contents contents
full screenprintcontentsfull screenprint42 VIDEOMAKER >>> NOVEMBER 2019
the camera, keeping the zoom the same (fi gures
8-10). Zooming the camera changes the focal
length of the lens, which can introduce wide-an-
gle distortion or changes in the apparent depth
of fi eld. For this reason, it’s often more prefer-
able to dolly than to zoom.WHY DO THIS? My favorite dolly move in cin-
ema history is Alfred Hitchcock’s long dolly shot
at the end of “Frenzy.” You can fi nd the scene onYouTube. I won’t spoil it by telling you what hap-
pens, but the camera starts inside a house and
then dollys backwards, down a staircase, out into
a street, and then off into the city. What does this
tell us? That while something extremely impor-
tant happened, it’s just one story in a world of
stories. Hitchcock’s shot, with a gigantic camera
and a huge crew, frantically moving dolly tracks
out of the shot as the camera moved backwards
was groundbreaking in its day, but with today’s
lightweight cameras it could be done by a single
camera operator.TRUCK: Trucking is like dollying, but it involves
motion left or right. Truck left means “move the
camera physically to the left while maintaining
its perpendicular relationship.” This is not to be
confused with a pan, where the camera remains
fi rmly on its axis while the lens turns to one
direction or the other. You might truck left to
stay with a pedestrian as she walks down a street
rather than using a pan, which would show her
back after she passed the camera.WHY DO THIS? You’d truck if you want your
camera to subject distance to stay the same. You
might, for example, truck the camera parallel to
a person walking down the street to keep them
in the frame. Lots of trucking in movies is done
from the window of an actual truck. So this isn’t
a bad way to remember it. In the training mon-
tage in the 1976 Best Picture Academy Award
Winner, “Rocky,” directed by John G. Avildsen,
there’s a truck shot — from a truck — following
the titular character along the waterfront as he
runs. The trucking shot allows the viewer to stay
with Rocky and see how fast he’s actually going
— he’s fast!The fancy camera moves
Now that you understand the basics, here are
few more advanced moves. Some of these usu-
ally require the use of a steady device and one or
two crew members to execute smoothly.HANDHELD SHOOTING: Sometimes the ac-
tion is moving too quickly or too unpredictably
for the camera to be on a tripod. This calls for
making the camera more mobile and able to
follow the action of a scene. Most times the
camera will simply be held by the operator,
who will then employ a number of basic cam-
era moves by moving the feet, dollying in and
out, trucking in one direction or another, tilting,
panning, zooming, and performing combina-
tions of all of these.SHOOTING NOVEMBER 2019 SHOOTING
Figure 5Figure 6Figure 7390 C02 Shooting.indd 42 9/24/19 2:21 PMVIDEOMAKER >>> NOVEMBER 2019 43
YouTube. I won’t spoil it by telling you what hap-
pens, but the camera starts inside a house and
then dollys backwards, down a staircase, out into
a street, and then off into the city. What does this
tell us? That while something extremely impor-
tant happened, it’s just one story in a world of
stories. Hitchcock’s shot, with a gigantic camera
and a huge crew, frantically moving dolly tracks
out of the shot as the camera moved backwards
was groundbreaking in its day, but with today’s
lightweight cameras it could be done by a single
camera operator.TRUCK: Trucking is like dollying, but it involves
motion left or right. Truck left means “move the
camera physically to the left while maintaining
its perpendicular relationship.” This is not to be
confused with a pan, where the camera remains
firmly on its axis while the lens turns to one
direction or the other. You might truck left to
stay with a pedestrian as she walks down a street
rather than using a pan, which would show her
back after she passed the camera.WHY DO THIS? You’d truck if you want your
camera to subject distance to stay the same. You
might, for example, truck the camera parallel to
a person walking down the street to keep them
in the frame. Lots of trucking in movies is done
from the window of an actual truck. So this isn’t
a bad way to remember it. In the training mon-
tage in the 1976 Best Picture Academy Award
Winner, “Rocky,” directed by John G. Avildsen,
there’s a truck shot — from a truck — following
the titular character along the waterfront as he
runs. The trucking shot allows the viewer to stay
with Rocky and see how fast he’s actually going
— he’s fast!The fancy camera moves
Now that you understand the basics, here are
few more advanced moves. Some of these usu-
ally require the use of a steady device and one or
two crew members to execute smoothly.HANDHELD SHOOTING: Sometimes the ac-
tion is moving too quickly or too unpredictably
for the camera to be on a tripod. This calls for
making the camera more mobile and able to
follow the action of a scene. Most times the
camera will simply be held by the operator,
who will then employ a number of basic cam-
era moves by moving the feet, dollying in and
out, trucking in one direction or another, tilting,
panning, zooming, and performing combina-
tions of all of these.WHY DO THIS? Handheld shooting
can be very bouncy, giving the viewer
a sometimes subtle feeling that they’re
watching news or a documentary.
Check out the handheld shooting in
the 2008 horror flick “Cloverfield;” the
goal of this isn’t to be fancy, but rather
to make the audience believe the
movie was shot by an amateur and is
therefore more real.FLOATING CAM OR STABILIZED
SHOT: The Steadicam was invented
in 1971 by Philadelphia native Garrett
Brown and famously used in the jog-
ging sequence in “Rocky” and exten-
sively with exceptional effect in the
Kubrick masterpiece, “The Shining.” It
uses a series of counterweights — and
gyroscopes on more-expensive mod-
els — to keep a handheld camera’s
motion very smooth. Although the
term “Steadicam” is used often, this
is a trademark name belonging to the
Merlin company. Similar to Kleenex
for tissues, we call the devices that are
non-Steadicam stabilizers.
A more modern alternative to the
sled-and-vest set up popularized
by the Steadicam and GlideCam is
the 3-axis motorized gimbal. When
gimbals like the Freefly MoVI M5 and
DJI Ronin came out, they offered an
affordable, versatile alternative to
larger stabilizing rigs. Today motorized
gimbals are everywhere.WHY USE IT? A Steadicam or 3-axis
gimbal gives you the freedom of
shooting handheld while keeping your
shot perfectly stable, eliminating the
distracting shake that often occurs
when your camera is unsupported.
Think of Garret Brown’s famous
steadicam shot of the little boy riding
the Big Wheel from Stanley Kubrick’s
1980 masterpiece “The Shining.”CRANE/JIB: A crane can be used to lift
a camera — and operator, if it’s big
enough — from low to high shoot-
ing positions. Less expensive jibs can
support the weight of a camera and
lift it several feet off of the ground
(figures 5-7). Sometimes a crane will
be called a boom, but the boom termSHOOTING
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FullPageAD_NEWTemplate.indd 48 1/18/19 3:36 PMMaster:
Choosing a Music Video Genre
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Contracts for Music Videos
Pre-Production for Music Videos
Directing Music Video Shoots
Editing Music VideoFind the right concept and your video will appeal to audiences and show off the music to its best
ability. But that's only the first step. You'll also need to understand the nuts and bolts of putting the
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Learn more at: videomaker.com/VideosThatRock390 C02 Shooting.indd 43 Music_videos_DVD.indd 1 9/24/19 2:21 PM3/16/2017 8:46:52 AM