Hey guys, it’s Gaba VR,
and this time I show you some really cool cinematic effects, you can shoot with 360 cameras.
I know, that people are quite liberal with the world „cinematic” in YouTube,
but this time I will show you a couple of really professional shots
you can use even in music videos, commercials and short films,
not only in video blogs and your personal social media channels.
My first, basic tip for a cinematic footage is this:
Always plan your scene and even when everything seems fine, always take care of the shadows, too.
Shooting with a 360 camera we can capture really smooth wide angle shots,
but we have to be careful with this wide angle,
because it can easily capture the shadow of the camera and the selfie stick, too.
Another advantage of this camera is that we can shoot in really creative angles,
even really low or high without using a drone.
These low close ups and fake drone shots look very cool,
but in every single case we have to avoid shadows, too.
A visible shadow of the selfie stick or the camera makes the shot look really unprofessional.
But taking care of it, we can have really unique camera moves and camera positions.
But stepping forward let me show you some really special techniques,
which ones are really hard to recreate with traditional cameras.
One of them is Point Of View shots.
I built my own setup for GH5, but as you can see, it’s quite a complicated construction,
and believe me, it’s really hard and exhausting to shoot this way.
But using a small and light 360 camera can make a big difference.
I just take Insta360 One X and - in this case - a small cold shoe adapter,
which I can hold in my mouth carefully, and that’s all!
I can easily shoot POV videos, setting free both hands,
which look great in horror movies, action scenes or even in certain commercials, too…
Then, I have further Firs Person View setups for shooting b-rolls, while following certain object.
First, let’s see a paper plane.
This can be a love letter, or whatever you want in your short film,
and it’s quite a unique shot.
If you are interested about my in-depth paper plane shooting video,
check it out in the right top corner or on the link in the description below.
And of course we can try to play around with other, heavier objects, like with this X-wing fighter.
In this case I created another mounting setup,
which can be a little bit different in every single case, when we are working with a new object.
The main difference you can see, that now I’m mounting the camera facing to the plane.
So now I cannot show the bottom of the plane in the video,
but it looks way better this way, that the camera is a little bit higher, and it shows us the top of the fighter.
Now, turning back to some special wide angle action shots,
sometimes it would be better to make the talent film himself, using a selfie stick.
This way we could shoot with a constant distance between the talent and the camera.
But it looks really crappy, seeing that the actor is holding something in hand.
Even if we are shooting with the so-called invisible selfie stick, it looks unusable in a professional work,
mostly because the hand position is a little bit weird and unnatural.
In one of my first tutorials I showed you my flying cam technique, which helps setting our hands free,
but it mostly works in photos or still scenes.
My main problem is that it’s really noticeable that the talent is grabbing something,
and this hand is a little bit weird anyway.
So I came out with a solution for such cases.
I put something in their hands, like a suitcase, a helmet, a balloon or a glass,
depending on the scene. And this way it looks way better.
With the proper accessory in hand, these scenes look natural,
and no one suspect that there’s a selfie stick in the scene.
Or we can shoot using my Rearguard360 technique, holding the camera behind us.
And now, let’s talk about a really cool effect, called bullet time.
It’s a dedicated Insta360 effect,
as we can buy a bullet time bundle and there’s a dedicated function in the smartphone app, too.
But I don’t use any of them, and even more, first I found this effect totally useless in professional work.
So let’s see the basic problem.
To shoot bullet time videos, our talent has to raise his hand while the camera is spinning around.
But the problem is that it’s really hard to justify in a movie,
why the characters are raising their hands in these situations.
You know it’s quite unrealistic.
Imagine Neo in Matrix rising up his hand every time he’s in a bullet time situation.
It’s really hard to create a story line, giving any meaning of this action.
But of course, we need this movement to shoot bullet time with a 360 camera.
So I came up with a similar solution like in the previous case, and I started to put something in the talent’s hand.
The first thing came to my mind was the air balloon,
because people keep their arm exactly in the same position during holding air balloons
like swinging the 360 camera during bullet time recording.
I don’t use the so-called bullet time handle, because that’s too flashy in the hand,
but using a string is really cool.
I just put it on my finger, and that’s all.
I neither use the mobile app, but I’m shooting in 4K 50 fps, or even 3K 100 fps and set up everything in post.
In most of the times 4K 50 fps is a nice choice for me,
especially because I think we don’t have to spin the camera so fast, and a double speed can be enough.
It looks cool with balloons, and of course, I like this shot with the X-wing fighter, too.
But unfortunately because of the strange hand position,
I think bullet time is a little bit limited in professional works.
If you have any further ideas about what to hold during bullet time, to make it look natural,
write me in the comment section below.
And if you like these really cinematic ideas with 360 cameras,
push the like button, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and see you next time!