professionally cleaned and aligned if there is a recurring problem.

i seriusly has to be my biggest pet peves i cant fucking stand that seriusly there no point on doin that.
anyway this thread FUCKING RULES!!!!
all this is good advice i practically had to learn all this my self
this is how i film.
i will always shoot with my lense on. i always try to keep the person in the shot i dont like to cut peoples heads off. its a mx-3000 and its not that distorted. i dont like shooting long lense. even though really ive havent done it since i got my lense. ive had my image stabilizer on and never turned it off figured it was a good thing but iam goin to try it and see if it makes a diference.

im deff guilty of thiss, ill start to use manual though. what do u mean by setting the depth of field.thanks

how about editing software??
what do you guys think of adobe premiere cs3?
and anybody know where to download it for free...?

NEVER USE MAXELL TAPES. THEY ARE THE DIRTIEST TAPES KNOWN TO MAN, WILL GET YOUR HEADS DIRTY, AND HAVE YOU SHITTING YOURSELF WHEN YOU WONDER WHY YOU CAN'T SEE ANY TIMECODE WHEN GOING TO CAPTURE.

sorry for the caps haha, but i've seen so many people go through shit with maxell tapes, and had people use maxell tapes in our XL1s at work, and have the cams shit the bed the next day. stay away from maxell.

yeah i'm guilty too of auto focus, sometimes im scrambling to get a clip and don't have time to set it, i definitely want to this summer though.

software help???

if you've got the computer power, i've heard premiere isn't bad, althought i'm not too psyched on it. i like final cut. if you're on a mac, final cut express isn't bad at all, i've done a fair amount of videos with it and they turned out great (compared to something done with iMovie or whatever)...final cut pro is my favorite (despite what some people say)...you're not going to be using anything from autodesk making bmx films, i can almost guarantee that.

windowss movie makers

yeah.

hahahaa

figure out how far you're going to zoom in, use the focus ring to focus on that point and you've got your depth of field.

dont stand to close to there person your filming, and yes im referencing the recent shook trailer and the dave thompson video on the verde site.

i know chad shack explained that alot of it has to do with the widescreen conversion, but if you knew you were gonna convert it, back up extra far...

nothing is worse then seeing only the bike, or front wheel,in a shot, or having to guess what the obstacle was cause u coudlnt see it. and i mean nothing.

let me reiterate, nothing

If your a shakey dude..

Two things that can help A LOT on making your videos cleaner..

Tripods.. they are cheap, and easy.. don't use them for every shot since it gets boring if it just sits there but for a lot of shots it is possible to use a tripod and makes the filimg a lot smoother..

A handle! yeah you know this guy..


super easy to make. fairly low cost to buy. It is great! it stabalizes your shots and makes it way better for doing moving shots, you can hold that and cruise on your bike, skateboard, rollerblades, or just walking/ running a bit way easier than just holding the camera.

i could get a lightly used sony hc1000 for about $400.. is this a good deal? kid said its 2 years old. he got way more into photos then video though so he juts wants to get rid of it.

im sick of filming and having all my footage look bland/colorless. is this a good camera with good color and all that? will it be a good improvement from my current panny pvgs150, or should i hold off and save

thanks i figured it out thos way the other day footage looks alot better. Does anyone have FCP. I just got it after switching to premiere. When i capture the video appears really choppy and slow on the sample screen but looks fine when actually imported. And also How do i get the audio levels?frequencies to show up. Like the little mountain ranges haha. They dont show up on the timeline. haha thankss

just convert your audio file to an AIFF file in itunes and it will show up man

yes, you will have better colors with the hc1000. How do I know this? The size of the CCD will tell you, the bigger the CCD, the better the image quality. For example, your pvgs150 has 1/6 inch CCDs, and the hc1000 has 1/4.7 inch or something like that (information stolen from a quick google search). If you really want to look into it, find exact specs on the size of the CCDs in each camera. Hope that helps

The most important shit with filming is justification of the trick to the audience, show what matters with the trick. Jamming the fisheye as close as you can to the ground, then the rider, then the ground again doesn't show anything to the viewer except the tailwhip the rider did, but the obstacle and the surroundings are potentially more important to the trick than the whip itself. If you're using a fisheye, back up and figure out the best way to shoot whatever is going on in regards to both the spot and the trick.

Fisheyes can make things look bigger, is there a part of the trick in relation to the spot that needs to be exaggerated? Sometimes gaps don't look as large in videos as they do in person and a fisheye is a good tool to justify things like that so the viewer knows what's up... Whoever is watching your video is just going to get a headache from you jerking the camera all over the place if you're too close so think about what you're doing before you get out the camera.

I was so happy to read this. It seems like people get so carried away with trying to do fancy shit with the camera that they forget showing the trick is important. I'm still slightly under the impression that people buy bike videos to see good riding.

when will insight be available

exactly. also, i think that people sometimes will miss exactly how big something is if you use the fisheye on it. i mean the gap might look mind blowingly huge in the fisheye, but sometimes i just brush it off and say, "eh, its probably because of the fisheye." long lens on big gaps seems to be the way to go for me.

quoted for truth.

Are handles available for most every type of camcorder?

I got a smaller camcorder for X-Mas, and its nothing like
what most of you probably have. I can see where a handle
would be great to have, but am unsure if one is available
for my camera. I have a Canon DC230 and though it might
not be much, it does what I need it to do.

Great tips though. There were a lot of questions that I had
which are now answered as I am brand new at this filming
thing.

yea it should fit all you need is a shoe mount just look for the screw in threads on th bottom of the cam