Hold your horses! This is Zdenka. I've got 10 tips for
smartphone filmmaking with a gimbal and handheld
so you can create epic cinematic b-roll of this Mustang
or any other car which I'll play at the end of this video.
Don't worry, that's not mine. That's definitely
not mine but I know friends which are into racing and they love all these cars
and they have a giant car collection and all that.... yeah.... Well,
thank you very much Bruce for providing your beautiful car.
You're welcome. I'm gonna try to make it even better now.
Tip number one. If you are going to be filming outdoors, be picky about the
lighting and the weather. If you have the luxury to choose certain
time of the day and even a day depending on the weather, do so. I was
aiming for late afternoon trying to get a bit of a sunset if possible.
My true hope was to get overcast, that studio, very even
lighting which I got. I was very lucky. The day was very sunny but when we got
to that location the clouds were pouring in which was
absolutely amazing because the sun was peeking through.
Yes, we got extremely lucky with the weather. Tip number two. Location and
position of the car. If you're gonna be putting your car in the parking lot,
don't expect a very scenic shot. Now, I totally failed
on this one. I was trying to find a location in the area where
Bruce lived so he doesn't have to drive too far
but luckily he saved me and he found this amazing
location which worked just well. The green scenery created a beautiful
contrast to the white and the red car with the red seats. I couldn't have
asked for a better location. The clouds were amazing, it looked
beautiful and scenic. Thank you Bruce for saving me on this
one. And the position of the car, obviously
move your car 45 degrees to see the front and the side.
Tip number 3. If you're gonna be filming with your smartphone, make sure
you use app where you can lock the brightness
and white balance. The app I was using is called Protake and I was filming in 60fps.
My white balance was set to sunny but I
cooled it off a little bit so more to the blue . Now, for
that obviously I had to use variable ND filter and this set,
case and filter mount. All of it is listed below the video in the video
description for those interested. Tip number 4. Nice shots are always
from the high above. Now, if you don't own a drone or
you live in a no-fly zone, or you simply need a license like here in Canada,
but you have a gimbal, I was actually using one for much advanced
filmmaking which can handle a very large load,
you can combine it with a monopod. It is fast and easy to get set up to get
those really stunning above shots. Start very
low, go super high, go over the car, go through
the window or between the seats.
Tip number 5. Angles and angles and angles.
Bend your knees and go super low. Don't be afraid of very long angles,
mid-waist angle and also high in your eye level shots,
mix it up.
Tip number 6. Work with multiple lenses on your phone
if you have them. I was mostly using ultra wide angle lens and
telephoto. Ultra wide angle lens helped me to get scenery
shots and close-up shots. When you go closer to the car
everything will appear much bigger and robust and powerful.
Now that is what you want. I used telephoto for close-ups so I could
control focus and introduce some bokeh, that
blurry beautiful background in a shot. Protake app allows me to select the area
I want sharp. Tip number 7. Details, big and overall
shots and even more details. Shoot
a lot of overall shots of the car and the location from all the angles, if the
location actually looks good from all those
angles. So I've done a whole bunch of details inside of the car and I'm gonna
work on the details of the engine. You better have
clean engine in your car like that. Shoot many details of the car lights,
license plate, brand logo, wheels, details inside of the
car, look under the hood from the engine if
it is nicely cleaned and maintained. Walk around the car and take a closer
look what else you missed. You can never have enough of shots to
choose from.
Tip number 8. Leading lanes. Because it is a car, you get a lot of leading
lanes. Open the side door and see what the
reflection is in the mirror. Let the doors lead you to that
reflection.
Tip number 9. Creative shots. You have an amazing gimbal with all those
fantastic features such as spin shot and inception mode,
so use them. You can create 2 separate shots and cut them between to create
interesting transition. But don't only rely on your gimbal. Don't
be afraid to film handheld, turn and twist to see what interesting
shots you can come up with. Look at this steering wheel shot.
Handheld gives you more freedom in terms of finding new creative moves.
Tip number 10. Mirrors are girls best friends. Well not mine though. They
never were and they never will. Cautious when you
film a car. Always check for any reflections so you're
not accidentally shown in the shot. There were a few times when I didn't
realize that you can see me partially either in the front hood or lights or
mirrors. Keep that in mind, learn from my mistakes.
Whenever you film such close-ups, check after on your phone
if you're not seeing yourself there. Sometimes we concentrate on what we are
doing at the moment, Then we forget details like that
reflection. All shots are in, all cut together, let's
finally play The Mustang.
Great music.... all from Epidemic sound. I like to use that music for all my videos.
First month is free and the link is in the video description below. And by the
way, for those who are not familiar how to film in manual mode on your
smartphone, I created a video, best settings for
filming on the smartphone. The link is also in the video
description below. Hit the thumbs up if you liked today's video and subscribe to
more. Next video is coming out. How I actually
edited this video sequence. I'm gonna show
exactly in detail how to put that piece together.
If you have any questions and comments or simply want to say hi or Ahoj, you can
leave it in the comment section below and I'll see you my
friends in the next video. Cau... Ahoj...
You know I gotta thank Bruce one more time for allowing me to film his car. It
was actually a lot of fun. It was really enjoyable. He took me on a ride.
I usually don't get that because you know.... van...
and it was super awesome. We met probably two or three other Mustangs and
the people are so nice. It was so nice to see actually people being friendly to
one another. They were waving at us, we were
waving at them back .....The Mustang club. I don't usually get
that with a van. Maybe I should create a van club.
Van driver Hello! Well, I don't know if I would get that
wave back. I'll probably get that look.