- Hey guys!
Welcome to Travel Feels.
Today, we're gonna take a look
at cinematic movement, part two.
(upbeat music)
Cinematic movement is a huge part
of making epic cinematic travel films,
and there's just so many different ways of doing it.
There are so many different tools you can use
and each of those tools, you can do different
kind of movements.
In part one, we looked at the actual different tools
that we can use to make cinematic movement.
We looked at things like glide cams or steady cam,
gimbals and handheld movement,
monopods, all sorts of different ways
that you can actually make cinematic movement.
In this episode, we're actually gonna take a look
at what kinds of movements you can do
with each of those different support tools.
For this video to show the different kinds of movements
we can do, I used the glide cam 2000.
This is actually the older version,
the XR, not even the HD version.
This thing you could probably find used for under $200.
It's really cheap,
and that's the reason I wanted to use this
instead of something like a gimbal.
It's because this is just a lot more accessible.
I think it's a lot easier to balance
and it's a lot cheaper that something like a gimbal.
This is a lot more accessible to everybody on this channel.
There is a bit of a learning curve
in balancing it and learning how to use it,
but I would say it's much easier than a gimbal.
I think a gimbal, you can get really smooth movements,
but to actually get really nice cinematic movements
with a gimbal can take a lot of practice.
Just as much practice as something
like a steady camera glide cam.
When I'm filming with a steady cam or a gimbal,
I try to get as many different kinds
of shots as possible.
That way, when I'm editing,
I have a lot to choose from
and I'm not just stuck with a few different clips
that I'm having to force together
even though they don't cut well together,
so the more you have, the better it is.
The more you film on a steady cam or glide cam,
the more you get used to these different types
of movements, and you internalize them
so they come automatically.
Right away, you'll go through some
of these different shots without even having
to think, what kind of shot should I get next?
You never wanna be on a shoot
and start thinking what should I do now?
You really wanna practice these
and internalize these movements
and really memorize them so they just come automatically
and you just find the best movement for that situation.
Let's get into the different kinds of movements.
The first kind of movement shot is a follow shot,
and I really like this shot.
I think it can be a really epic
and just a cinematic shot,
and it's also really good because
it tells a lot of story.
Instead of just getting a wide shot
of your environment or your location,
you can use a shot like this follow shot
to show your character interacting
with that environment, so not only
are you showing the location, showing the environment,
you're also showing your character going through it.
You're telling two things right away
instead of just one or the other.
It also shows the character progressing forward.
We're seeing that there's some sort of movement.
The character is moving towards a goal.
With this kind of movement shot,
and pretty much all the other ones,
what I do is I first figure out the framing,
then I make sure that we're in focus,
and then I try to keep that distance away from the subject.
In general, I'm not using auto focus.
I'm using manual focus and I'm just keeping
the distance the same.
Frame up your shot.
Figure out how wide or how tight you wanna be,
then focus it, and then keep that distance
as you're moving along.
Also, try to walk as smooth as possible.
Even though the glide cam really smooths out things,
it really helps if you walk a little bit more smooth,
and it really helps to do this heel-toe action.
Heel, toe.
Keep walking like that and keep it really smooth
so you're not seeing that up and down bounce
or the shake from each step.
The follow shot is a really beautiful way
to get a nice, cinematic moving shot,
and along with that shot, I always get a leading shot.
This is kind of the reverse of the follow shot.
Instead of following behind, I go in front of them
and I walk backwards.
I'm leading the subject forwards,
and same thing here again, frame it up
then focus and then keep that same distance
away from your subject.
This shot is a little bit harder with a talent.
The follow shot doesn't really take that much acting,
but the leading shot takes a little bit more acting.
Usually, I tell the talent that they can look
anywhere they want except for into the camera.
I usually don't want the talent
to be looking straight in the camera,
and this can be really hard for some people.
It can be really hard to get natural walking
with natural head movements and natural eye movements
so that it doesn't look all fake and weird
like what's going on here?
Do multiple takes.
Try it out.
Get the talent more used to it.
Some people are better than others at it,
so just keep practicing with the talent
and do as many as you need to
to get that nice, natural look.
This is another really beautiful way
to get cinematic movement and it works really well
with that follow shot.
Next, we have the parallel follow shot.
In this case, we're going beside the talent
and we're focusing up, framing it up,
and then we're just moving parallel along with them,
and this is another great option in editing
with the follow or leading shot.
It's just a really nice shot,
and you can also use it to tell some different story
if there's something beside the character,
let's say another character or a car
or something that the character's getting into
that you're introducing into the story.
For me, if I'm gonna do one of these shots,
I'm gonna do all three just because
I wanna make sure that I have my basis covered.
That in editing, I have enough to go with.
That I'm not struggling to put together that edit
and forcing different shots
that don't really fit together well.
The next movement we have is a dolly in and a dolly out.
Here, what you're doing is that you're actually keeping
the talent in the same position
and you're bringing the camera closer to the talent
and then you're bringing the camera away from the talent.
Dolly in or dolly out.
Typically these movements require another person
to pull focus for you so you can actually get
an electronic motor onto your lens
and another person controlling the focus
so that as you're moving forwards,
or as you're moving backwards,
the person or the subject stays in focus,
but you could also do this if your camera
has really good auto focus.
I found that the Cannon cameras work best
in these kinds of situations,
but you could also do it with some other cameras,
but I find that Cannon cameras
are a lot faster at auto focusing
so they can keep up with that movement,
the dolly in and then the dolly out.
These kinds of shots are used all the time
in Hollywood films.
You don't even notice it, but the camera's
just slowly dollying in, or slowly moving out.
They're really good at just drawing the viewer
into that frame and kind of building that mystery
of what's gonna happen next?
I really like these shots,
and these are a really great way
to get some cinematic movement,
and it's also good to keep in mind
that these are different from zooming in or zooming out.
The relationship between the subject and the background
is actually changing when you're moving the camera forwards
or moving the camera backwards
whereas when you're zooming, there's no difference
in the relationship between the foreground
and the background.
You're just cropping in, zooming in and out.
I like dollying in and dollying out much better
than zooming in or zooming out.
Then lastly, a movement that I use all the time
is circling around the talent.
Here again, you're setting the focus, setting the frame,
but in this case, you can't just move in a straight line.
You wanna actually move in a circle
because if you just moved in straight line,
there would be parts of the shot that would
be out of focus because your distance
to the character's changing,
but if you move around in a circle,
you're gonna keep that same distance
between you and the subject or the talent.
That way, your shot's gonna stay in focus the whole time.
There's tons of different ways of doing this shot.
You could do wide shots, you could do tight shots,
you could use a really zoomed in lens
and then the background just whizzes by.
Michael Bate does a lot of these kinds
of movements in his movies.
There's a lot of different stuff you can do with this.
I like to get in real close and get
these nice portrait shots.
Just moving really slowly around the character.
I find it's a really good way
of getting a really nice shot and just keeping
that nice movement in your edit.
I'm constantly using this technique.
I think it's a really nice way
of doing a nice portrait shot.
That's it.
Those are the basic movements that I'm using all the time,
and there are other ones too, but these are the ones
that I'm using 90% of the time,
and make sure to be creative with these.
There's all sorts of different ways
that you could do these shots.
For example, with the follow and leading shots,
instead of just following up above,
you could follow the feet for a bunch
of different kinds of shots, then you could mix
and match these following up above
and then following the feet, or leading
and then following the feet behind.
There's so many different options
that you can do with this, but in general,
I'm using these shots 90% of the time on my films,
and the key here with cinematic movement
is figuring out first which support tool,
whether it's a gimbal or glide cam or handheld
works best for your story and then
what kind of movement works best for your story.
For example, if you have a really high-paced, energetic film
then maybe you want really big sweeping fast movements
with a gimbal, and then if you have a more slower paced,
a little bit more suspenseful film,
maybe you want some really slow movements,
you wanna use a glide cam and just dolly in
really slowly or dolly out really slowly.
Figure out what works best to serve your story.
There you have it.
Some really great was to get cinematic movement
for your films, and these are really simple,
but they do require a lot of practice.
You need to practice these movements
so they get really smooth and they become
really ingrained in your head.
Keeping that distance with your subject
and doing the proper movements and just knowing
the different kinds of movements,
so you're not wasting time on set when you only
have an hour to shoot the sunset,
or whatever it is that you're doing.
Practice, practice, practice.
You'll be so comfortable with it
that you'll get all sorts of nice cinematic moving shots.
That's it for today.
I hope you got something out of this tutorial.
Guys, enjoy the filmmaking process
and go get some of those travel feels.
(upbeat music)