DIY Steadicam

    As my interest in video grows I have been in search of new equipment to use to make my films even better. One piece of gear that I had heard of is called a Steadicam (Name of a company that many people have copied). These are basically mounts that you attach your camera to, that off sets the weight of your camera and gives shot a very smooth look even when you are walking or even running. They come in all shapes and sizes and can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. I thought to myself that I would never be able to afford one and I had heard of other people making their own so I thought I'd give it a shot. I went on youtube and came across a few tutorials but ended up going with one specific design because it seemed to be the simplest to construct. The next day I picked up the supplies from the hardware store and got to work.

Here is the video tutorial that I used:

    It ended up being trickier to build than I expected because of the exact measurements for the mount. If you make this be careful to think through the lengths of screws and the thickness of the wooden block unlike me. Along the way I made a few changes to the design. Instead of using weights at the bottom, I taped a hammer and to give the camera extra support I used rubberbands to strap it down. Even If it did take me quite a while to build, I feel that the outcome was worth it and it will be a useful piece of equipment. Also the fact that I am only spending a few dollars instead of hundreds doesn't hurt.

    Here is a quick video of my frist tests. Keep in mind that this is my first time using something like this and all of the shots are handheld:

Pictures of my version:

Capture The Fall Film

    For our most recent assignment we were to capture our interpretation of fall as best we could in a one minute film. When I think of fall, the first thing that comes to mind is color so that is what I went out to capture. Here is my attempt at capturing the fall:

(Watch in HD)

   To make this film I used a Canon 7D with a tripod and edited the film in iMovie. I used a variation of shots to capture the colors and overall theme of fall. First I used a time-lapse, which is a long film of a setting sped up to show change at a high speed. For me that was capturing the changes in light and clouds. I did this by setting the camera by the window and recording for over ten minutes. I then took long chunks of the clip and sped them up by 2000%. I also incorporated lens whacking, which I showed how to do in a previous post. Besides these techniques I mostly used rack focuses and boosted the saturation in most clips to make the colors of fall stand out. In addition to capturing colors I showed the theme of Halloween because I feel that it is a very important part of fall as well. 

P.S. The coughing sound is not me. All sounds are part of the music file.

More filming and photography techniques coming soon...

Light Painting

     Last night me and a friend went into my backyard to take some colorful and exciting photos. Earlier that day, I came across a very interesting video showing photos taken with a technique called "light painting." I had seen these types of images in TV commercials and ads before but I was never sure how they were made. In this video the photographer was showing how he was using light painting to advertise an alcohol brand. What I found interesting was that he said he made his own lights just to get the effect he wanted and focused on bringing out the amber color of the liquid with the light. His pictures came out incredible and this got me interested in seeing what else you could do with light painting.

(Don't drink alcohol)

    After watching a couple videos and looking at some examples online I decided that I was going to try this out myself that night. After the sun went down and the yard was near pitch black, we went out and played around with light painting. To do it, I set the camera's shutter speed to 13-30 seconds depending on the image and set the flash to first curtain. This means the flash goes off when you click the shutter button. When the flash goes off, this reveals the subject and the background. After the flash I went behind the subject and moved LED lights (flashlights and headlamps) to create streaks of color. Because there is never light shining directly on me, I don't show up in the picture. 

    Taking images of the chair was a little more complicated. To only reveal the chair and give an interesting lighting effect beneath it, I used a flashlight and lit the chair carefully. I then went behind and created the streaks by pointing the light directly at the lens of the camera.

    Although it was cold out and took several tries to get it right, I think the pictures came out great and we had a lot of fun. I think it is definitely a technique that I will use often in the future because there are so many ways to be creative with it. Here are some of the images I took.

(Click to see larger)