Moving Shots! (Implementation)

Context

During production one of the main things I had troubles with is shooting moving shots, especially moving tracking shots. This is because I don't just have to move only the camera, but my whole body as well. There were many occasions where I had to reshoot because it was not straight or too shaky. Filming at the park made it so the ground was uneven and muddy (since it had rained second day of filming). I had to quickly learn how to adjust to my surroundings!

Camera Rotations!

One camera movements I had to recreate were panning shots. This is where the camera does not move physically and only rotates horizontally. This is one example of a panning shot we filmed! Shot 23 take 3:

One thing I had to make sure I did correctly was rotating the camera at the right time. The first two times, the framing was off and the movement felt too uneven/choppy. I had to learn how to move at a consistent and smooth speed, considering how the slightest hesitation or clumsy motion made the shot feel wobbly.

Moving shots 

Filming shots where I had to move with the camera were challenging since the location we were filming was bumpy and I had to move backwards for the majority. 

This is one of the many bloopers for this take. It is low leveled and angled, meaning I could barely see the camera since I had to move at the same time. Also in this specific blooper, the camera is slightly tilted, not matching up to the horizontal axis.

Here I tried fixing all the issues from the previous takes. Sound here does not matter since it is all muted/non-diegetic. This is also the take we decided on to use for the Final Cut.

For reference this is what it looked like filming!

After each blooper/bad take I tried to identify the issue, whether it be: pathway issues, crooked camera angles, or timing problems. Next, I would attempt to come up with a solution. For example, if it was timing, I’d make sure with the actor know how fast he’d have to run or how quicker I’d have to move until we found an even ground. In general, I needed to quickly pinpoint what went wrong and how to correct/adapt it.