Filming myself (on purpose...)

[soren k jensen]

I shall be filming myself walking around empty schools, narrating and guiding the audience through my one-man documentaries on learning. I am using my Flyer, Varizom wired remote focus/iris/zoom and HVX200 plus two wireless sennheiser lavaliers and a small onboard light. I'll be moving from closeups of myself moving through the places, to views of empty rooms and schoolyards. I plan to use dissolves during whip pans as transition between locations.

 

Any advice, apart from practicing and planning it thoroughly ;-)

 

best, soren

Edited April 20, 2007 by soren k jensen

[Brian Dzyak]

Have a hair and makeup person standing by. :)

[soren k jensen]

Thanks Brian,

actually a very good idea, will do!

 

(...rummages through kitchen utensils and hacksaws...' hrm, a diy project with no money and a host in desperate need of an extreme makeover, how to do? -Sounds of nipping and tucking, ouch. 'I am ready for my closeup', pans to face...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhh) -sorta like the experience you sometimes get from other diy projects ;-)

 

best, soren

[Rob Vuona SOC]

I shall be filming myself walking around empty schools, narrating and guiding the audience through my one-man documentaries on learning. I am using my Flyer, Varizom wired remote focus/iris/zoom and HVX200 plus two wireless sennheiser lavaliers and a small onboard light. I'll be moving from closeups of myself moving through the places, to views of empty rooms and schoolyards. I plan to use dissolves during whip pans as transition between locations.

 

Any advice, apart from practicing and planning it thoroughly ;-)

 

best, soren

-----------------------

Makeup artist on standby . . . LOL . . . .good advice . . .LOL . . .

 

Maybe a POV camera with a wide angle lens or a fisheye attached to back of your rig or attached to your vest eliminating the whip pan might work better for ya . . .LOL . .

 

Love to see the finished product . . LOL . . .

[Peter Abraham]

An interesting idea, actually. Most folks are more flattering looking when photographed from an angle. Flying the rig properly affords you this angle. Were I to plan such a project, I would take the HVX-200 and mount it NOT in line with the sled, but angled straight at my face. That is to say that the camera body itself was sitting crooked on the sled. So what? It should balance up okay that way, we just never DO it that way.

 

Then, you have your monitor to look down at now and again. Remember, the flip-out LCD will be mostly hidden by the lens if you do this. You will need to simply rely upon aiming the sled straight ahead to keep yourself in the shot, and use the Flyer monitor when you can glance down.

 

A few experimental tries will yield an angle of mounting the camera that will give you a good shot of your face, as you do this walking tour and will allow you to operate the sled properly.

 

Try that !!

 

Best,

 

Peter Abraham

Director of Technical Services

The Tiffen Company

New York

[Peter Abraham]

Oh- I forgot- PLEASE get some photos taken of you shooting this if you do go for the "off-axis" approach.

[RobVanGelder]

Once I did a test with a 360 degrees camera on my rig, at that time connected with a multi-cable to a computer, but I think this is perfected to more portable use nowadays.

 

It's a camera that looks straight up, into a chrome sphere that reflects the world around it, and the operator as well.

Then in the computer this image is stretched and straightened and it gives a 360 shot.

 

It's a "different" view, I'm not sure if it is very nice to look at for a longer time, but for effect it was interesting.

The only major issue is the level,any tilting or rolling is visible as a major "wave" in the horizon: what you tilt down on one side is tilted up on the other and that is highly visible.

[soren k jensen]

Thanks all for the very good ideas! It will be a month or two before I do the shots, but I'll try to make some stills and post the result on youtube and link from here. Mounting the camera like Peter suggests is a great idea: it will allow for framing while walking, and when i pan to film forward I'll see the flipped out lcd.

 

I cannot show you anything from the actual documentaries yet for various reasons. -One of them being that some of the kids are taking the Jackass style a little too literally -scary stuff they've filmed themselves!

 

I found this for 360 degrees, actually a nice idea, maybe best suited for classroom or kindergarten static recording: http://www.ptgrey.com/products/ladybug2/samples.asp

 

-and a funny lofi diy here: http://videothing.blogspot.com/2005/05/my-...experiment.html

 

Rob, if you get to Chiang Mai, check out my friend Lasse's art gallery there, and say hi from Soren:

http://www.lalunagallery.com/

 

best, soren

Edited April 25, 2007 by soren k jensen

[Imran Naqvi]

Remember, the flip-out LCD will be mostly hidden by the lens if you do this.

 

Not if you switch to goofy