Videography

The newest promo video for the incredible GoPro HD camera has me wanting to get out of the house and do something exciting! We are big supports of what Gopro is doing and can't speak highly enough of these little cameras. If you enjoy adding a unique perspective to your own videos or want a small time lapse camera, you can't go wrong with these...well unless you destroy them :) <

This music video created by Oren Lavie was a huge viral sensation back in Jan of 2009. I never knew there was a behind the scenes video showing the production of this clever project until fstopper reader Topshot posted this in the fstoppersforum. What's great about these videos is not so much the photography but the overall creativity with just one camera angle. Click the full post to watch the original video. <

If you like building stuff then you may want to view the video below. If you are like me, and you would rather just buy something that works perfectly out of the box, then I would highly suggest buying the IndiSlider. Its only $99 and it works great!

DIY Inexpensive Camera Slider from J.G. Pasterjak on Vimeo.

Warning: If you think using Photoshop is cheating then you should probably just ignore this post! I just saw the most amazing video demonstration of a new video editing software called MovieReshape. Basically it's like an automated Photoshop liquify tool for video. From now on, all future fstoppers videos will employ this feature to make everyone involved in our BTS videos look much sexier and healthier. All kidding aside, this video is pretty crazy and you pretty much have to see it for yourself. Hopefully we can get a trial plugin for Premiere soon ;) <

Let's get one thing straight; I hate Transformers. I actually thought Transformers 2 was so bad that I walked out on the movie and since my friend actually wanted to continue watching it (and he had the car) I walked home 3 miles in the middle of the night... That's a true story. That being said, I can always appreciate a quality production and Michael Bay never fails with that. Check out this home made BTSV of Transformers 3 in the making. Fast forward to 2:15 for the good stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MqGHJSZ3rk<

Here's a little video that needs no behind the scenes. All you need to do is find a cool subject and take multiple pictures a day for 3 years. My favorite part is that this whole thing was shot on a Pentax ;)

3 Years At The Same Place (english version) from Ramon on Vimeo.

Tom Guilmette is a professional camera operator for broadcast sports and definitely one of our favorite guys to feature here on Fstoppers (search his name for some other posts on him). So with all the excitement that Major League Baseball brings this time of year I thought it would be appropriate to give you a backstage peek at how guys like Tom work to bring the game into your home. For whatever reason, Tom has yet to allow embedding of my favorite video he has ever created so after you get done watching this sort video, head over to his blog to watch a much longer video with this sort of content.

Fenway HD Camera - Sony HDC-910 - Canon 75x from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Remember Dentsu London? They were the guys that did the iPad video that we posted a few days ago. Well they just released their new project and I am blown away. These guys were hired by Canon to create a commercial for their Pixma printers. They decided to shoot splashing ink in ultra slomo.

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

StillMotion is back again and this time they are showing us different stabilization options. Personally I am a huge fan of the Steadicam Merlin but it's not cheap.

an intro to EOS stabilizers // canon cinema caravan from stillmotion on Vimeo.

I remember when I was first playing around with my first SLR camera and someone explained to me the concept of painting with light over the course of a long exposure. Well the guys over at Dentsu London have decided to make light painting extremely complex by creating a sort of stop motion animation with ipads displaying different shapes. There is really no way I can explain this so you pretty much just have to watch this for yourself. You can read more about this project over at Dentsu London's blog here.

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Nokia chose to do something pretty cool for their newest commercial. They decided to create the smallest stop motion video and record the entire thing with their new phone. Check out the BTS below and the finished product in the full post. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTbzSiwbRfg<

Bob Poole is a DP (Director of Photography for you still shooters) who often works for National Geographic. While filming researcher Jake Wall who is studying the migration of African elephants, Bob and his team came across one of the most amazing things I've ever seen capture on video. You gotta watch this video to believe it but Bob was trapped in a sand storm in Mail for 4 hours while the sun was all but completely blocked by the flying debris. It always amazes me when I see photographers or videographers capture nature at it's best.

TV commercials are a big business these days. As the production budgets grow, the creativity grows as well. Check out all of the work that went into this new Brother Printers ad. I tried to find the full commercial but I couldn't. If you happen to find it please post it in the comments below.

The Making Of Brother Ambition 141% from Ronan Pollock on Vimeo.

Now before you decide that you aren't interested in wedding videography let me say that StillMotion's work is unlike anything you have ever seen before. If you are a fan of flim and story telling then you will be blown away by what this team is capable of creating out of totally candid moments. Watch the informative video below and click on the full post to see their last 2 wedding trailers.

an intro to shooting a ceremony with EOS // canon cinema caravan from stillmotion on Vimeo.

Last time we ran a behind the scenes video on music we got a great response. So today I thought I'd share a video emailed to us in the same vein. In the commercial world, the biggest challenge is finding something unique that no one has seen before or at least something that will stick into the viewers mind. So when Kevin Fitzgerald was approached by Lexus to film the new ad for the Lexus IS, he went all crazy with dozens of drum kits and percussion instruments. I love these sort of behind the scenes videos that mix music and video to produce something that stands out. Hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMcWk5w_37w<

Okay this is just a little bit of weekend fun. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, I always loved classic music videos. I didn't know it at the time, but Wayne Isham was one of my favorite directors. He did all the Bon Jovi videos, Metallica's Enter Sandman, worked with Motley Crue, Michael Jackson, Ricky Martin, 'N Sync, and Keith Urban. You pretty much couldn't turn on MTv in the 90s and not see one of his videos. Wayne was recently featured on Carson Daly's Last Call a few months ago and it was the first time I really got to hear from the artist himself. He seems like a laid back dude who is extremely passionate about his work and about music in general. So just for fun, here's a short video of Wayne talking about making the video that broke Bon Jovi's career and set them into super stardom. <

Nissan has a new commercial out that is pretty clever. Whether you believe in global warming or not you probably still lust after a car that uses less gas and doesn't require half a Benjamin at the gas pump. The idea Nissan had for their new car the Leaf was to follow a polar bear around as he travels across the US trying to track down the owner of the new electric car. I always love seeing behind the scenes videos of real commercials running on tv and being able to give commentary during commercial breaks. Now everyone, go out and grab a potentially dangerous wild animal and start making your own BTS videos :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASM4lR5soQw<

Nikon just announced a bunch of new gear and one of the new cameras is the new D7000. While I'm personally a little disappointed in it's lack of 720 60fps the camera does finally put 1080 video into a moderate Nikon body. All my wishful thinking aside, Chase Jarvis was approached by Nikon to shoot a short video showcasing the new video feature. Here is a little short behind the scenes promo video of Chase playing with the new camera and putting it through the ringer. Let's hope we get our 60fps on the D300s/D700 replacement so we can stop having to borrow Canon gear to shoot our videos :) Click the full post to see Chase's short film Benevolent Mischief and get on the Pre Order List first at Amazon.com or here at BHvideo.com <

The guys over at Soviet Montage have created a video getting a lot of buzz in the last day or so. Regardless if this is the first true HDR video or not, it's most definitely the first of its kind coming off a Canon 5D MKII. Check out this short video they created with two DSLRs (one over exposed and the other underexposed); it's definitely an interesting look. I've never been a huge fan of the HDR look but I'll admit it does look pretty cool in video form, especially with people.

HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II's from Soviet Montage on Vimeo.

I just stumbled upon this amazing skateboard video moments ago. As I was watching it I thought, "man I wish I could put this on FS but I'm sure there isn't any BTS". I was pleasantly surprised to find that the second half of the video is all BTS footage. Enjoy!

"LAKAIROMANIA" from Marc Ritzema on Vimeo.

We have all heard about and seen footage from the Phantom camera. This thing can shoot amazing slomo at 1050fps at 1080p. I, however, have never actually seen the camera itself before. Tom takes us through a quick tutorial, because we will probably never get to touch one ourselves. Is anyone else shocked by the terrible navigation on this camera? For the price you would think they could add a D-pad and LCD.

The Phantom HD GOLD High Speed Digital Cinema Camera from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

If you have ever watched an action movie or fantasy movie, you have probably heard people taking about how anything can be done with CGI. But how many times have you stopped to consider what was actually real and what was computer graphics? In today's movies, the line between reality and computer animation is more blurred than ever and that's why I enjoyed watching this short film about the movie Underworld Evolution. It's always crazy to me to see how creative camera angles and complex stunt rigging can be combined with computer graphics to produce these shots we are so used to seeing on the big screen.

Underworld Evolution - Behind The Scenes from Jeff Castelluccio on Vimeo.

Sometimes videos don't require a BTS because although they are a unique idea, they don't necessarily have to be complicated. Danny writes "Everyone has experienced fireworks. It is truly a magical sight. I set out to capture them, not as we know them normally, but in a way that many of you may not have seen them before. For this, I used Bokeh, which originates from the Japanese word "boke", which means "blur" or "haze"."

Bokeh from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

I was one of the few people on the planet that actually wasn't a huge fan of Avatar but I did love the special effects. James and his team had to create new technology to produce the most successful movie of all time. Check out his camera setup below. Game Trailers - E3 2011 - Gadget Pr0n

I am a huge fan of the technology behind movie special effects. Here is a quick look behind the scenes of the movie John Adams. It's amazing what is possible these days. <

You may not be one of the 1% of Americans who owns a Visa Black card but that does not mean you cannot enjoy their marketing. This video was sent in by Grant Lankford and features Curt Morgan and his team at Brain Farm as they work on the current ad campaign for the Visa Black Card. Everything about this video is sick from the choppers, the model in black leather, the one of a kind black yacht, and of course the cinematography. This video shows just how much creativity you can have with a simple concept like "back in black". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqtAd6rG0c8<

Today we have not one but THREE behind the scenes videos for the latest Victoria's Secret television ad Incredible. The first one shows the scope of the production from the perspective of the models. You can also see how well these new bras fit and why they are so incredible. The second one was edited by FS reader and film maker Adam Boozer who shot a short ad for Verizon showcasing production designer Jeffrey Beecroft. Adam's video is about how Jeffrey uses his cell phone to show art directors different sets, ideas, and locations around the world. Finally, the third is from Ed Razek who is the chief creative officer at Victoria's Secret. There is a little bit to take from all of these and you can watch the final commercial on TV or in the full post. <

Verizon Wireless - White Bay Victoria Secret Shoot from Jewell&Ginnie on Vimeo.

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Tom Guilmette has been creating a bunch of interesting videos recently, this being no exception. Check out his new toy below.

Kessler Shuttle Pod Dolly System Tutorial - Oracle Controller and ElektraDRIVE Motor from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

We have posted Tom's work before. Here is a little behind the scenes of how he actually does it.

Behind the Scenes: Timelapse Crane from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

The guys over at Stillmotion have been a huge source of inspiration to us at Fstoppers. If you haven't checked out their vimeo channel, head over there and be prepared to watch hundreds of well shot wedding videos. They have also released a really informative video on how to use different microphones for your video projects and BTS videos. Once you start getting into filming video, capturing good audio is going to be of up most importance to you. Anyone remember those horrible audio tracks on some of our BTS contest videos? Well now you have no excuse for getting good audio of your own.

introduction to audio with DSLRs from stillmotion on Vimeo.