Videography

It's that time of year again. Children dress up in ghoulish costumes, grab their jack-o-lantern baskets and extort candy from the neighbors. Although, in Norway Sandnes Media AS, an animation studio, had the children who participated in their latest children's animation workshop do something a little bit different this Halloween.

I'm always a fan of watching talented humans. Parkour is one of those activities which I'll never be good at, but am amazed to watch. HeliPOV had the same idea and decided that parkour group 3RUN should be shown off to the rest of us. The HeliPOV team was kind enough to film the groups jumps and dives using their multicopter. Not only does this clip show off some fun acrobatics, but it also gives a sense of what kind of shots a multicopter can pull off.

Some of the most interesting and exciting video footage often comes out of car commercials. The current ad for Cadillac's new 2013 ATS features some pretty awesome footage of the luxury sports sedan speeding down the winding roads of Morocco's Atlas Mountain. This stretch of road overlooking the Dades Gorge is one of the most dangerous roads in the world. So when director Jeff Zwart decided to test the ATS's Brembo brakes and limited-slip differential, he not only put the drivers in danger but also put a ton of camera gear in harms way. Full behind the scenes video in the full post

I'm starting to wonder when Ben Von Wong sleeps... Not only is he constantly producing great work, but he is also constantly producing amazing Behind The Scenes videos to accompany them. In his latest video Ben takes us behind the scenes on his shoot with the band SX in Belgium. Limited to being able to shoot in just an indoor pool, he had to overcome the challenge of making it appear as if the band was outdoors, in water, at sunset.

Short films are regular projects for Andres Overgaard. Instead of doing his normal work, for one of his most recent projects, Andres decided to take out the Canon 550D/Rebel t2i and test out his Tamron 18-270 mm shooting some video. All shots were hand held with some work done later in post. While the cinematography does show some of the quality shots you can get with the body and lens combo, make sure you stick around for the ending, it's worth it.

Seth Worley, the director of ultimate short films, such as 'Plot Device' and 'Order Up' is back with another short film that he directed for Red Giant... 'Form 17'. The short film centers around a bomb defuser and his daughter while on a 'take your daughter to work day'. (Why couldn't my dad be a bomb defuser...or a unicorn whisperer?) In the behind the scenes look at the short film Seth goes over the writing process, the hectic filming schedule (aka: one day) and the post-production process. He also explains how he used PluralEyes from Red Giant to easily sync all of the audio.

For over a year and a half now, David Reynolds has been filming his "budget" series of short films called The Underwater Realm. Each week he and his team release a behind the scenes video on how they overcome some technical aspect of filming (previous Fstoppers posts here). This week Eve explains how he tackled the challenge of making a small diving pool appear like an infinite ocean using something other than green screen. If this is what is required on a budget, I can't imagine what the full blown productions look like!

A good car chase has heroes, villians, jumps, crashes, helicopters and more. Youtube master Freddie Wong manages to capture the best elements of an epic car chase but does it on a small scale. By using RC cars, Freddie and his crew are able to set up the scene and retake as many times as they want. Check out the final video below.

The Second Version of Magic Lantern for the Canon 5D Mark III has been released! Most of the hype with Magic Lantern lately has been about the crack of the Canon 7D's firmware, but attention has shifted with this announcement. This video shows the power of HDR Video on the 5DM3. New features include smooth exposure transitions (ISO, shutter or aperture), HDR Video, focus assistants, and

London photog, Dave Kai-Piper, is one of my favorite people in the fashion photography industry. He is talented, driven, kind and a blast to work with. I got to meet Dave and his close friend/assistant/videographer, Paul McKelvie in England last year while shooting video for a web series and the 3 of us have been good friends since. Their video "Sequence 9" is Dave and Paul's effort to show the beauty in all forms in the world around us by bringing together timelapse photography and what I can only describe as "BTS-Fine-Art-Fashion" videography. Be sure to check out Dave and Paul and enjoy the video!

Matthew Hogan, a talented photographer and videographer from Tyler, Texas, shot country band, JB and the Mooonshine band. He not only shot the band for a promotional photoshoot, but for their music video, as well. Using Alienbee lighting, a Nikon D700 and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens he composited the individual band members together for the final image.

Pirelli, known on this site mostly for their (NSFW) Calendar Photoshoots, also creates their TV spots with a high-level approach. Literally, this behind the scenes video shows the setup and production needed to capture skiers BASE jumping off of a huge cliff. How do Pirelli tires fit in? Check out the final cut of the completed video and you'll see how it all comes together. Spoiler Alert: They throw a car off of the cliff too!

As a retoucher, I'm always fascinated by the world of video and how retouching is done in beauty commercials. Foton Inc. released a video a few months ago showing how to make someone look younger with their “Age Reduction FX” technique. Now, here's another video showing how retouching in video is done in 4k format for a typical beauty video.

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It's official, the GoPro HERO3 is now out for sale and she looks powerful. CEO Nick Woodman announced the new HERO3 as the smallest, lightest, most powerful way to document your life. If that is not enough it is also Wi-Fi enabled and can capture 4k video (4,000 pixels) at 12 frames per second and 1080p HD video at 60 frames per second. (Picking jaw off the floor!) Read on to hear more about this radical new camera.

The first time I heard Lana Del Rey was watching her music video for "Video Games" last year. I thought it was just a tribute video to some old songstress I had never heard of. Little did I know this "gangster Nancy Sinatra" was about to be the next big thing in music. Her videos are always visually stunning, so when I found this behind the scenes video from her music video for her cover of "Blue Velvet," I had to share it. "Blue Velvet" was recorded and released in conjunction with H&M's 2012 Autumn Campaign in which Lana Del Rey modeled in. The BTS video lacks dialog but still gives a very good insight into the production process.

MPC or The Moving Picture Company is famous for creating truly stunning visual effects for blockbuster films like, 'Wrath of the Titans', 'John Carter' and 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. They also did the effects for the mind blowing 'Prometheus'. In the first video VFX Supervisor, Richard Stammers, explains how they created the plant surface (or moon's), of LV-223. He explains how they used Google Earth as a reference for locations used for the film's backdrop. In the second video MPC shows snippets of various scenes broken down.

What if you found a camera that had superpowers, what would you do with it? You might have the potential to become the first ever superhero photographer of our time. The creative team over at Corridor Digital based their short story Photoreal off of this idea. The main subject of our film finds a camera that literally freezes time with each snap.

There's this "man rule" that every red-blooded male should drive at least one 12-cylinder vehicle before they die. This is one of those jobs where I got to assert that rule with a golden fist. A gold-plated Lamborghini Aventador and a 1965 Shelby Cobra replica with a BMW Alpina suspension and late model Mustang 5.0 engine... both incredible vehicles created by the team over at Prestige Imports and both sets of keys left in my care alone. One of those jobs where you pinch yourself and ask, "how did I get here again?"

Photographers woke up this morning to hear that Jen Burgess Thompson passed away peacefully this morning. Jen was courageous enough to share her battle with the community over the last year as we all grew to love her. Jessica Person said it best this morning, "...the photography world watched a courageous photographer, woman and mother battle cancer. She was victorious. She didn't lose her battle with cancer this morning, she sailed into victory."

Wildlife Photographer Tim Laman has been working on the Birds of Paradise project for over 10 years, hiking countless miles through undisturbed rainforests to seek out and capture some of the most unique birds that are native to only New Guinea. In this trailer for both the photo exhibit and National Geographic documentary, get a sneak peek at the almost alien like avian species that inhabit the rainforest.

This video, reminiscent of Seth Casteel's photo series depicting dogs diving in water, is making it's viral rounds. Produced by Daniel Harmon and Kaitlin Snow with direction and edits by Devin Graham it was created to promote Orapup dog breath brushes. But if you're watching it here, on our site, then it's likely you are more interested in the behind the scenes video, which we got.

Photographers Irwin Wong and Michel Jones put together this catchy spoof of Bruno Mars' "Billionaire" music video. I defy you to not find yourself bopping along to this one or catch yourself listening more than once.

UPDATE: 24fps firmware update has been released too!
Ever since the Wifi BacPac was released, I've been waiting for this iPhone App to drop. This FREE App allows users of the HERO2 (the original HERO is not compatible, sadface) to preview their shot and control the camera's settings, all over WiFi. Eventually it will be able to upload and even stream clips to YouTube. This video was posted before, but it demos the features of this previously unreleased app. Read on for the list of compatible devices!

In a creative and fun spec commercial, Ross Ching uses a really cool Popsicle stick trick and creatively applies it to a fun story. As he describes, Popsicle sticks can fit together in a certain way so that when triggered, a chain reaction occurs down the line at 35 mph. To capture this process, he used the Phantom Miro shooting at 1000 fps.

Using a unique blend of black lights, LEDs, and course sharks with frickin lasers, the crew from Burn put together a fantastic short video that shows snowboarders sliding on some rails and even doing flips in the dark. The rails light up as they slide across them! Check out the video and tell us what you think of this style.

SerialBox Presents is a live music project created by Texas photog and all-around creative, Ryan Booth. Serial Box produces music videos that are shot entirely on a few 5Dmk2s with audio tracked into ProTools. There are no overdubs, no cut-ins, and no pick-ups. What you see and hear is one time through, mistakes and all.

Stanley Kubrick was one of the most acclaimed producers and directors in American cinematography (the Shining is one of my all time favorites). Back in 1975, Stanley directed the three hour masterpiece Barry Lyndon. From a photography standpoint, the film is most noted for Stanley's use of Mitchell BNC cameras mounted with NASA Zeiss f/0.7 50mm lenses.