Transcription
It is fantastic to be back. I know it's been a long time, but I just want to say thank you for sticking with me.
Uh, in this video, I have a lot of stuff packed in. The best stuff I know for teaching how to get better results with with 360 cameras. And especially right now, some of the biggest sales of the year are going on with the anti-gravity A1 360 drone and the Insta3 products. There is some urgency because there's some limited time offers. So, head to the description for the links on all of that info. Let's get into it.
You can immediately improve the quality of your 360 filming with some really simple tips. And I don't see other people really talking about this. And honestly, I don't know why because the best part is is once you learn these techniques, they can keep helping you improve video after video. So if you learn them once, they will just help all of your 360 filming going forward. And a lot of these originate from mistakes. So things that I used to do that I now no longer do because I've realized they don't get the best results.
So, the first big mistake I made while using these cameras is I simply held the camera too high when I wanted to be filming myself. Now, I definitely found when I was starting that I thought because it's filming in all directions, I should put the camera high up. But something I find looks a lot better is if you keep the camera kind of out from the center of whatever it is you're focusing on. And oftentimes if you're using the selfie stick, the focus matter of the shot is actually the people in it yourself. So it looks a lot better to keep the camera closer to chest height when you're exploring around and looking at the different things that you're seeing. And if you put the camera high up like this and you try to reframe the shot to show me, it's going to create more distortion and kind of that spherical globe like tiny planet look. Now, that's certainly an aesthetic and it's creative, but if that's not the look you're going for, you can think, "What? Why does all my 360 footage look like I'm trapped in a fishbowl?" If you place the camera high up, it's going to be looking from a bird's eye perspective. However, of course, with any of these ideas or mistakes, there's a thousand reasons why you might want to break that rule. Maybe you're trying to get a drone feeling shot, and in that case, grab one of the 3 m sticks and send the camera way up into the air and start swinging it around. And that's a great idea for getting something that feels like a drone. So this head space of how do we get dron like results out of a 360 handheld camera and action camera is a lot of the way I think this. But it also is vice versa where if you're flying now a drone that films in 360, the principles also translate over in a really cool way. Let me show you just exactly what I mean. Because if you're shooting with a drone or an action camera, this idea is really important for both. And let me just show you an example. So, out of these two shots, which do you prefer? They're different for a reason, and we'll get to that. But how about between these two? When you look at these two shots, is there a preference?
So, now, of course, with a drone, you can get these really high up aerial shots. And that's a mistake I see people make is that because they can fly up high, they film everything from high up. And of course, an establishing shot is a useful perspective, but once you have one of these, getting 10 more of them, they all kind of start to feel the same. So that's why I think you should focus a lot more of your efforts on getting proximity to your actual subject matter. And this is where I've been incredibly limited with just an action camera is I swing it around on the longest selfie stick I have, but I still can't follow along the subject matter once it leaves the reach of my stick. And sometimes this is incredibly frustrating because I know I could have this incredible shot, but it's just I'm limited by being tied to the ground and I can't fly after the subject matter and actually keep up with them and continue the shot.
So, the way I think about this actually is if I'm flying a drone, I try to emulate what I do when I use action cameras, which is get nice and close down into the action, show the subject matter, move around it, and that's where there's a lot of obvious synergy here. If you combine both tools together, you can make these sequences where you get these really cool long follow shots, and then you get really immersive perspectives with point of view angles, and then you can create these sequences that merge really well together. And from a practical perspective, when you're out actually filming, sometimes it's just not reasonable to use one or the other. So then you're forced. But still, I often find try when you're using an action camera to make it feel like a drone. And when you're using a drone, try to make it feel like an action camera. I think that's a really effective way to be thinking about this.
But a problem we still have is I hear from so many people that they don't even know what angles or shots to be grabbing in the first place. The most important foundation here and the thing I'm so excited about is my favorite technique of all time. I promise this will be one of the most high value skills you can learn with 360. And you'll see as we move through this video how important this foundation is so we can stack these skills together and improve every aspect about what it is that you're creating.
When you hit record on a 360 camera, it is always filming in every direction. And so that means for every single shot of video you capture, you're actually capturing an infinite possibility of reframe shots. And because the camera has lenses on both sides, it's filming in all directions. And if there's a stick in the middle, it simply just disappears. And that's what creates the floating camera look. So now whenever you pick up the selfie stick, you get a camera that just follows you around as if you're not actually using a selfie stick, which makes end results that look kind of impossible to capture. Because it films in all directions, it really opens up some really creative possibilities for mounting the camera. You will guaranteed get lots of questions from people of how did you record that shot?
So, as we get into the technique, I also have an accessory deep dive video coming up on the channel where I basically unpack every single accessory that I actually use and find incredibly helpful for filming in 360. So, make sure you hit subscribe and turn on those notifications if you want to receive that video and all the helpful information inside of it.
What do I film when I'm actually out there with these cameras? I'm feeling completely overwhelmed. I just have no idea where to actually put the camera when I'm filming. I don't like my results. This technique will help solve that for you. By far, the number one way I'm using this camera is on a selfie stick. It is a really powerful way for moving these 360 cameras through physical space. And that is the best part about a selfie stick is that it's attached to your hand. And your hand means you can move it to any physical position in relation to the subject that you're filming to get some really awesome results. I developed a technique I call the 360 compass to help remind myself when I'm out in the field to actually be moving the camera in a way that's going to get me the final result I actually want to see on my phone and on my computer. Now, instead of just holding it out directly in front of you at 0°, my most typical position would actually be about 45° offset from the direction that I or the subject is traveling. And what I recommend for most people for getting a unique variety of shots is actually moving through different degrees on this compass to assemble different shot perspectives for the final way you want to edit it together. And what I like about this is that you can approach this from two different ways. You can hold the camera on one perspective for a while, actually just physically hold it steady there, and then move to the next position. Or you can imagine floating the camera through different degrees on the compass, holding at different ones for a little bit, smoothly moving through the next and imagining that your camera is like a drone that is following you. And how would that actually fly around you in a smooth pattern so that way you can reframe it later and have this really beautiful camera move. I find this is a really helpful way to break up how you're thinking about actually holding the stick as you're doing it is that instead of just like holding it out from you in any position, try to imagine what's happening in the background. What place could I put this camera that would show the background and me in a way that's interesting? Maybe I can slowly reveal the background. And this is something that I want you to keep thinking about as you're out using it. It's not just a basic selfie stick. It's actually one of the most creative tools you can use because you are now the camera movement director and you can do some really awesome techniques.
So far, the examples that we've used are focusing on filming yourself. But just because it's a selfie stick does not mean that you can't use it to film other people. And I actually do this all of the time. A lot of the finished shots that end up in my story films over on YouTube are just simply me holding a selfie stick to put the camera in the spot I want it to be for a period of time. And the cool part here is that you can pass it off to anyone. I'm often passing the selfie stick to my wife or here's an example where I'm passing it to my friend Levi. His first time ever using a 360 camera is this shot that you're seeing right now. I just told him to simply walk up behind us holding the stick. Another thing that I like to do is that you can simply hold the camera above you. And again, because of the flow state stabilization, if you just walk in a straight line, just recording with the camera above your head, you then instantly get a hyperlapse ready video clip that you can speed up and have this awesome hyperlapse style camera movement that took zero effort to create.
Not protecting the lens. It's just one of the realities of using these cameras. The lenses stick out when you place it down, when you put it places, it's the first thing that's going to come in contact with the ground. And so it's not okay to simply just put it in your bag without a cover on. It's not okay to wipe it off with your t-shirt. You want to protect these lenses like the shot depends on it. And this actually has a lot of layers that I think about while I'm filming. So if you've spent your day filming with this camera and you're snowboarding or you're on a jet ski and you're in an environment where there's particles, you're going to want to be cleaning the lens midactivity. That's just a reality of using these cameras. If you get a water speck on there, it might just seem like a small little dot, but when you go to reframe that shot, it's going to look really big in your shot later. So, a habit to start to develop with these cameras is regularly while using them, I am looking at the lens and seeing if there's any debris, dirt, water, dust, smudges from grease on my fingers on the lens itself. But if you build up the habit of protecting it and cleaning it, you're going to have a way better user experience.
Engaging in the comments to me is what makes uh this YouTube channel so exciting and I read every single one of them. So please if you're finding this stuff helpful, let me know what is actually helpful and what your next questions are. So then I can keep creating more new videos to help you and me and everyone uh improve their film making. So next I want to show you where this building of the skills starts to occur where taking the 360 compass approach and applying it to actually mounting the cameras into different locations and using accessories. That's where this stuff really starts to become gold for your entire approach. If you find I'm going too fast in this video, I've actually written down all of this information with links to my favorite accessories and tools and settings tips all into a free PDF guide for 360 filming that you can grab in the description to just help you learn this stuff in the most effective way possible.
Okay, now the fun part of actually looking at some examples of what this looks like to do in practice. And there's some specific things that I actually want you to take note of. For the first example, here is a boat ride I did with my family, and I wanted to collect a series of shots from different perspectives. So, instead of just holding it in one spot, the entire boat ride, I kept moving the camera through different positions on a compass like we talked about, keeping in mind what was in the background. Some of them I'm really happy with, and some of them are just kind of okay. But this is the really exciting process of trying to collect a series of shots that you can then edit into a sequence, having lots of different coverage.
In this example, I want you to take note of what it looks like to actually do a long continuous shot. I'm trying to get good moments from while I'm out snowboarding. So, I start kind of at that 45° angle. And honestly, I'm focusing mostly on snowboarding here cuz I'm trying to have a great run. But then once I feel that I've captured a shot or a moment or two that I'm happy with, I'll try to move the camera to a new perspective and do it in a smooth way. So that way I don't have to cut the camera and it does it's not all shaky. I can actually just have it be one continuous shot.
Now I'm hoping at this point of me showing you some examples, you're starting to notice one thing I do repeatedly while capturing these shots, which is flipping the camera over my head on my shoulder. So I kind of rest it over the back like I'm holding a knapsack on on a hiking pole or something and then I flip it forward. And if you use the Insta3 app or studio, you can track the subject matter and it will do the transition automatically just immediately for you. I really like this style of transition where the shot doesn't ever have an edit point, but it's massively shifting over to a new perspective in a kind of flashy format here. So, this is something that I do very frequently and I really like doing and I strongly recommend you give this style of kind of flipping the camera back and forth shot a try.
But of course, all of this applies to actually flying a drone as well. I spend so much time trying to emulate a drone shot with a 360 action camera that often times the drone is actually the better tool. And the ways that we use these are actually transferable. This is the anti-gravity A1, the world's first 8K 360 filming drone. And I find the most exciting shots out of the flying platform is not when I just fly in one direction in relation to my subject matter, but when I fly dynamically around it like the 360 compass. So this becomes really effective when you have a moving subject matter, someone on a bike, a moving vehicle. Like if you can actually physically place the drone in different degrees around the compass, around the subject matter you're filming, those reframe shots and the relation of the background to your subject are incredible. So don't just follow in one boring perspective actually move around in different degrees of the compass and then when you autotrack that footage later, the end result is really dynamic without needing to be stressed about framing the camera while you're actually flying.
If you don't have an anti-gravity A1 or if you've never flown one and you want to try one, I can't recommend it enough. It is an incredible, completely unique flying experience. It's unlike any flying camera platform that I've ever used. And it really is when you put the goggles on, an entirely fresh way to experience flying cameras. >> Wow. >> Do you understand now why it's like hard to describe what this is like? >> Yes. And so from our sponsor of this video, if you don't have a 360 drone or if you want to upgrade your camera, the biggest sale of the year is going on right now as this video is live. So check out the links in the description. And if you weren't aware, I partnered with Insta3 to create a free master class teaching you all things 360 in even more detail. So if you're enjoying this material, a lot of it is picked and chosen from some of these sessions. And if you want to go even deeper, it's free. It's great education. I'm really proud of it. I'd love for you to experience it. The link is in the description as well.
It happens sometimes where I just mount the camera in one spot and record from that position all day and then later I go, why don't I have dynamic feeling coverage? I could Levi told me I could reframe 10 shots for every single shot, but the stuff just feels boring and static after the third or fourth shot. And that's where the big advantage of these cameras is you can move them around and place them and mount them in really unique spots. And so there's an idea here that I want to introduce to you, which is the camera itself. You want to place it in relation to your subject matter. And not just in relation to your subject matter, but then in relation to your subject matter, and the background. So those three variables, the camera, the subject, the background, if you tweak them and experiment, you might realize that they have a drastically different feel. For example, if you're filming a bike and you have it mounted on your head, the distance from the ground you are traveling on is quite far. So, you might not feel the shot has the speed it felt to actually be doing the activity yourself. Where if you bring that camera down to let's say a chest height or a mouth mount, you might find that that perspective is a lot more immersive and kind of feels more what you were expecting the shot to look like. And the same thing goes for cars or motorcycles. Again, my instincts tell me place the camera high up so it sees everything. But it's really cool, in fact, to bring the camera way lower to the surface you're traveling on. And then you get a really good sense of the speed and the blur of the ground as it moves by, which is really exciting. So, just because we are filming in 360° does not mean we just place it one spot and just don't care. The goal is to get dynamic shots that feel exciting, that tell a good story, and you can use best later. So, help yourself out while you're recording. Spend a couple moments just thinking, "Hey, where is the most unique spot I could place this camera while I'm doing this activity, while I'm capturing this memory?" And you're going to thank yourself a thousand times later when we go to review the footage.
When we're mounting the camera, we want to lower it down more than at least my initial reaction or tendency is. So, we might say, "Hey, we've mounted it. Let's put it all the way up. Good to go. Often times, again, like we talked about, we want to have the camera outwards from the main subject we're trying to show in the shot. That might mean bringing the camera down more than you expect for getting the ideal perspective. And we're doing this to both reduce distortion in the horizon, but also ideally getting the best perspective that's right in the heart of the action and shows motion really well. One of the biggest mistakes I noticed in my own personal use cases, no matter how awesome the camera angle that I mounted with whatever accessory that I was using, if I got a great angle, I had this tendency to just want to leave it in that exact spot for the whole activity. Like this sequence I just showed you isn't that interesting shot to shot. But if we just added some diversity of camera angles, now it starts to feel like we have a sequence that we can actually work with when we go to edit this stuff. So, how do I choose what these angles should be? In the same way that when we use a selfie stick, we want to move the camera to these different perspectives around the subject matter. This also applies if we're mounting the camera to objects using accessories. So, if I'm filming something like a bike, I will mount the camera to a shot that I think is going to look great, and then once I feel I have enough footage of that, I will move them out to a new spot. Sometimes these shots just delight you and they work out fantastic and other times they're kind of just not that great and they're a bit of a miss. It's hard to tell sometimes, but it's definitely exciting when all of the elements line up and the motion is good and the sun comes through the trees and you just feel like you got away with a really awesome shot. That is something that's really fun for me when we mount these 360 cameras to all these different perspectives while we're out doing activities. I highly recommend just be experimental here because sometimes you might be really surprised the unique combinations of placement, activity, and speed that just make awesome 360 shots.
I think sometimes the best thing you can do for your 360 filming is to just throw yourself into an adventure where you have to figure it out as you go. It's like when you're in your head and you're overwhelmed and you don't know what shots to grab and you don't know and you're just like you see stuff online and you go, "Wow, that stuff looks amazing. I don't know if I could capture the FOMO, you know, it's like the comparison. It just can be a lot, right? So, actually just getting out there yourself and having a go is the best way to actually digest and learn these lessons for yourself for improving for years to come for whatever it is you make. I'm such a fan of just getting out there and trying to make. I think that's the best thing you can do. If you want to see the ways I use these cameras in my actual adventure films, I've got a playlist for you. But that's it for this video. Remember, life's better when you make stuff.