[Meme]

Hey guys, I am going to start recording with a K5, glidecam and tripod and I am wondering what theories you would recommend me understanding before doing so. My hypothesis(which is worth noting) is that for someone with my lack of experience, the best end result would be achieved through good "scripting" of what I want in the video. Then focusing on spending a lot of time to get a lot of photage that I´d want.

I assume my ratio of good vs bad photage will be horrible, so when I say a lot of photage I basically mean re-shooting for days until I get material I like.

I do have previous experience with digital art photoshop and also beginners skills in after effects so hopefully that will lead to an ok end product. I understand it will be horrible out of a professional view, but currently I have no commercials etc for my company so as long as it is better than not having it I´ll be a happy and more experienced man for the next attempt.

[TaoMaas]

What are you shooting? Commercials...movies...travel...news...documentary?

[Meme]

It will be short 30~ seconds commercials for my consultancy company.

[TaoMaas]

In that case, you're on the right track. Write your script, then figure out what visuals you want to go with it. I tell people that it's like driving to a store. You can either decide ahead of time what store you want to visit, then plan a route to get there....or you can drive around aimlessly, hoping you'll eventually stumble across what you want.

[Meme]

In that case, you're on the right track. Write your script, then figure out what visuals you want to go with it. I tell people that it's like driving to a store. You can either decide ahead of time what store you want to visit, then plan a route to get there....or you can drive around aimlessly, hoping you'll eventually stumble across what you want.

Thanks a lot for your input. I have a couple of ideas ranging from "I can´t create something like that in years" to "hopefully I can manage to create this with a lot of effort".

To start with I will focus more on just nice photage and find a nice way to edit in text to sell the services. Later on I want the commercials to tell the story without a text.

Does it sound reasonably achievable? Any way you would go with it? I am currently looking around at other commercials and videos to get ideas of nice shots. I am particulary fond of the videos where they have used a glidecam which seems to create a wonderful cinematic effect.

[hooverfocus]

Thanks a lot for your input. I have a couple of ideas ranging from "I can´t create something like that in years" to "hopefully I can manage to create this with a lot of effort".

To start with I will focus more on just nice photage and find a nice way to edit in text to sell the services. Later on I want the commercials to tell the story without a text.

Does it sound reasonably achievable? Any way you would go with it? I am currently looking around at other commercials and videos to get ideas of nice shots. I am particulary fond of the videos where they have used a glidecam which seems to create a wonderful cinematic effect.

I think you're on the right track there.
One of our school projects consisted in creating some sort of futuristic way of communicating and sharing documents within an organization whose members were located across Europe (or something like that), and the end product, on top of planning and designing the thing itself, was supposed to be a short video showing and promoting this device.

Vimeo

I shot this entirely with the K-5 on a shoulder-mount stabilizer (similar to this thing, which is far from ideal, trust me on this), and I tried to do my moves very slowly then smoothcammed the hell out of that footage.

I tried to mimick the slow motion moves from a commercial I saw (can't remeber the product, nor the commercial, though!). Also, I knew I wanted to show the "old" way of communicating before getting to the actual device, so basically I drew a quick storyboard to have a clear idea of what I needed to shoot and then just went at it.

I think it's important to have an idea, and at least a rough planning of your shots, before you start shooting. This will save you lots of time during filming and especially afterwards, when you start editing.

Good luck!

[Meme]

Thanks Hoover and great commercial. I was thinking about finding a few shots then "translate" them to my branch, and of course also try some of my own. My current idea is to try to start with shots from the tripod(Will be about escalators and elevators) and then some glidecam shots.

I think the glidecam could help creating cool stuff when riding the escalator for example. That "First person" view.

[fuent104]

Most people would recommend gaining an understanding of simple techniques before moving to advanced ones. Do own a glidecam? I have heard there is a learning curve associated with using them. If you haven't bought one, you may want to rent one to try it out.

Do you have a budget? I think your best bet would be to hire someone who has video production experience. Even an advanced student should be able to create something you'd be happy with.

Ultimately, I'm not sure you're correct about the necessity of having a quality video...I'm not sure, but I think that having a poorly made video could actually be more harmful than helpful to your business. I accept that I could be completely wrong, though.

As far as resources for filmmaking education, there are a lot of great ones out there. As far as websites go, I'd recommend eoshd.com, cinema5d.com, and nofilmschool.com to get started. There are also a lot of great books out there about the subject. The best one I can think of as an introduction to the ideas behind filmmaking is called Film Directing: Shot by Shot by Stephen Katz.

[fuent104]

I should add that, if you do end up hiring someone, you can also participate in the production and learn from the filmmakers. If you choose not to go that route, your background in photography should help with composition. The most important thing to remember for the glidecam stuff, if you do it, is to move from one composition to another, as opposed to simply moving the camera.

[Meme]

Thanks a lot for the critique Fuent. I understand that photography like everything takes a lot of time to get good at. I am a big believer in developing myself as a person and not just my company by buying stuff others creates. A business can end but your skills are going to stick with you until you die.

My budget is set to "Buy what is necessary to not limit your production". But that is a more longterm budget, to start with I will have a tripod, glidecam, K5 with 18-55/3,5-5,6 WR + 50-200/4,0-5,6 WR lenses. I am aware of those lenses being far from the best but from what I have read and understood I need to develop with these lenses to later have an idea about my needs and my way to produce, so I can buy the lenses I need and not the lenses that are good.

When it comes to stuff like the glidecam/slider/tripod I am a lot more interested for the time being. I can´t see any of those being negative to develop yourself with.

I am really grateful for the websites and I will visit them. I will also not be satisfied with a BAD end product and I´ll make sure to ask people on here for opinions before I´d ever publish it. I am used to spending 100s of hours with projects which just doesn´t reach the needed quality and I have experience in that terrible moment when you got to just click "New file". Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of me so it is easier to give recommendations. I thank everybody so far for your great advice.

[fuent104]

Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of me so it is easier to give recommendations.

It sure does. And I'm sorry if I initially came off as being critical. I honestly was not trying to be critical, and I wasn't implying that you hadn't tried to use a Glidecam when I asked if you had. It was an honest question. So thanks for not taking offense.

I happen to be at the beginning of a career as a cinematographer, in Los Angeles, and I come into some sort of contact with people who "want" video work done for their businesses almost every day. The problem is that many, many of these people have no regard for quality, and they are not aware that they have no regard for it. As such, a lot of people really don't want to spend any money on videos for their businesses, and they don't understand why professionals charge as much as they do. In fact, it is pretty common to encounter people who want video products, and think that people who don't want to work for free have bad attitudes.

It sounds like you don't have this kind of approach at all, and that you put a lot of consideration into what you will attach your name to. It sounds like you will definitely put in the necessary time to learn to create good work.

Those resources I mentioned are some good ones, and I think you'll like them. There's also a guy named Dave Dugdale, at Learning DSLR Video | Learn How To Shoot HD Video With A DSLR. He posts a lot of videos about the more basic, practical side of dslr video, and he likes to shoot primarily with zooms. You may enjoy his videos, too.

[Meme]

Thanks again Fuent and I recognize myself with it. It is quite common that people who have never tried digital arts frown upon it and think it takes 1 hour to create a great webdesign for them and get mad if you don´t do it for them. Now that is mainly friends wanting websites though as I am not really good. I´ll look into your sources and do my best! The K5 arrived yesterday so I have a lot to learn, I am playing around with settings and trying to read up on every option to learn the basics. Figured the HDR would be cool but I don´t really like it so I´ll try to read up on the manual approach to that etc. So far I am greatly impressed with the cameras ability to "lift" photos and make them pop. Even average scenery turns pretty beautiful in the camera lens.

http://oi49.tinypic.com/6z7slj.jpg

[kadajawi]

All I can say is shooting with any kind of steadicam rig takes practice. How to walk, how to move the camera, how to hold the thing. I've only used a tripod for this, but I think by now I can get some rather decent videos (though I am nowhere near to the smoothness some can do, and most of the time I don't get it right, just once in a while it is smooth) --> It takes a lot of practice.