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Using Mavic Pro 2 To Create Motion Backgrounds | EP 9

When it’s winter out and all the color of spring, summer and fall has faded, the earth in the northern hemisphere turns a bleak, desaturated brown.

Deciding When To Throw Away Footage

The location is scouted. The appointments are made and the talent is on the way. The sun slowly rises revealing a picture-perfect landscape as the shot list starts getting shorter.  At the end of the day, not everything filmed is going to be useable. Factors such as focus, composition, brightness and detail all play a part in deciding if a shot will make its way to a final feature. And unless you are working on a larger budget project with a team of people, each tasked with a particular duty to perform, it’s going to be challenging to be sure all the shots are turning out the way they were intended.

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Winter Forest Tutorial

In this After Effects Tutorial, a summer picture is taken and through hue/saturation, adjustment layers, curves, and other tools, is transformed into a winter motion background.

Summer Grass – How It was Made

Most of the time when people review how they produced a video, they start with a giant list of problems they ran into, and how they used their ingenuity to solve them.  It’s smart to skip over the first 5 minutes of any behind the scenes video.  Thankfully, there are no unique problems that were encountered on this video shoot. Starting with a good location was key, and taking full advantage of the golden hour lighting, it was the easiest video shoot so far.

Using a Black Magic Ursa Mini 4.6K Pro, there were several scenes that were pre-planned. Knowing it would be slightly windy, the decision to go with 60fps was easy, so the clips could be slowed down by 50% in post production. Nearly 10 different shots were selected and using all different angles of the wavy grass and open fields. Basically, using only one camera and Vinton Tripod along with a 24-70 Canon lens, these three components created beautiful imagery that made post production really fun.

Taking each clip and animating some particles and lens flair created the extra movement in the shot. Finally, it took several hours to export and then got everything uploaded. Take a look at the finished product and and download these free realistic summer grass motion backgrounds here.

 

 

Superbowl 53 Commercial – The Twilight Zone

If there was something memorable about Superbowl 53, it definitely wasn’t the match up between the Los Angeles Rams, and the Boston Patriots. Mid-way through the 4th quarter, the Patriots scored there first touchdown and the audience re-awoke from their deep sleep. The only life-saving parts of the games were the 3 minute intermissions when media time outs were taken for commercial breaks.

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Shure SM7B Microphone

When producing a video and recording the audio, the sensible solution is to look up the cheapest Rhode shotgun mic and attach it to the hot shoe of the DSLR camera. That is fine if you are producing a elementary highlight video of their field day, but the more shooting and recording you do, the better trained your ears become to being able to discern what good audio is, and empty audio. A shotgun mic is an extremely direction mic that picks of vocal ranges 40 Hz to 20 kHz, which differs based upon the mic you are using. For instance, the Sennheiser MKE 600 shotgun mic is brilliant in its durability, its dependability and its sound quality. But when comparing this mic to the Shure SM7B micrphone, the warm vocal quality simply isn’t there.

While the shotgun works great for run-n-gun situations, for more standard and formal interviews, I recommend a mic that reaches deeper into the human vocal range and doesn’t leave out half the tones that make a voice, full. The Shure SM7B microphone creates that feeling of closeness, warmness, and vocal responses that draw the audience in, which less need for remaster your audio using parametric EQ effects.

The SM7B dynamic microphone has a smooth, flat, wide-range frequency response appropriate for music and speech in all professional audio applications. It features excellent shielding against electromagnetic hum generated by computer monitors, neon lights, and other electrical devices.

The SM7B has been updated from earlier models with an improved bracket design that offers greater stability. In addition to its standard windscreen, it also includes the A7WS windscreen for close-talk applications.

Features

  • Flat, wide-range frequency response for exceptionally clean and natural reproduction of both music and speech
  • Bass rolloff and mid-range emphasis (presence boost) controls with graphic display of response setting
  • Improved rejection of electromagnetic hum, optimized for shielding against broadband interference emitted by computer monitors
  • Internal “air suspension” shock isolation virtually eliminates mechanical noise transmission
  • Highly effective pop filter eliminates need for any add-on protection against explosive breath sounds, even for close-up vocals or narration
  • Now shipping with the A7WS detachable windscreen, designed to reduce plosive sounds and gives a warmer tone for close-talk vocals
  • Yoke mounting with captive stand nut for easy mounting and dismounting provides precise control of microphone position
  • Classic cardioid polar pattern, uniform with frequency and symmetrical about axis, to provide maximum rejection and minimum coloration of off-axis sound
  • Rugged construction and excellent cartridge protection for outstanding reliability
  • Replacement cartridge:  RPM106

So when considering your next mic choice, don’t just run to whatever is cheapest and easy. Take the time to buy equipment that will deliver quality audio. The Shure SM7B will do just that.

Silent Lights – Behind The Scene

The famous Dan Brown once said, “Sometimes a change of perspective is all it takes to see the light.” When you have 100 tea candles sitting on the floor of your garage and you are looking around trying to find the right angle to film them, it’s all about the perspective from which you are looking.

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Video Editing Tips Before Editing

Before starting a big video editing project, through experience, I have noticed that setting up a proper work area can allow the mind to delve deeper into the project quicker. So what do I mean by that? I am going to list several tips that drastically improved by efficiency when editing. Time and valuable, and with so many distractions, it’s easy to waste alot of time. It’s been said that every time a videographer is interrupted from their editing, even if its just a brief interruption, it can take 10 minutes to refocus and resume the same pace of editing as they were doing before the interruption. So here are a few things that can help.

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