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More Insider Secrets
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Hollywood style for your home videos
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Submitted by:
Andrew Webster
Filmmaker
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Some of the smoothest, most cinematic moves you'll see are dolly shots, where the director mounts a camera on a wheeled tripod and moves it toward or away from a stationary subject. How can you do it? Simple:
- Fake a dolly with a skateboard or a baby carriage (minus the baby, of course).
- How about a rolling office chair? You'd need a dolly driver to maneuver for you, but with a couple of rehearsals, you could get an interesting new shot.
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Camera-mounted lights, though easy to find and relatively inexpensive, may not be the best answer to your indoor lighting problems. You--and your subjects--will be happier with multiple light sources spread around the scene. Try these tips.
- Turn on a few more lamps.
- Replace some of the low-wattage bulbs in the room with some 75- or 100-watt ones.
- Bring in a desk light and position it close to the action.
Do whatever it takes to bring the overall light level of the room up to a decent range.
Relax, find something interesting, and enjoy your subjects. You can always cut it short in the editing.
- Don't cut off the action too soon.
- Let the actions develop and play themselves out.
- Avoid changing your angle constantly as if you were a dog hunting for treats.
Submitted by:
Andrew Webster
Filmmaker
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Andrew Webster is a freelance filmmaker in New York City, with a background in television documentary at Network USA and Wingspan, the creators of Discovery's Wings program. |
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Tip 1: Use a homemade dolly
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