Testing Filming Techniques

A parkour scene can be very challenging to film and get the editing right, here I have looked at specific examples of certain filming techniques and how we will try to recreate these with the resources we have.

Slow motion
when something like a flip is being performed it already looks impressive, adding slow motion to this creates wonder and awe in the audiences minds on how that is possible. This can be done by either using a slow motion setting on the camera whist shooting, which a high frame rate is needed for this. Or in editing, changing the speed of the clip which can blur the image. Both of these ways need a lot of light when filming or it will result in a very dark, grainy and noisy image. Other things to take into consideration is that the file size of a raw slow motion clip is very large and takes up space. As well as that, when you alter the speed of a clip, the sound of this clip changes to.

Stedi-cam following shots
When someone is performing parkour, obviously they are moving around a lot, in some of our shots we would like to be moving around with the camera too, as when you film something just on a tripod it can look quite boring and not as interesting as it would if there was some movement behind the camera. However it is hard to keep the camera steady whist you are moving because handheld shake is very obvious on the big screen so often stabilizers or gimbals are used in larger productions. As these are very expensive some ways we came up with were going on a skateboard and holding the tripod instead of the camera to reduce wobble.

Mixing different angles of the same move together 
If a certain move has been filmed in multiple positions or angles it is important to edit it smoothly so the previous clip flows with the following clip. This can be done by making sure the actual action that is performed is either filmed by multiple cameras once or done exactly the same multiple times by one camera. So that when the clip cuts to the next, the action can be matched perfectly to the next clips action.

GoPro
GoPros are often used in adventurous activities to capture a point of view shot in a very wide angle, GoPros have a distinguishable look because of this wide angle. It makes the background a little distorted and almost fish bowl like. However this image looks very good in certain videos, like parkour action scenes as it shows the move from a first person perspective to differentiate it from a still shot. Various accessories can be used such as a chest, head, or mouth mount to get specific shots.

Smooth Pans 
A pan can be done using a tripod so that the camera is level all the time and we do not need to worry about it being shaky if we use a fluid video head. Which will enable us to use the handle very slowly to produce a smooth panoramic. This can be used when the two brothers are running along a straight street, and instead of them simply run past parallel to the camera. We can position the camera so it starts of slightly away from the centre and then move it around when they run past so the whole clip is one swift motion of the brothers running.