Videography

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. In this video, Alex recalls how he was able to use the Canon 5D Mark II to film sequences that would have otherwise required the crew to close down streets in the city and bring in large lighting rigs. It's pretty amazing how ground breaking DSLR video has been especially since there are so many photographers still resisting the feature. Click the Full Post for an extended interview with Alex about shooting for SNL, and you can watch the final SNL intro here.

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. Using his Canon cameras, Terje was able to capture not only the Milky Way galaxy but also an amazing sandstorm brushing off the Sahara Desert. If you are a fan of these videos, join the TSO Photography facebook page for more of Terje's work.

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). Instead of waiting for clients to come to him, Craig decided to start making his own commercial videos for products he personally uses like the Lowepro bag. While covering a story in the Philippines, Craig decided to hire a few local assistants to help him film video and audio clips for an exciting extreme style commercial he wanted in his port. The results might actually be better than the normal videos created by Lowepro themselves! By pushing his own creative talent and keeping the production level high, Craig has produced a compelling advertisement for his own personal show reel that will certainly help land him bigger jobs down the road. I still don't think I'll lend him any of my gear for his next adventure through the jungle!

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. As a Premiere CS5 user, I have to admit I'm a little envious of some of these new features found in the competitor's software. Check the highlights in the video below, and click on the full post for the complete keynote presentation from Vegas. You are going to want to become familiar with this software if you are looking to start editing behind the scenes videos or promotional videos for your business.

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! Usually we post the BTS on the front page but the finished product is so cool I'd rather you watch it first; then you can hit the full post to see all of the "mistakes" that actually made it into the finished product.

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 in the full post.

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. Using long exposure images ranging from 2 to 30 seconds long, they captured all sorts of interesting scenes 30,000 feet up including a spectacular view of the Aurora Borealis. Nate really lucked out having Air France and his fellow passengers allow him to film the whole trip without raising too much of a fuss. For more information about how this was created including the original score created on the ipad, head over to the full post here.

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. In a nutshell, this video is ridiculously badass; I've never seen a music video completely bury the music under a fake trailer before! The Black Keys are pretty good about making BTSVs, and in this one Chris Marrs Piliero explains the concept behind probably his best video to date. There's not a lot of technical talk in this clip but the overall concept and great directing make it worth watching. Pick up at least one Black Keys record if you think about it and check out the final music video in the full post.

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. Check out the full post for a second video.

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. Check out the full post to see the finished product.

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 in the full post.

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. The full commercial is really awesome with mysterious briefcases, seductive women, vintage prop planes, and music straight out of a Tarantino film. As far as I can tell there are no special effects here just lots of conjones by Novak and his tennis trainer.

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. The cinematography is outstanding and the locations are breathtaking. It's this sort of presentation that truly makes me appreciate what we all do as artists.

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? The NBA commercials "Where Amazing Happens" feature high school footage of some of their hottest players practicing with another high school player "from the future" who encourages them with accomplishments from their own future professional career. In this video, go behind the scenes with Phoenix Suns player Steve Nash as the crew shows how they used actors, green screen, and special effects to successfully combine old home footage with compelling new footage in these fun basketball commercials. Click the FULL POST to watch the other NBA Videos.

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. The BBC has a great DVD on the South Pacific which features some amazing underwater slomo camera work of waves crashin, and this short surfing clip was the highlight for me. Rudi Diesel shot this on a Typhoon HD4 which at the time could do 500fps at 7 seconds or 1000fps at 3.5 seconds. If you enjoy this segment, check out a longer clip from the documentary in the second clip below.

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. Two days ago Terje Sorgjerd created the best visual representation of the Aurora Borealis I have ever seen from Pas National Park near the Russian border. Using a timelapse dolly from Dynamic Perceptions, a Canon 5D Mark II, and a few wide angle lenses, Terje was able to take long exposure iamges and size them down to create an 4K video masterpiece. Check out the Geophysical Institute if you live near the North Pole and want to monitor the activity of the Aurora.

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. I have to say it was one of the most interesting photo displays I have ever seen, and the winning photos are nothing short of spectacular. The next stop on the tour is Miami, Florida but you can check out the images and future tour dates at Red Bull Illume Online. Also, check out this BTS video we posted last year of one of the winning images.

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. Last Call With Carson Daily premiered this video, Gun Size Matters, back in the Fall and I just now came across this behind the scenes video showing how they filmed it with green screen. Click the full post to watch the final short video of Freddie's dream date with Shenae Grimes come to a not so happy end :)

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. If you are a photographer you might not be completely familiar with the power references but you can probably imagine the different ratios if you had to convert them to strobes or speedlights. I have often found in my own photography that simply changing the lighting setup to one which I might normally overlook can really change the story telling element of your photos. Has anyone else tried to reproduce morning light or midnight lighting before?

Ten Lighting Setups from John Note on Vimeo.

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. I love Robert's ability to tell a story with wild twists and turns all while sprinkling his films with exciting characters and effects that still bring out the teenager in us all. Click the full post to watch the final Nike Black Mamba short film.

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. Luckily the good people over Hype Communications put together a make of video on how Superfad and the entire creative team was able to piece together this amazing Sony marketing ad. Below is the behind the scenes video; click on the full post to watch the final product.

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. Most people travel down to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral to watch these amazing launches, but a few lucky passengers flying out of Orlando, Florida experienced the launch like few have ever seen it: 35,000 feet high in a commercial airline! Check out our previous post on NASA's video coverage of their shuttle launches if you want to see more amazing video of the space program.

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. Anyone giving homage to Wario or Donkey Kong, the two best characters in the game, will always get two big thumps up from me. If you want to see the final Real Life Mario, click on the full post after watching this great BTS video.

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. Check out the full post to see the finished product.

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. It's pretty entertaining and it really opens the gates to what is possible now that we are all documenting our lives pretty much everyday. I have to believe that all of these shots were staged, and if so Gabriel did a great job capturing all these frames and making such a unique video.

Thrush from Gabriel Bisset-Smith on Vimeo.

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. Instead he relies on a well paid focus puller who can perfectly eyeball every focus distance and follow focus any lens set on any aperture. It's really amazing to watch. Well now a company called Okii has developed a USB focus puller for Canon cameras that can not only pull focus but also record and save a specific movement. I have no idea why they did not include audio on this video but if you watch if you can see two different points of focus being saved and then automated. Click the full post to see a second demonstration that shows off the actual recorded footage.

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. Some of topics covered are camera resolution, color vibrancy, green screening, and shooting video in raw. As photographers, we are still going to hear people making an argument for not shooting video on DSLRs but if you watch the 3 full length short films presented in this episode I think the DSLR video haters' days are numbered.

The Great Camera Shootout 2010 Web 3: The Revolution Begins... from steve weiss on Vimeo.

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 enjoy watching and learning about high speed videography, check out Tom's website or check out the other Fstoppers Tom Guilmette posts we have featured.

Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

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. Watch the full video here and click on the full post to watch how he created it.

Just ran across this quick BTS of a commercial Lucas Zanotto made. Check out the 40 second BTS below and then check out the full post to see the amazing finished product.

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. With just a few Canon DSLRs, a magic arm, and a Dito Omni Slider, Patryk created a really unique looking video made from HDR stills. If you have any additional questions about the making of this video, leave them in the comment section and I'm sure Patryk will be happy to answer them. Click the full post to watch the original video in its entirety.

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. Then by taking that final frame as a starting point of reference, other film makers could continue the story and add their own twists and turns into the developing scripts. Each segment would be judged by industry heavy weights like Philip Bloom, Shane Hurlbut, Russel Carpenter, among others, and a new chapter would begin. Over the next year, hundreds of chapters were written with 6 lucky directors winning spots in the final video that is currently being shown at Sundance. Below is a summary of the final project and the final video in its entirety is included in the full post. Hopefully this contest not only inspires you in your own photography but also encourages you to test the waters in film making.

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. In his most recent video, Mark shows a lot of different types of hot lights that can be used for lighting both your behind the scenes videos as well as your photoshoots themselves. He also talks a bit about how to light different subjects including how to light for a two person interview. Here at Fstopppers, we are using the Photoflex Starlights for our video productions. We really enjoy the versatility they give us but of course you can use anything that fits your budget. I know photographers sometimes stray away from constant lighting in favor of strobes so if you have any questions or thoughts about how to use these to the fullest, leave a comment below.

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 cinemagraphic move possible. I'm thinking we might get a BTS video of the filming of this commercial after the contest is done but in the meantime Shane is going to give away a free copy of Adobe's CS5 Production Premium Suite to whoever correctly guesses what camera shot what footage. You can head over to the contest page for more details and the entries will be accepted until the end of Jan 26th, 2011.

Our main focus here at Fstoppers is informative BTS content but sometimes as creatives we have the technical skills and we need a little bit of inspiration to get us going. I just ran across Karl X Johan's music video for the song "flames" by director Gustav Johansson and I was so impressed I had to post it. I've never seen story telling in this way and I'm sure you guys will enjoy it as much as I did. Make sure you watch it in HD!

My brain couldn't comprehend how this was possible I so I told myself it was some how computer generated to keep my head from exploding. I then saw the end of the video, and I still don't quite believe it. All you need is a Segway, a Steadicam system, and an Olympic sprinter to pull focus. Check the full post for the final video.

Photographer and videographer Patryk Kizny from Poland has been making a lot of noise around the web with his HDR TimeLapse slider videos. I've had a chance to talk to Patryk about his setup and the electronic slider he is using made by DitoGear is quite impressive. In this video he has removed all the elements of timelapse and instead he has focused simply on smooth sliding motions in every direction possible. What I found must impressive besides the smoothness of the slider itself is the amazing image quality he is getting out of the relatively new and inexpensive Samyang 14mm 2.8 ultra wide angle lens on his 5D Mark II. I know the Nikon version is expensive but I never thought the quality would be this close on full frame video. If you enjoy Patryk's works, stay tuned because he has a new BTS video on one of his most popular videos coming out soon.

Winter. A short non-timelapse film. from Patryk Kizny on Vimeo.

Sometimes you come across a video that just makes you feel good, and this is one of those videos. Brooklyn resident Todd Beiber was out cross country skiing in Prospect Park during the huge blizzard which brought in 2011. During his ski adventure he happened to spot a canister of undeveloped 35mm film. Being the photo enthusiast that he is, Todd developed the film on his own and vowed to track down the owners of the lost roll of film. What he found was very similar to the Vivian Maier's story: a bunch of great images that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. So after watching this video, I feel like it is only appropriate for Fstoppers to help Todd find the owners of this roll of film. Will you help him as well? Hopefully we will get a wonderful follow up video of Todd hanging out somewhere in Europe :)

Never once have I gone to a dealship and asked the saleman "so how strong is the frame of this car?" But that isn't the point is it? Lexus has been doing a great job of pushing their car commercials to the limit and then creating BTSVs of the process. The concept is pretty silly in my opinion, but the finished commercial is entertaining and beautiful to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8zdWnPhhc<

We have posted our fair share of the newly popular moving time-lapse videos but this one is different. Henry Jun Wah Lee created a beautiful video of some amazing landscapes in Yosemite but unlike the others we have posted, much of this video is played back in real time. If you are a fan of landscape photography, this will be right up your alley.

If you've ever played with an effects lens like the Lens Baby Composer then you are probably aware that you can actually create out of focus areas that have specific shapes by using specially designed apertures. Well Kaleb Wentzel-Fisher took this one step further and actually made his out of focus bokeh spell out words during a recent video shoot. I think there is a lot to be desired with the final video but the concept is pretty genius. Check out this video below to see how Kaleb designed the 'aperture' blades and click on the full post to see the final video.

Light Works - Behind The Scenes from Supernormals on Vimeo.