- Just because you bought a Gimbal,
doesn't mean you're gonna get good footage.
In this video, I wanna show you the difference
between pro Gimbal moves and beginner Gimbal moves,
and how much better your footage will be,
So, I'm out here in beautiful Dana Point
and we're gonna go shoot some pretty footage
of the landscape here.
And at the end of this video,
I'm gonna cut a little sequence out of both
the beginner footage and the pro footage,
so you can really see the difference.
This area was discovered by that man back there,
the guy that's a big statue,
and so I wanna grab some different shots
that just show off the landscape
and really show the beautiful area.
So let's start by just going over to the statue
and grabbing a shot of Mr. Dana.
(upbeat music) Number one,
use foreground elements.
It's always great to grab some establishing shots
that set up something unique about the location.
This statue is perfect.
Now, the beginner's gonna walk right up to the statue
and keep his camera at eye level.
He does a circle around the statue to create some movement,
because, well, he has a Gimbal.
With a subject like this,
it makes sense to do a move where you're spinning around
and keeping the statue centered.
And his final shot, you know, it looks okay.
Now the pro looks around in his environment
and finds some options to give the statue more character.
Foregrounding elements gives a shot more depth.
This is where you put something between the lens
and the subject.
For this, the pro tries a few ways.
The first was the same orbit style shot,
but keeping the camera lower to the ground
and foregrounding some bushes at the bottom of the frame.
Now, the second option was to get a little bit further away
and use some trees in the foreground.
These shots definitely have more of a cinematic quality.
Number two. Use body rotation.
Now the beginner wants to grab a nice wide shot
of Dana point,
so he decides to pan from the ocean over to the point.
Gimbals have a joystick, so using that,
you can get a nice moving shot to show the scene.
The only issue is
that the beginner really doesn't pay attention
to the speed of his motion, and using a joystick,
the shot will sometimes just end abruptly,
especially when your settings aren't set up properly.
Now the pro sees the same shot
and uses body rotation instead.
So keeping his Gimbal in Tilt Lock mode,
all he has to do is pivot and rotate his body
from the left to the right
and try to feather in the motion in and out,
so that it starts and ends smoothly.
Now, this is much easier to do
when you're doing a big body rotation
versus trying to use the joystick
to get the same type of look.
Number three. Intention.
All right, here comes the beginner
and he wants to get a shot walking
through this cool staircase that goes down to the beach.
The problem is, he walks right through
and films the motion from start
all the way down to the water.
And what he's trying to do is get a cool POV shot
that feels like you're walking through the scene.
Fortunately, the final shot doesn't look that good.
Now the pro looks at the same situation
and breaks it down into a few intentional shots.
Instead of trying to make one motion,
he understands that in the edit,
you can cut a few of these together
and simulate that same feeling,
as if you're moving through the space.
So first he gets a smooth shot walking forward
into the staircase,
and then second, he grabs a shot where he comes
around the corner and reveals the beach
at the bottom of the stairs.
And when they're cut together,
it's a much smoother sequence.
Number four. Don't always walk.
Now that we're on the beach,
it's the perfect time to get a shot of the shoreline.
The beginner wants to start high
and work his way down to the water.
He's gonna walk through the rocks,
just stepping through all the uneven surfaces,
and he's not gonna be able to pay attention
to how smooth the shot is.
The final result kind of bumps all over the place.
Now, the pro looks at the situation
and decides to not take any steps.
Instead, he uses his body weight
and shifts from left to right.
Now, with the Gimbal in the Lock mode,
he can push the Gimbal from the far left
all the way to the far right,
and you get a long, straight cinematic Gimbal move.
Number five. Change your lens.
Now that we've walked down the beach a little bit further,
we find that there's this interesting rock at the point.
So the beginner wants to get a JIB shot, going low to high.
So he puts the camera down low by the rocks
and then raises it up above his head.
Now, unfortunately, throughout this entire day,
the beginner has just been using the same wide lens
for every shot.
And then on top of that,
he's using autofocus for everything.
And so the rocks in the foreground are gonna be in focus,
and then it bounces to the background,
where the interesting rock is.
Overall, the shot doesn't look that good.
Now the pro looks at the same situation
and decides to change his lens.
He uses a 35mm versus a 16mm.
And then he does the same JIB like movement,
but instead of using autofocus,
he puts it into manual and focuses on
the rock in the background.
Now, when he does this,
the foreground elements stay out of focus
as he does this JIB shot,
and it has a much more professional quality.
Number six. Change perspective.
Now check this out.
We found a seagull, when we were down at the beach.
So it'd be great to grab some shots of the wildlife,
to show something a little bit different.
So the beginner finds a good spot as close as he can,
and with his wide lens, that he doesn't change,
he tries to do a movement with his body,
to give you some sort of rotation around the seagull,
because we have a Gimbal, we wanna show movement.
Now, overall, the shot just seems pretty boring.
The pro sees the same situation
and decides to change his angle and change his perspective.
He gets down super low
to try and get eye level with the bird,
and then he's using his longer lens,
the 35mm, and with the focus locked on a seagull,
he comes out from behind a rock
to show some more movement with the foregrounded elements.
And this shot looks much better.
Shot number seven. Get outta your comfort zone.
Now for the next shot,
the beginner wants to grab a shot walking along the beach,
as the waves come crashing in.
So if he gets as close as he can to the water
and walks along the beach, try not to get hit by the waves,
the end result is okay,
but when he gets back to look on his computer,
he also noticed that there were some people walking out
in the distance and it doesn't look that good.
Now the pro, on the other hand,
decides to take off his shoes and actually get in the water.
We're looking for unique perspectives
and we want to get cinematic shots.
So, sometimes that means thinking outside the box.
So he walks trying to get the camera just above the water,
to just show these waves crashing
as he moves towards the rocks.
And then on top of this,
he pays attention to his background,
to make sure that there's no people walking in the distance,
that will ruin the shot.
Overall, this shot has a much more cinematic quality,
because it's thought out, the perspective has changed,
and he takes a little bit of a risk
and gets himself into the water.
Sometimes you just have to think outside the box,
and you might get a little dirty getting the perfect shot.
Okay, I have one more major tip for you,
but first let's watch this sequence back to back,
the beginner and the pro,
and just look how different they are.
(bright orchestral music)
(bright orchestral music continues)
(bright orchestral music)
(bright orchestral music continues)
Now, the beginner is not bad,
it still looks good and it shows off the area.
It just has some bumps
and doesn't have that cinematic quality.
Whereas the pro level, it just feels much more like a movie.
It's more thought out
and there's a lot more variation
when it comes to angles and the way that we shot this video.
Now, the last tip
that I want to give you is all around story,
because shooting pretty shots,
in a pretty location like this, is great,
but when you use a Gimbal,
it's not just for shooting pretty shots.
Now, if you're selling stock footage, yeah, it's great.
and you could sell those shots as stock footage,
but more importantly, a Gimbal is a great tool
to be able to help tell your story,
for the videos that you're creating.
When I'm out filming my videos,
I usually bring a Gimbal along with me,
to get those cinematic smooth shots.
But I'm not only gonna use a Gimbal,
I also use a drone, I'll sometimes use hand-held,
and Gimbals definitely add a level of professionalism
to the videos that you're creating.
But ultimately you have to think about what is the purpose
of the shot that you're shooting in the first place.
So, when you're telling a story, you need to think through,
"is this shot important to the story?
Or are you just grabbing extra footage that's pretty,
because you have a Gimbal,
and you just want to shoot some shots that are pretty?"
So, recently I was up in Alaska
and I had my Gimbal along with me,
but I didn't use it the entire shoot.
I only used it for certain segments
where I knew a super smooth Gimbal shot would enhance
what it is that I was filming.
So for example, I was out
with a mountain man in the middle of Alaska,
and I wanted to get some hero shots of him.
And so I used my Gimbal to do an orbit
around him as he stood there,
with this epic view behind him.
And it just helps set him up as a character
who thrives in this intense setting.
Ultimately, when you get into the edit
and you have like a ton of shots,
and none of them actually fit the story
that you're trying to tell,
well, then it's just a waste of time going out
and shooting those shots.
So if you're filming a video that has more of a story,
the first thing you need to think through is, well,
"What's the story and how can my Gimbal,
that can get these cinematic smooth shots,
help enhance that story even further?"
Now next, make sure you check out this video right here,
it goes through a bunch of different Gimbal moves
that you can use when you're out filming
and crafting your stories.