Yo sifus,

I believe you guys are aware that film look videography is trendy currently. I am interested in this kind of film too, and i tried to learn them by observing the angle the videographers took the shots, how each scenes are join together smoothly etc.. And then i notice that most of the scenes produced professionally are a bit shaky, but the way it shakes makes the scene more vivid. (See the sample video below). Whereas for my videos, as i am using 18-200 tamron non-vr, it shakes too, but in a very ugly way. I have to use prodad to fix.

May i know are the camera motion created during filming, or is post processed into the film? And if its done during filming, what equipment do i need to produce that kind of look? Based on my research i need a glidecam, is that true?

Looks like they shoot handheld or use EasyRig , not glidecam.
This is hand held look.

Some shots they use tripod and do 'floating' motion.

This post has been edited by adrian11: Nov 5 2015, 02:52 PM

em0kia since u have 18-200mm, for a handheld look don't use the tele end of your lens.. the longest focal i would go for handheld is 50mm.. 24mm is nice as well.. if you go all the way to 200mm it will shake like hell when shooting video.. a camera cage can stabilise a bit your footage to get natural camera shake..

Thanks ofr the tips, but i realize that the handheld motion i had when using 18-200 is very very harsh. The video which i showed above, has very obvious handheld shakes too but it does not feel so bad for some reason. it feels smooth and natural.

I thin i need some equipment to create that feel, but not sure what i should use.

Have you tried shooting on a shoulder rig? It helps to get the handheld look. Not as expensive as EasyRig , but still can get good results.

For handheld I dont know how to explain to you , but I I move my body instead of moving my hand. My hand is always holding the camera and my body is just swaying from left to right , thats my way to do hand held. Its more of a floating than a shake if you get what I mean.

Maybe you can use the widest at 17mm, so your shakes are not too obvious.

Alright, thanks for the guidance. Do you think lens play an important factor in creating the floating effect? WOuld it help to smoothen the shakes with a vibration reduction lens?

VR or IS helps but just a little bit.. even with all those fancy stabilizer like glidecam or motorize gimbal, camera shake still exist but not as much.. there is a proper walking technique such as bending your knees and walk slowly without thumping your feet (like a ninja walk ).. for handheld you can rest your elbow close to your body and let your body do the movement like what adrian11 did.. you can experiment with the lens focal length when taking video.. those who shot with long lens usually use tripod or monopod..

here is some example of explaining that you can't just simply walk however you want even with a body vest supporting arm with a motorize gimbal (a DJI Ronin) you can start watching at 12m20s for the walking and running explaination..

Man, thank you so much for the help!!!!

Actually, the reason i want to use high focal length is because in certain scenes, i want to play with the depth of field. I noticed that in some short films or MV (like 4:10 in the video below), the videographer tend to have a scene of close shot on the subject's face. Sometimes, it gets out of focus but the feel is there. Not sure if you get what i mean, but in order to get that effect, i tried to zoom in to my subject face but fail, too much camera shake. If i use tripod, then the floating effect is not there. SOmetimes i wonder how the videographer can lock on a subject with such a high focal length.

that look at 4m10s can be achieve by using lens with aperture (or iris) wide open like a prime lens at f/1.8 for example.. you will get that depth of field.. for that kind of shot probably they use a 24 or 50mm.. yes you can probably achieve the same look by zooming in @200mm with aperture of 4 or 5.6 but the shake will be like almost unusable footage unless your hands are super steady (even so @ 200mm a slight hands movement will show like someone bump you in the footage)..

Oh, i understand already. Usually do videographers need camera that can automatically focus the subject everytime the distance changes? I notice that i were to do it manually, most of the time i will overturn the focus ring and turn it back to find back the sweet spot. whereas if i were to half press the shutter button, the autofocus motor will generate noises which will be recorded into the video. How do you solve this issue? will something like this help?

Camera assistant / focus puller. The DP hold the cam and follow the subject and the 1st AC will pull focus on the rig itself or wireless. Depending on setup. We do not use autofocus cause its not accurate at most times if the camera is constantly moving and its noisy and choppy.

Its easy to overfocus on a DSLR lens , for example your Tamron lens because the focus throw is short compared to cinema lens that has a much longer focus throw and accurate focus by distance.

If you dont have a focus puller , what I can suggest you to do is focus on your subject and keep the distance between the camera and subject the same so the subject will be 'quite' in focus and dont have to keep adjusting focus.

As a 1st AC I can tell you pulling focus is not easy , I can judge distance by eye but not that 'accurate' yet.




This post has been edited by adrian11: Nov 9 2015, 08:17 PM

Focus puller is a luxury i cant afford yet
What i do is put lens on manual and use focus assist/ peaking.. And yup its not easy if camera constantly moving variable distance..

Wow, in the picture that you posted, is that the wireless focus puller? Look so cool!

Hmmm, is cinema lens what we call vdslr lens? Like samyang lenses. They dont seem to be similar as other lenses for some reason. Keep same distance while subject moves is never easy i suppose. You dont know how he will move and if both cameraman and actor is not in sync, then the shot is confirm gg right?

Luxury? Somehow the manual focus puller feels plasticky to me
Like can get from china at very cheap price. Other than marking some focus point, does it smoothen the turning of focus ring? I see most of the full setup comes with this, a screen, a light gun mount on a shoulder rig. Thinking of getting one, hopefully it can create the floating effect that i always wanted.

Cinema lens differ by having longer focus throw so chances of miss focus can be reduce and few other advantage over their dslr lens counterpart.. Furthermore the focus ring usually already fitted with standard gear that can fit standard pitch follow focus system.. No need extra gear strap like in the picture.. Planning your shot is essential to get in sync..

Even plasticky the price of a good china made follow focus also not cheap.. Cheaper one tend to have free play between gear which can lead to miss focus.. And believe me having a dedicated focus puller assistant will make your life easier if you have to focus on framing your shot while moving around (that is why i say luxury) wireless follow focus is not cheap..
If can why not you rent the equipment before deciding what to get.. For me i always shot with smaller aperture to keep thing in focus.. When i need depth i dont move much.. So focus puller are not needed for me now.. Maybe after improving my skill i will try a focus pull shot for cinematic feel i guess.. I am too still in a learning process.. this is just my opinion and not necessarily right.. Learning is a fun process..

Well i dont think i need a wireless follow focus now as i am just a beginner. I will play around with what i have first. And yeah, in time to come i might rent a few equipment to test out first

Thanks for the tip on increasing aperture! I almost forgot that videography and photography are similar hahah! Hmm, but i guess for now, i will practice focusing my subject with a 50mm f1.8 because i love how the depth of field can make a scene look so much more interesting.

Not sure if you have any experience in post-processing, but i would like to learn how to apply the film effect on my videos too. Do you know what softwares do all these videographers usually use? I am currently using sony vegas for video editing and lightroom for photo editing but i want to use vsco actions on video. Is that possible with sony vegas? or it can be done in lightroom?

i use premiere pro cc and color grade/correction (not sure these two are same or different term) using the new lumetri plug in.. i just do the standard shadow, mid and highlight.. not yet get the right feel for cinema look but i youtube all available resources not sure sony vegas though.. i choose for adobe CC solution because i work both on Mac and Windows system (1 account can install on both) with the CC storage i can work on vice versa.. for professional color correction usually i heard they use davinci resolve.. im still new to color correction though.. VSCO action im not sure if can use outside lightroom because currently they only support lightroom if im not mistaken..

Dont buy cheap follow focus , waste of money. Its cheaper to rent because follow focus is not very convenient and adds weight to the setup. If you are looking for a shoulder rig , cheap ones are fine for DSLR's.
Example : http://jag35.com/fieldrunner.html

I dont recommend cheap follow focus cause its not smooth, and will change focus when you let go of the focus wheel.

The picture I attached is a very expensive setup usually used for following shots , its a wireless monitor setup + follow focus + V-Mount. May cost more than RM20k for what you see in the picture. Thats where rental comes into play.


If you wanna practice floating shots , there's alot of ways to achieve it, not just shoulder rig. You can use a fluid head on tripod or monopod , just do a slight swirling motion on the cam and you can get a floating shot also.

For handheld , the way you hold the camera is very important, for me I use my left hand to hold the base of the camera (palm on the bottom) and use the fingers on my left hand to pull focus and my right hand on the grip. Holding your breathe will help to stabilise the shot.

There is no one way to do it, experiment and see what works best for you.
You dont need to have expensive setup to get the shot , it just makes it easier and more convenient.

KayFX I believe you can create VSCO color profile from the lightroom preset. I came across it the other day , but it only works on FCPX and Resolve

For my color grading I prefer to use Resolve to do it now, I have much more control compared to Premiere , but before this I have been using premiere also which works really well.

adrian11 thanks for the tips.. Is there any trial version of resolve? Have you try adobe speed grade? Trying to get the right feel for cinema look.. I'll try to google around how to create and use the vsco color profile in premiere.. There must be a way..

Have a look at this , they make it into a LUT preset , but this is done in FCPX. Im pretty sure Premiere Pro supports 3D LUTS too.
http://www.zainals.com/fcpx-2/vsco-film-fcpx/

I have SpeedGrade on my mac, but havent found time to open it to try it yet.

Davinci Resolve 12 is a free software , but the Studio version needs to be paid for. I am using the free version at the moment to color grade my 4K Raw files, it works really well cause I can apply Gamma's and LUTS on it. Also useful for compiling Raw .DNG files to smaller proxies for offline edits.
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

Resolve 12 may be one of the best free softwares out there now.

Have a look at AVID Media Composer , according to one of my editors who worked in Hollywood , he say this is one of the best softwares hollywood editors are using now. I have not tried it yet. Not sure if there is a free trial. Its like the much improved version on Premiere Pro.