8 Things Actors Should Know About Shooting Their Own Work Cheaply
Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to
spend the 5:45 watching it.
The equipment is not what makes it look good
His whole thesis, from someone who normally shoots on high-end cinema cameras. Captivating work comes from the person making it and from using what is available properly. He shot the video making that argument on an old iPhone.
The first and most important fix. Video sensors perform well in lit environments and badly in the dark, so the cheapest improvement available to you is putting light on the subject rather than buying a better camera.
Learn one camera properly, including its weaknesses
Knowing what a body can and cannot do is what lets you plan around it. He shot a full music video on a seven hundred dollar mirrorless with its stock lens, having worked out in advance exactly where it would fall down.
Performance at 24 frames per second, slow motion B roll at 120. On an older body that could not shoot 60, he shot at 24 and created the slow motion in post instead. The limitation dictated the technique rather than the result.
A very high shutter speed plus camera movement conceals the rolling shutter that mirrorless and DSLR bodies produce. Every cheap camera has a known artifact, and most of them have a known workaround.
With no budget for a kit, he took the hood off a lamp already in the studio and used it as his key. Overhead lights switched on and off by hand became a strobe effect. A flashlight made the lens flares.
Low light produced noise in the footage, so he overlaid film grain on top of it. Once the texture reads as a choice, nobody reads it as a fault. That principle covers a great deal of low-budget production.
He shows a before and an after and lets the difference make the argument. Of everything on this list it is the cheapest step, it happens after the shoot, and it is the one people skip.
What's up all you amazing people, I'm Matt Alonzo, and in this video I'm going to show you how to make your pocket camera look like a red. Now a lot of the times people look at their cheap cameras and think to themselves, there is no way I can make something look professional with this camera. But I'm going to let you in on a little secret. It's all about learning your equipment and how to use it properly and utilizing all the resources in your environment. Captivating art comes from talented and amazing artists, not expensive equipment. Now guess what I shot this video with? Now did you guess a pocket camera? Well you'd be wrong, it was actually an iPhone. The pocket camera video is coming later. The iPhone 5 that I used couldn't even shoot 4K and the video sensor was nowhere near as good as a modern day iPhone. First I lit my foreground. Now video sensors normally work best in a lit environment, not in the dark. Second I hid the footage quality with some stylized editing. Now check this other video I shot with a Canon 5D Mark II. The Canon 5D Mark II couldn't even shoot 60 frames per second, so I shot everything in 24. Then I used Twixtor to create all the slow motion time ramps. Now let's talk about the modern day pocket camera. These small mirrorless cameras didn't even exist not too long ago. Now the mirrorless camera that I used for this next video was the Sony A6300. The camera is only $700. Now this video was more of an experiment to test out the camera's capabilities. And take note, I actually used the stock lens that came with the camera. Now normally I shoot on RED and ALEXIS, but for this particular video I went in with no budget and I chose to shoot on this camera because I knew I could make it look comparable. The Sony A6300 is a great camera, but no camera is perfect. So I needed to make sure that I learned the camera so I could maximize all its capabilities and at the same time make sure I knew its weaknesses. Now by learning the camera, I knew it could shoot in multiple frame rates. So I chose to shoot all my slow motion B-roll in 120 frames per second. Now for my performances, I shot at 24 frames per second. I used an extremely high shutter speed and camera movement to hide the rolling shutter effect that you normally see with mirrorless or DSLR cameras. Now to give the video the Mad Alonzo touch, I used a flashlight to create lens flares. Now for this particular video, the only lighting that I had was practical lighting in the studio. So in the studio I found a lamp, which I took the hood off and used as my key light. Now for the overhead lights, I created a strobe effect by having my buddy turn the lights on and off. Now I have to give Sony so much credit. Their low price camera models are way better than you'd think, even in low light conditions. To enhance this video, I did a few things in post as well. I used the echo effect in Premiere to add a seamless element to the transitions. I feel like this is the underused effect and it's right in Premiere. No plugins needed. Now you have to understand, I was shooting in a low light environment and there was some noise on the footage, but what I did was overlaid some grain to make it look intentional. And lastly, do not underestimate the importance of color grading. This is the before and this is the after. We have come to the end of the video. I hope everybody enjoyed themselves and learned a few things. If there's any tips or tricks that I forgot, please leave them in a comment below. I will definitely check those out. Make sure to follow me on Instagram, on Twitter, at MattAlonzo, and as Josh says, keep it chill. Shout out to Matt for another incredible video. I'm not sure if you guys noticed my new intro I'm trying out. I used my favorite transition pack and title pack from my friends at VideoHive.net. Links to those packs below. And lastly, leave your name and location on my Instagram, madebyolufemi, and I promise to give your profile a little peek.
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