We all like seeing things in super slow motion right? Well I have just been turned on to "The Slow Mo Guys". These guys have a Youtube channel totally dedicated to showing things happening in super slow motion and in this video they create and eventually pop the largest water balloon I have ever seen. This video is not informative in any way but it's still fun to watch.
I know that we have shown a lot of timelapses lately but our readers really love them and each month someone seems to raise the bar on quality or creativity. It is now Dominic Boudreault's time in the spotlight with his film "The City Limits". This film has the most amazing cityscapes I have seen to date. Make sure you watch this thing in HD full screen.
A few months ago at WPPI I met Dennis Wood the president of Cinevate. Dennis told me that if we had a chance to play with Cinevate's DSLR rigging gear it would totally change the way we shoot. So we ended up getting a few pieces of gear from Cinevate, the most exciting piece to me being the Atlas 10 slider.
J. R. R. Tolkien's books are some of the most cherished stories in modern literature. You would have to have been living under a rock to miss the movie adaptation of The Lord of The Rings which have grossed more than 2.9 Billion dollars in revenue .
Back in September, HBO Films released an interesting documentary about living life within the paparazzi. Teenage Paparazzo was created by Adrian Grenier of Entourage fame and features the story of Austin Visschedyk. The interesting thing about this documentary is that Austin is perhaps the youngest paparazzo ever at only 14 years of age.
When you first heard of GigaPan, it was probably from David Bergman's famous inauguration photograph. Years after David captured the first gigapixel images of crowds of people, scientists are now creating all sorts of images using the GigaPan technology. One new project recently announced is Time Machine.
I'm convinced GoPro and Redbull have the best extreme advertising on the planet. In this latest extreme skiing video, Matthias Giraud and Stefan Laude use two GoPro's each to document their parachute escape from an avalanche in the French Alps. If you don't already have a GoPro Hero, you need to get one.
Saturday Night Live has become an American institution spawning the careers of some of the most famous actors and comedians of all time. Alex Buono has been the director of photography for SNL now for over 10 years. Back in 2009 the directors wanted to film the opening sequence throughout New York City instead of the typical single location.
Terje Sorgjerd has become one of the most popular timelapse photographers lately. His video sequence The Aurora has become a favorite here on Fstoppers, and his latest video, The Mountain, has already gotten over 3.5 million views in it's first week. In order to capture the mountains of El Teide and the skies, Terje used an automated dolly created by Dynamic Perception.
If you ever need to carry your gear through a storm or even a waterfall, the Lowepro DZ 200 waterproof backpack is your ticket. But that's not what this post is really about...no way! Craig Pulsifer is a videographer and photographer based out of British Columbia (that's Canada for you across the sea).
Apple has been hard at work completely redesigning their flagship video editing software Final Cut Pro X which is set to ship in June 2011. At the recent Nab 2011 keynote in Las Vegas, FCP architect Peter Steinauer unveiled some of the new features as well as previewed the new user interface in a working version of the software.
Most skydiving videos are extremely high energy. This video, produced by BettyWantsIn.com, has a totally different vibe though. Instead of the heart pounding "plummeting to your death" feeling, this video creates a calm almost floating sensation by taking advantage of the 60fps that the GoPro can shoot. I thought it was creative so I figured I would share it.
You may remember a post that we did months back of Lakai shooting a video with skateboarder jumping over huge flames... Well I believe this video is actually older but I like it more. This time the shoe company used explosives to ramp up the excitment and I love it!
Director Paul Clements produced a pretty amazing commercial for Cat Footwear. By using a single high frame rate video camera and a large array of DSLRs he produced something that I am having trouble describing with words. You'll just have to watch it for yourself.
Check out the BTS below and the finished product below that.
Kate and Nate over at the Beepshow make all kinds of interesting timelapse projects. I first heard about their videos the other day when I came across this timelapse featured on Gizmodo. Using just a Canon 5D and a 16mm-35mm lens (and well an iphone too), they were able to photograph a full 11 hour flight from San Francisco to Paris.
One of my favorite bands recently is The Black Keys (ironically, I like most bands with the world Black in them). They have really exploded in popularity with the release of their current album Brothers, and the latest video to come from that album is Howlin' For You.
We have posted about Twixtor before but today I was sent 2 great examples of it being put to use. Instead of simply slowing frames down, Twixtor actually can create as many frames as you like for super smooth ultra slo mo. Obviously nothing beats actually shooting at 1000fps but this program is quite good in most cases. We used it on every frame for the intro of The Wakeboard Studio Shoot.
Everyone likes a good time lapse right? Well Philip Bloom just created one but it has a unique twist. Bloom's video was created with 3 cameras shooting simultaneously outside of his hotel window. He shot with a 5DMII, T2i, and T3i all shooting towards different areas of the landscape at different focal lengths.
Skateboard and snowboard companies have really been pushing their advertising budgets to the limits over the past decade. In the video below we can see exactly what goes into creating amazing 10 second clips of individual skateboard tricks in super slo mo. The concept is simple but actually making it happen is another story.
Allstate created a pretty clever advertising campaign for motorcycle insurance that showed super slow motion motorcycle wrecks without their riders. Their tag line is "Bikes never crash alone." I think this ad makes a really strong statement without being gory. Check out the BTS below and the finished product below that.
Novak Djokovic is currently ranked alongside the top tennis pros in the world. Only a crazy person would put his life and talent in jeopardy...but that is exactly what Head Tennis Racquets have done for their Untek IG Speed MP racquet commercial.
We have all seen stuff like this done before but it's usually some sort of huge production team. All of my friends seem to own at least 2 cameras each so I could easily pull this off if I could get 12 of them together :).
I remember seeing this video a long time ago and really enjoyed it. Maybe we thought it was not educational enough to post it but after watching it again I think it's worth sharing. For those of you who have not already seen this short story, the Dark Side Of The Lens is a poetic journey into mind of surf photographer Mickey Smith.
Have you ever seen those commercials where old footage appears to come back to life with added scenes or impossible revelations are revealed years after the initial filming?
Lately there has been a trend of showing super slow motion videos slowed beyond the native frames per second the original footage was shot on. We love the results of Twixter but nothing can compare to seeing the real thing especially when combined with an extreme sport.
We have been getting a lot of emails about this movie called The Bang Bang Club which is based on real accounts of photojournalists during the South Africa apartheid. I'm sure the movie is going to be a big Hollywood blockbuster type of flick but it should be an interesting watch once it hits the screens on April 22nd. Check out the trailer below and read up on their story here.
When I shoot video I like keeping things simple but after watching this tutorial, I feel like I may have to use this technique in my next production.
Instead of lighting a stationary background to perfection, why not take a few RAW images and create the perfect setting in Photoshop.
When I tell people that I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, everyone always asks me what it's like to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). I always try to explain how it looks by relating it to a laser show or smoke streams but I've never found a way to describe it to someone who hasn't seen it for themselves.
Yesterday I got an email from one of the Red Bull brand managers inviting me out to 2010 Illume Photo Exhibit here in Charleston, South Carolina. Illume is a traveling exhibit where dozens of images from the world's best action and extreme sports photographers are displayed on huge 6'x6' backlit panels.
If you've followed Fstoppers for any length of time then you know we are huge fans of Freddie Wong and his crazy hilarious Youtube Channel. What's so great about Freddie's work is that it's not big budget at all and he mixes his great sense of humor with relatively simple After Effects to create one of the most watched channels on the internet.
Now we don't usually post product review videos on Fstoppers, especially for gear that we don't currently use, but in this case I have to make an exception. Although I may never get my hands on a Red camera, I can dream can't I? Honestly this video isn't even really a review but by the end you will know that this camera is "pretty coo'". But hey, it still got me all excited.
If you were a film student and your professor gave you an assignment requiring you to show a series of different lighting setups, what would you do? John Note and his fellow classmates created a pretty funny video tutorial that shows 10 different lighting setups that you could use in both your films and your still images.
One of my favorite directors is Robert Rodriquez, and I was about to post another great BTS video showcasing his directing skills when I came across this video. Most of this short Nike commercial is shot on green screen but that doesn't mean that you as a photographer can't take away something from this big production.
While browsing Creative Motion Design's blog I came across an eye catching ad for Sony's Bravia series of HDTVs. The complete video directed by Superfad had elements of slow motion, CGI effects, graphic design, animation, and photography.
Okay I admit there is nothing really "behind the scenes" in this video but it is just too cool not to post. On Feb 24th, NASA's Discovery space shuttle launched for the final time and created a lot of media buzz.
Thank goodness for the GoPro HD or else this viral video wouldn't exist. If you are ever near a cliff, make sure yours is recording too.
Many of the posts we have seen here lately on Fstoppers have been heavily influenced by Freddy Wong and the amazing special effects videos on his YouTube channel. Now Freddy has tackled something very sacred to us all: something that might still keep some die hards up late in to the morning.
The workshop started like any other; 22 photographers and 20 models (with guns) pile into a room and begin shooting at each other. Then the guys at Blown Apart Studios have an idea. How about a bullet time video shot in 1 take with a Steadicam?
With absolutely no planning they yelled for everyone to freeze and they filmed the frozen scene for 2 minutes.
Wedding videography is no longer the boring handycam crap it was a few years ago. Visual Masterpiece takes us behind the scenes on their latest wedding video and gives us fantastic details into what it really takes to produce a video at this level. Shooting the footage itself is hard, but the editing is really what makes their videos shine.
One thing I love about having an Vimeo account is the great videos they recommend checking out. Back in Oct 2010, the first ever Vimeo Awards was held, and the winners for over 9 categories were announced. None of the winning videos are directly related to photography but the winning narrative Thrush by Gabriel Bisset-Smith was created entirely from still images.
I'm not a huge fan their style of movies but I can totally appreciate the talent that Pixar puts into each of their projects. If you are at all interested in 3D animation, movie production, or incredible offices, this video is for you.
Every now and then someone comes out with a product that really makes me say, "why didn't I think of that?" If you've ever been on the set of a serious movie production, you know that the camera operator or steadicam operator hardly ever focuses the lens himself.
Last year Zacuto started a great series called The Great Camera Shootout where they compared film cameras with digital cameras and DSLRs. We featured the first two episodes but somehow overlooked the final show in the series. Some of these tests seem a bit excessive to me but it's good to know that there is a discussion going on with the top professionals in the field.
We've featured Tom Guilmette several times on our website and each time he never ceases to amazing me. Today Tom released a fun video that he shot on the Phantom Flex while he was staying in Las Vegas. We've all seen super slow motion videos before but what really grabbed my attention was Tom's editing skills and his brilliant use of audio to help bring this video to life.
If you are not already subscribed to Freddie Wong's YouTube channel, you should go there right now and watch one of Youtube's most popular animators. Well this week he has created a really simple video called The Freeze Shootout and has provided a quick behind the scenes video on how he did it.
Just ran across this quick BTS of a commercial Lucas Zanotto made. Check out the 40 second BTS below and then view the amazing finished product below that.
A few months ago, Patryk Kizny with Dito Gear shared a really amazing video called The Chapel with Fstoppers. I was absolutely blown away by the footage but I knew our readers would want to know exactly how he created it. So I was able to persuade Patryk to create a second video that outlined exactly what he did to create the original HDR timelapse images featured in The Chapel.
Back in December of 2009, photographer turned film maker Vincent Laforet teamed up with Canon and Vimeo to start a social experiment in story telling. The idea was to create an short 3 or 4 minute video that would end on a single still frame.
If you haven't checked out Mark Wallace's Adorama TV channel over at youtube you really should. He does a great job creating informative and useful videos on all sorts of digital photography and videography topics.
One of the first early adapters of DSLR video for professional use was Shane Hurlbut of Terminator Salvation, The Guardian, The Last 3 Minutes fame. A few days ago he released a really well shot commercial for the US Marines and decided to make a short contest out of it. The video has over 27 frames shot on various Canon 5D, 7D, and 1D cameras as they do every cinema-graphic move possible.