This week we’re looking at how to film slow-motion, and later on - why we might choose to use
it.
So I think a good place to start is looking at what we’re actually filming.
Plenty of shots won’t actually look that different in slow motion - it’s all about
movement.
So, sports are well suited for slow motion, water splashes, and of course - things being
destroyed.
Now filmmakers have built on this idea by finding lots of creative ways to use slow
motion to support the story they’re trying to tell, but we’ll get into that after we’ve
covered the basics.
A regular film camera records motion like this, 24 pictures or frames per second.
But if you dig into the menus of most modern cameras, you can often choose a higher frame
rate like 60 frames a second or 120.
Now when we stretch out all of those extra frames, it takes longer to watch what we’ve
recorded.
One second of recording lasts more than two seconds.
Hence slow motion.
So we go from this - to this.
Now, that was filmed on the Canon T3i at 60 frames per second, which is what I’ll be
using for this video, although there are a couple of shots from this drone which can
film 120fps - five times slower than normal speed.
Now the last practical thing before we get into the creative, is to think about light.
Since we’re recording more frames, we end up with a faster shutter speed, and so the
sensor doesn’t pick up as much light.
Now daylight should be bright enough for most shots, but as it gets dark, it’s going
to be harder and harder for the camera to record a clean image.
So, if we’re shooting indoors, or at night, we’ll probably need to add artificial light
- but be careful - some lights will flicker at higher frame rates, so make sure you test
them out first.
So there’s the basics, now let’s get to the important stuff.
Slow motion has been used for all kinds of different scenes, and one that we’ve all
seen is when time slows down, nothing else seems to be important anymore, the character
is awestruck - it’s a visual representation of love at first sight, or just physical attraction.
Now, using slow motion for these kind of scenes has become a bit of a cliché really, so these
days it’s mostly just used for comedic effect.
But even more common than that is to make an action scene a bit more ‘epic’.
Most of these stunts would just be a blur if they happened in real time, so slowing
things down gives us the chance to appreciate how impressive this is.
Plus, I do think there’s something inherently majestic about slowmotion when it’s used
in the right context.
Now I think it’s interesting to look at how filmmakers approach the topic of death
in films.
When an insignificant character is killed in a film, the audience typically doesn’t
care that much - we don’t know much about these characters, sometimes they’re completely
anonymous, and it all happens very quickly.
So when a significant character dies in a film, you’ll notice it’s handled very
differently.
Firstly we’ve already got to know them throughout the film, but even during the scene where
they die, the audience are usually given plenty of time to experience it - there might be
close ups so we can see how they feel, we might hear their final words, see them struggling
to hold on, or in many cases - they use slowmotion.
Now of course this isn’t a rule, you don’t have to follow this but just think back to
some of the character deaths that hit you the hardest - now i’m guessing that they
didn’t happen as quickly as this:
One of my favourite uses of slow-motion is in Inception - where not only does the water
look amazing in slow motion, but it’s actually a central part of the story.
And so throughout the film we go back to this slow-motion shot, which reminds us that the
real world is much slower than the dream world that the characters are living in.
Now we’ve seen that slowmotion can be used to heighten to intensity of romantic attraction,
or adrenaline fueled action, but it can also work with fear.
In this scene, the character see’s what she thinks is the highly dangerous killing
machine from the previous movie.
Now I think the slow-motion really helps to punctuate this moment, it helps us see just
how terrified she is.
But, we shouldn’t give it all the credit.
Most of the fear that we see comes from her reaction - her body language, face expressions,
and the fact that she actually turns back towards the people who, moments before, she
was trying to escape from.
That’s tells you a lot.
The point is that the slow-motion is really only supporting what was already there in
the script and from the actors - and that’s true for all of these examples.
Now, one thing you’ll notice if you watch those films, is that most of them still use
sound in the slow-motion shots.
So when i’m recording slow motion, I like to record the sound either with an on camera
microphone or with a separate audio recorder, and then I slow down the audio to match the
video, which will also lower the pitch.
Now of course that doesn’t always sound the best, it’s often worth recording our
own sound effects, and have a listen to 300 if you need some inspiration for sound designing
slow motion scenes.
Last of all I just want to say, be careful with slow-motion.
Since most modern cameras can film slow-motion, it’s tempting to use it just because it
looks cool, whether it supports the story or not.
I think it’s like pepper - sure, you can put it on any food and it’ll spice it up,
but that doesn’t mean we should put it on everything.
But who am I to say that, really, it’s up to you, and your tastes.
My names Simon Cade this has been DSLRguide, and i'll see you next week.
By the way, if you'd like to use this music for any of your projects, then there's a link
in the description which will get you 50% off this track, and four of my other songs.
kthanksbye