- This right here is what's called a hero shot.
And in this video I wanna explain why hero shots
are so important for your videos,
and go through some different tactics
on how you can shoot hero shots
when you're out crafting your story.
All right, let's get into it.
(inspirational music)
So first, let's go through what is a hero shot.
And this is something that's used
when you're working with people.
So if you're filming a project
and you have someone in your video,
oftentimes you'll want to capture some hero shots
of that character
because there's different moments in your edit
where it will become super useful
to have one of these shots.
And essentially a hero shot is capturing that character
in their environment and it's the moment
where you really just focus in visually on the character.
And so this is an important thing for visual storytelling.
And the whole idea is
that you're creating emphasis around this person.
And so for me, when I'm shooting documentaries
or my vlogumentaries and they involve a person,
I use this when I'm talking about that character.
Whether it's in voiceover or something that happens
while I'm out filming,
this is a moment where I can pause
and really just focus in on that character,
and really get a sense of who they are visually.
And the reason that it's called a hero shot
is because you're displaying that character
in a super strong form.
Your attention is completely on them
with whatever's going around,
and they are becoming the hero of the story
through this focus and the movement
that you're doing with the camera.
So when I went up to Alaska and did a video
about a mountain man that I went hiking with,
I used the hero shot when I started talking
about who this person is.
And I used the hero moments to set up
this interesting character in this wild environment.
(serene music) This is Mike
and he's what you would call a mountain man.
And these are people who spend their lives
exploring the wilderness.
The term was first coined in the.
And when I went to India and shot a documentary
we captured a lot of hero moments
of one of the main characters, Raja,
because he's one of the key figures
that's helping these families
that are living in the trash dump.
And there's definitely moments throughout that piece
where we wanna show Raja in this heroic moment
'cause we're talking about him and his story.
- I am Raja Kumar Undurthi. (pensive music)
I was born in Islam.
I had gone through so much struggles.
In India we are from the caste
called Dalit and Untouchables.
- So let's go over how you actually capture hero shots
and some different things to think about to change it up.
Now you could either shoot this handheld
or you could put it on something like a gimbal
or even use like a drone.
So there's three different ways
that I typically capture these hero shots.
Now the first is no movement at all.
So this could either be done on a tripod
where you're completely locked off
or you could do it handheld
depending on the type of video that you're creating,
but your character is just gonna be in the environment
and the camera is not moving at all.
The second way to do it is a punch in or a zoom in.
So this is where you're moving closer to the subject,
whether you're physically moving the camera forward
or you're zooming in on that character,
you're starting with a wide shot
and then coming in close on the character
or characters in this example,
because I'm talking about more than one person
in this moment, and we're doing a hero shot of the group.
And the third way that I really like to do these hero shots
is an orbit.
And so that's where you keep your distance
between you and your subject and you're moving in a circle.
And when you shoot up on a character,
so say you're a little bit lower than eye level,
it's gonna give you a much stronger feeling
because the dominance of that character in the frame.
So a lot of times when you're doing a hero shot,
you either want to be eye level
or just a little bit under eye level
to give them that more powerful stance.
Now, one thing that you might want to think about
is adding slow motion to these shots,
because when you shoot something in real time
it feels natural and it feels normal.
However, if you shoot something in slow motion,
it's gonna give it more of that dreamy kind of epic quality.
And the slower that you shoot
is gonna give you more of this effect.
So a lot of times shooting in 120 frames per second
is gonna give you a much different looking hero shot
than if you were to shoot it at realtime footage,
whether you're shooting 24 or 30.
It's just gonna make your character stand out that much more
when you're shooting in these slower frame rates.
Now the last thing that you wanna think about
is what the person is doing.
There's three different things that I ask the person to do
when I'm creating these shots.
The first is to just look directly at camera.
When you break that fourth wall
and you're looking at the audience
on the other side of the camera,
there's that direct connection.
I mean, this is why YouTube is so powerful.
Like we're having a conversation right now
where I'm talking directly to you.
But if you're doing say a documentary,
and the person's kind of looking off camera
for most of the project,
they're looking off to the side
when they're doing the interview,
and you're just kind of capturing them doing
the different things that they do throughout the story,
then when you break that fourth wall
and they turn and look at camera,
it's gonna have a much bigger impact,
especially for these hero moments.
Now the second way that you can do it
is have the character look offscreen.
And then as you're punching in,
the character then turns and looks directly into camera.
They could be looking down and then looking up,
looking off to the side, looking forward.
But it's just that movement of the character turning
and then looking directly at you, the viewer.
Now the fourth way is just have the character look off.
Whether it's off to the side,
completely behind the other direction,
just not looking at the camera itself.
And these are used if you really wanna show
the character in their environment,
and just like a moment of stillness for that character.
So depending on what you're filming
you might want to have these moments
where the character's looking directly at you,
but there's also times where you'll want the character
looking off camera, which is a great shot
for like an introspective moment within the piece.
So when I'm out filming,
I try to film both styles of hero shots
because they'll be used
in different moments throughout the video.
And the last thing that we need to talk about
is how you actually capture these
in a run & gun documentary style of shooting.
Because if you just wait for the character to be
in the perfect position to capture a hero shot,
it doesn't always work out.
So oftentimes these are staged to a degree.
You'll grab the character and ask them to do this shot,
instead of just trying to capture it in the moment.
You can see from this shot here,
I'm doing this orbit around my main character
in this piece I did up in Alaska.
And while we were out in the hike
in this Alaskan wilderness,
I asked him if I could grab a few shots
of just him standing there.
And he found it awkward
because he's not used to being on camera.
And I asked him just to look directly at camera
and I'm just gonna move around a few different ways.
And so I did the shot a few times
and then I asked my buddy Jake to jump in
because part of the story is talking
about Jake and his father,
so I could do the same type of shot
and get another hero shot with the two of them.
And when you do these,
you just wanna find a good location
that isolates the subject within the scene
or the way that you have the lighting
hitting that character.
And then you'll just ask them to stand there
and do whatever motion that you want,
whether it's looking directly at camera,
looking away and then turning to camera or like looking off.
And at first it might seem awkward,
especially working with someone who's not used to this,
but one thing that you can do is turn around the camera
after you shoot it and show them their shot.
Show them this hero shot of how they look in the scene.
And a lot of times just that quick action
of showing them the shot,
will give them an understanding of what you're doing,
and then if you need to do it a few more times,
they'll be more responsive
and they'll be more willing to work with you
and they'll follow your direction,
so you can get the shot exactly how you need
to show this heroic pose.
So whenever you're shooting content with another person,
just always remember to grab a few hero shots
because they become super useful in the edit.
Now next, make sure you check out this video right here
which is a complete behind the scenes
of how I shot a documentary when I was in India.
I'll see you over there.