This video is brought to you by Filmora 9 a video editor for all creators.
[Dramatic action music]
Lorenzo!
Where are you, Lorenzo?
Lorenzo!
Gotcha!
Ahhhhh!
-Yannick, come on!
We're trying to make a real action scene!
Yannick, come on man, don't scream like a little girl!
-But it's scary!
It's a serious film here, it’s a serious action!
Alright, take 33, let's do it again, we're gonna start from the beginning!
[Cinecom's intro music]
Hey guys, Jordy here for cinecom.net and welcome to Creative Tuesday!
Today we're having a look at 5 camera tricks
to make an action scene more interesting and dynamic.
It’s a lot more than just filming hand held, so without further ado,
let’s start with the first camera tip which is handheld.
Didn’t see that one coming, he?
Apart from all the nifty tools, like gimbals and camera cranes,
going handheld is more than enough to create a dynamic action scene.
However, make sure that that handheld movement
is not going to be too overwhelming.
If you want to create action, make sure that action happens within your shot
and not with your camera.
For example, let your talent jump over things, look nervous around,
or simply run like a maniac.
If you like to emphasize that action, a simple trick is to lock in on the subject,
try to follow his movements and try to get a stable shot.
You’ll notice that the camera will move around anyways,
but in a natural way.
It's like the shots we did when Lorenzo was running.
I tried everything possible to get a stable shot,
however it was pretty bumpy in the end,
so there's no reason to add extra camera shake,
as that will only make it too distracting.
Now, locking in on your talent also makes you focus more
on their actions and emotions, making them only stronger.
It also creates the feeling that they have nowhere to go
and struggle to get out back into safety.
Camera trick number 2!
Many action scenes involves movement, such as running.
And there's a few tricks to control the speeds of the running.
One tip is to work with lots of foreground objects such as trees.
Now, as your talent runs you constantly see trees moving in front of the lens
and having these fast swipes or foreground objects
makes it feel like the talent is running faster than he actually goes.
This simple trick is also used when filming car chase scenes,
where it's dangerous to actually drive fast.
Another trick to make your talent run faster is when you're following with a side shot.
Let your talent start on the right side or the left side of the frame,
depending on the running direction.
Then in the shot itself slowly adjust your framing so that the talent seems to run
to the other side of the frame.
It now seems like the shots cannot keep up with the running speeds
and this way we are creating the illusion that the talent is running faster again.
You can also use this the other way around.
In this shot I followed Lorenzo from behind,
but the camera moved closer to him over time,
and this means that the shot goes faster than him,
making Lorenzo go slower.
And, because he is being chased,
it feels like the danger or the bad guy is coming closer to him,
creating more tension.
I've got 3 more tips for you, guys,
but first I'd like to take a brief moment to thank today's sponsor,
which is Filmora.
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And now let's continue with tip number 3!
The audience is part of your film but you can decide where your audience sits
and that has to do with the focal length of your lens.
Zooming out, going wide angle,
makes it seem like the audience sits closer to the scene.
So, by standing close to your actor on a wide-angle lens,
makes the audience feel the emotion of that actor a lot more.
But then here we cut to a long focal length.
We’re zoomed in as we look at the bad guy.
This makes the audience still feel like we're standing next to Lorenzo,
but we're looking from his point of view from a safe distance to Yannick.
At a certain moment we see Lorenzo looking away from Yannick
and then we cut to him.
We're going to a wide-angle lens, close to Yannick,
and the audience also feels closer to Yannick now,
as we’re looking not anymore from a distance to him.
And this means that it feels like Lorenzo does not know or sees where Yannick is.
If we shot this again on a tele lens it felt more like Lorenzo did feel where he was.
So that simple trick of zooming in from a distance
or zooming out and standing close can mean a big difference
in how the audience will feel.
Camera trick number 4!
Change your shutter speed.
We want to make everything sharp, we're grungy,
so that's why I'm going to set a faster shutter speed.
There’s no rule, but basically
the faster you set your shutter speed the less motion blur you'll get.
I set my camera to around 45 degrees shutter angle,
which is the same as 1/200 when filming at 25 FPS.
And this also makes your action shots more realistic,
which helps to pull the audience more into your film.
However, I must say that I would only recommend to do this with action scenes,
as it does makes your shots more grungy.
And that brings us to the last camera trick!
Whenever a specific action takes longer,
you might want to focus in on the actor, on what he's doing.
For instance, here we see Lorenzo in a medium shot.
Then we cut to him picking up a stick
and the shot that follows up is a close-up of him.
We could have kept the same framing
but because we went a little bit closer after the cut,
we are focusing more on Lorenzo’s action which is holding that stick.
Another example is where Lorenzo was running.
After every tree passed by, we cut closer and closer to him.
And this is a simple but creative way
to focus more on the panic that Lorenzo is going through.
And those were our 5 simple camera tricks
to make your action scenes a whole lot more dynamic.
Thank you so much for watching, thank you Filmora for the support,
and like always:
Stay Creative!
-Go back, smoke, ahhh!
There, is that better?
That's better, okay!
Sometimes the smoke just comes too much in front of the camera
and then I'm not like sharp anymore.
You want to see me sharp, right?
with my brand new hair, sharp hair, alright, let's continue!