If you missed Part I of our blog, we suggest you click here to find out what we’ve been up to. And then come back to see how we did it…
Our challenge was to create an engaging POV video to promote the Goodfella’s, Alton Towers and Thorpe Park promotion. The aim was to create a video that engages, and delivers in both quality and commerciality.
A shoot like this isn’t just a case of turning up, turning the camera on and hoping for the best. We planned the shoot over the period of a month, ensuring we had the best storyline possible that would show the customer experience from pizza purchase to taking in all the park has to offer.
In this blog we’ll focus on a few smaller technical decisions that helped our videographers Chris and Will (me) create a POV video that was both immersive, engaging and fun!
One of the challenges that we faced was that we needed to use both a DSLR and a GoPro to capture what was required for the final video. We needed to ensure that the field of view was similar on both cameras, so that the footage flowed well together. To do this we used a 16-35mm lens on the DSLR, using the lens at its widest and taping the lens to ensure that there was no movement between shots. The other issue we had with using different cameras was the colour profiling difference. To overcome this we set the colour profile of the DSLR and GoPro as flat as possible, knowing that in post this would give us the best shot and colour correcting the footage and creating the continuity we required, working from a blank canvas.
So the cameras are setup so the footage from both cameras look as similar as possible. Now we need to make sure the the footage has a POV style, to do this we used a few pieces of extra kit. For the GoPro we used a chest mount, set high up the chest in attempt to mimic where the DSLR footage would be filmed from but also we could capture footage with hands and arms in so that we could bring gestures and movement into the film to help create that immersive feel we wanted to nail.
As for the heavy DSLR, we used a gimbal. We operated the gimbal from one hand so that we could use the other to interact with the environment around. Again we did this to create that immersive feel. The gimbal was versatile and allowed us to imitate head movements, creating shots that move focus as new elements come into shot. We captured more cinematic moments where the camera was focusing on the environment through means of soft pans in all directions. This was important as GoPro footage can sometimes look amateurish, but when it’s mixed in with more stable and compositionally thought out movements it works well.
Anyway, our video is entering its final stages so we suggest you check back again soon to see what we came up with… and give Goodfella’s Pizzas a follow to see more of the story. Oh and go buy a pizza or two so you can enjoy your own Good Day Out!