Shooting Better Hand-Held Footage

Female 1: Hi, I’m Jennifer O’Rourke. In today’s tips and tricks we’re gonna show you some handheld shooting tips. Melissa is shooting this orchard, and I’m gonna show her a couple ways that she can shoot it a little bit easier and smoother, without it being so shaky. Are you ready?

Female 2: I’m ready.

Female 1: Let’s go.

The first thing I want Melissa to do is we’re gonna shoot a long shot straight down this orchard and get that nice, sharp V. But it’s a big, wide shot, so Melissa, let me see how you would shoot it first off.

Female 2: Okay, well, I’d probably just aim my camera and shoot.

Female 1: Okay, hit record and let’s roll off a couple seconds of tape.

All right, now that’s okay for a wide shot because you are wide. You’re not gonna see little – much of the shakiness. But a better way to do it would be to cup your hands into your body like this and bring the camera a little bit closer to you like this, and you’re getting a little bit steadier. And I’m using my hand to give support to the camera. So now let’s look at what I shot compared to what you shot.

Female 2: Okay.

Female 1: Okay, Melissa, what I want you to do now is give me a close-up shot of this bloom right here.

Female 2: Okay.

Female 1: We just looked back at your footage, and let me show you. You did good because you did bring your arms in like I said, and it’s better shooting through the eyepiece ‘cause of the lighting here, but what would’ve been better for you is to widen out your shot like this and just step in a little bit closer. You’re getting closer to your subject and you’re shooting on a wide shot, so it’s not as shaky and as obvious as when she tried to zoom in on the shot.

What’ we’re gonna do here is I want you to get a low angle shot of these blooms with the sky in the background, and then also shoot down – straight down this orchard on low angle. Okay?

Female 2: Okay. How’s that?

Female 1: That works a little bit, but a little bit better way to cushion yourself and to give yourself better balance is instead of being on one foot and one knee – you don’t have a lot of balance – go completely down on your knees like this and bring your hands in like this, and you’ve got a lot better support. And then when you were making your turn, you saw how awkward – you were kind of shaking?

Female 2: Yeah.

Female 1: So point your body at where the turn is going to end instead of where it begins, and then you’re shooting like this, and then you pan over like this, and it’s a lot smoother. You’ve got room to breathe.

Female 2: Yeah.

Female 1: We could go – we came out here to do some shoots, and we were shooting this wild mustard with the fence in the background, which is kind of a tricky shot because what Melissa wanted to do is she wanted to have the fence in the shot and the wild mustard in the background. So to shoot handheld from here, it’s gonna be really shaky with the distance. If we pulled up closer to the fence we wouldn’t be able to get a good shot of the fence in it. So using the tips that I taught you last week, we’re gonna do another shot.

Melissa’s doing a lot better than she was when we first came out here, and I think your shots are gonna look a lot better. We’re gonna show you a little bit of a video montage of what we put together for the first week of spring, but there’s a couple other little things you could’ve done.

Female 2: Okay.

Female 1: I brought my trusty little beanbag, and we can put the beanbag on – if we have an unsteady rock or fence we could put the beanbag down on the ground like that or on the fence and balance that on there. Or we could balance the beanbag right on the ground like this, fluff it up a little bit here if we want to go high, fluff up a little bit here if we want to shoot low. Or in this case I would’ve knelt on the beanbag and bring it down here.

Female 2: Multipurpose.

Female 1: Bring it down here just a little bit more once you know where your focus and frame is, ‘cause you’re gonna get a little bit steadier than if it’s up here. But either way our shot’s gonna look a lot better. So are you ready to do it?

Female 2: Thank you. I am. Thanks for your tips.

Female 1: All right, thank you. For tips and techniques I’m Jennifer O’Rourke with Melissa.

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