In the beginning...
There was the SLR.
Then it changed forever into the DSLR.
Now it has changed to the HDSLR. Can't they make up my mind?
For the first time, your decision to acquire a DSLR has become a moving target. Once you get it into your hands, you will shoot a few scenes, utter the word "cool" a few times and possibly go back to shooting great-looking stills.
Too bad that HDSLR didn't feel like a video camera, or you would have taken it more seriously.
OR, you couldn't care less about its SLR functions; you wanted an Arriflex that shot moving images digitally but you just couldn't tell your (significant other inserted here) that spending $40,000 on the full RED rig was a wise idea. Still, you wanted that delicious shallow Depth Of Field and movie-like image. At a relationship-friendly price.
OR, maybe you're more like me. You want it all. A great still camera and a significantly talented electronic movie camera all in one convenient package.
NOW you have a Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Pentax or other HDSLR and you're finding out that it doesn't behave exactly the way your preconceived notions told you it would. Some things are great, but others just seem all wrong. Fussy. Hinky. Sigh. What to do?
There are a billion things that add together for successful movie scenes. They're far more than still images that happen to move. They're not a whole lot like the shots your little HD camcorder shoots, either.
Who knew that the cinematographers in Hollywood were putting up with all these exacting details all the time? It's enough to make you realize why those people get the Big Bucks for what they do.
Now you can do those things, too. You owe your camera some additional mental focus. From the desktop of Peter iNova, a whole career of still photography, movie cinematography and pioneering HD videography has been distilled into a completely interactive movieBook that shows you example after example of what to do and why. Click on an image and an HD moving example pops open, showing you an example of a technique in full motion, right on your computer screen.
Here's a slice of what you'll find inside the movieBook:
- What are the features you need from an HDSLR camera?
- Which features are So Near, And Yet, So What?
- What features are in every HDSLR that you need to shoot "around" to avoid?
- How do you begin to think in terms of sequences?
- What are the 18 main types of shot (and three optionals) you should go for when there is no obvious story?
- What are the structural clues to making a story out of bin full of diverse shots?
- How do you think of editing as you shoot?
- How do you do the eight camera moves--by hand?
- Why you need to experience editing directly, even if you are strictly the cinephotographer?
- What's a cinephotographer?
- What questions do moving images need to answer different from those answered by stills?
- What major special effects program can you buy for $30?
- For $100?
- For $1000?
- What editing features do you want most? --do you NEED most?
- Which ones are essential?
- Which ones are fru-fru?
- What are the five things every shot MUST HAVE?
- How do you recover from shots that don't have all five?
- How do you stabilize a moving camera?
- How do you re-stablize a shaky shot?
- How do you shoot best for later re-stabilization?
- How do you add a Fake Zoom to shots?
- What are your real-world Fake Zoom limits?
- How fast of a pan is too fast? What's the Goldilocks zone?
- How can you use intentional instability to improve stability???
- What type of shot avoids your HDSLR's biggest hassle?
- What sort of filter gets rid of HDSLR's biggest hassle?
- How do you make ANY DSLR into a time-lapse maestro?
- How do you integrate your time-lapse scenes into your HD shots?
- How do you work with still images in movie productions?
- How do you cause your camera to shoot Golden Hour at noon?
- Do the words "Ken Burns" mean a suntan accident or an essential HD movie technique?
- How do you adapt Hollywood's principles and tools to your camera?
- What do you need to be saving up for in the way of your accessories?
- What accessories should you avoid?
- Where is the Secret Web Page for HDSLR movieBook owners?
A: Page 116.
- How do you turn your HDSLR 30 fps shots into impossibly-smooth, ultra slow motion scenes like this pseudo Nike commercial?:
Double click to run:
