How to evade a shaky camera (1)

Have you ever had footage completely ruined by a shaking camera?

After this series of lessons, you’ll no longer have problems with one of the main reasons why a lot of amateur movies don’t look good.

You can take your shots in two different ways: the static and the dynamic one, as i call them.

To make a static shot, you don’t need to be behind the camera. You just aim your camera at the scene, and do the acting while your camera is recording. For example, if you want to film a pursuit scene, you place the camera somewhere and just run past it. This technique is used a lot in michiel’s shortfilm ‘The Box’. I’ll show you a ‘tool’ you can make to more easily aim your camera, without buying a tripod.

To make a dynamic shot, you move your camera so that your lens follows your actors. For this you can use a tripod, or a dolly (see part 4!)

See you tomorrow for a short article about a tool for static filming

Thijs Vandenbussche

~ by easternlights on September 3, 2008.