Transcription
These are the five most common mistakes that I see beginner real estate videographers make. And in this video, I'm going to show you how to avoid them and immediately improve your skills as a real estate videographer. Mastering these five concepts took my real estate videos from good to great. And I've seen the same results in other real estate videographers who have applied these steps. And don't sleep on this because real estate videos are only getting better. You don't want to fall behind. So, without further explanation, let's get into the five mistakes beginner real estate videographers make.
Starting with mistake number one, not mastering the fundamentals. If you were to study my own real estate videos, you would discover that all of them are 90% comprised of these same four fundamental shots, just executed very, very well. If you can master these four fundamental shots, it's not only going to improve the quality of your videos, but it's also going to give you structure and confidence while you're shooting on site. The four fundamental shots are as follows. You've got the wide straight push shot, which is pretty self-explanatory, but it's simply point A to point B is a nice straight line shot on a wide lens. Shot number two is the wide curve push. Now, this is very similar to the wide straight push, but this time we're adding a curve. Point A to point B is a curved line. And this is really great for showcasing the flow from different spaces. Shot number three is the parallax shot. Now, this shot is great for transitions. It consists of having a subject in the middle of your frame and curving around that subject while keeping it continuously in the center of your composition. And finally, fundamental shot number four is the detail shot. The detail shot is essential for showcasing specific details and features of the property. And it's a great way to make your real estate videos more entertaining and engaging. I see so many beginner and intermediate real estate videographers just want to rush into the creative shots, the shots that are meant to make people go, "Oh my goodness, what was that?" The shots that you see, you know, some of your favorite creators do. But if you cannot first master the fundamental shots, you will not be able to properly execute on the creative shots.
Which brings me to mistake number two, and that is not perfecting the ninja walk. Smooth footage is the most important component for high quality real estate videos. If your footage is shaky, you will look like an amateur. Now, hear me when I say this. Upgrading your gimbal will not fix your shaky footage. When it comes to smooth footage, it is all about your technique, all about the Ninja Walk. I made this same mistake early on in my journey as a real estate videographer. I was originally shooting on the DJI Ronin S and my footage was well shaky. I was a beginner at the point. I thought that if I upgraded to the RS3 Pro, it was going to solve all my problems. However, when I finally got my RS3 Pro and I went out to shoot, I came back into the edit, looked at my footage, and it was still shaky because the truth was I hadn't nailed my ninja walk.
So, here's my three-step guide to perfecting the ninja walk. Step one is to have your knees bent and your elbows tucked into your side. And as you're walking, you want to make sure you step heel toe. You want to think about absorbing any sort of bounce or shake or jitter as you're walking and keep the camera isolated from your body. Now, step number two is super underrated and this is where most people fail and that is when you're doing your ninja walk, you want to lean forward slightly. What most people do is they stand up too straight and so their center of gravity is over top of their feet. So even though their knees are bent and they're stepping heel toe, what's happening is their weight is shifting on each step left and right. And that's what causes a lot of that side to side movement in your footage. Most people don't struggle with the up and down. They struggle with the side to side. So if you lean forward, that's going to move your center of gravity. So as you walk, your momentum is going to carry you forward. And as you step, you're not going to be bobbing from side to side. you're going to stay nice and center and your camera won't sway left and right. Now, the third and final step is to add some pace into your walk. Now, you don't want to be running or even speedwalking, but you do want to be moving at a moderately quick pace because if you're moving quickly, piggybacking off of point number two, this will help carry your momentum forward and you will see less shakes in your footage. If you're walking too slow and getting hyperfocused on keeping your camera perfectly smooth, you won't you will see more shakes. So, walk quicker and you will see the smoothness of your footage improve drastically.
Now, once you've nailed the fundamentals and you've perfected your ninja walk, that's going to take us into mistake number three, which is not shooting with enough distance. The key to getting those super smooth and super seamless speed ramp transitions that you see on the internet is solely to do with the amount of distance that the videographer is getting while they're on site. See, the mistake I see most people make is they only shoot the highlight portion or the photo portion of the clip. They find the point where they say, "This looks good." And then they get to the point that says, "That looks good." And they only shoot that spot. What you want to do is start your shot further back than what you need and follow through further than what you need. Shooting with that extra distance is what's really going to help sell that seamless speed ramp transition. And even if you don't speed ramp, having that extra distance is going to give you or your editor more flexibility in post. Regardless of any of that, having that extra distance in every single shot will be extremely beneficial to you or your editor. And this distance also applies to your detail shots. If you can add extra distance and extra movement into your detail shots, you could even transition those or at the very least it's going to make them more dynamic.
Which leads me into mistake number four, which is the biggest tell between an amateur and a professional. And that is not being intentional with your composition. If you take a look at the film industry, Hollywood or honestly any other niche of videography, you will notice that composition is one of the most important things that they focus on. Your compositions need to be very intentional and provide clarity to the viewer. So, here are three tips on how to improve your compositions. Number one is to make sure that you always have a clear subject. Whether it's a wide shot or a detail shot, there needs to be something that the viewer can clearly focus their attention on and do it fast. Composition tip number two is to use leading lines to help frame your composition. You can use things like walls, countertops, cabinets, etc. to create leading lines in your compositions that will make them more visually appealing. And composition tip number three, and my personal favorite, is to use the three layers of depth. Every composition that you shoot or include in your video should have a foreground, a middleground or subject, and a background. Using these three layers of depth is going to create more cinematic compositions in both your detail shots and your wide shots and it will be the clearest separator between you and the amateur.
And finally, mistake number five is not shooting for the edit. Shooting for the edit not only creates consistency and efficiency on site when you're shooting, but it also creates clarity for the edit. So, what is shooting for the edit? Well, simply put, it is visualizing your final product or visualizing the edit while you're shooting. Shooting for the edit or visualizing the edit doesn't mean you know exactly how the final product is going to look, but it's being able to have a clear idea or concept of how you want your final product to come together. What happens if you're not shooting for the edit is that you're creating confusion. And when you get into the edit or you send your footage off to the editor, there's just a whole lot of stuff that they kind of have to guess their way through and hope that they can make work in a seamless manner. Being able to shoot for the edit really is one of the top skills that you can learn as a videographer.
So, those are the five most common mistakes I see beginner real estate videographers make. Now, if you want to see my exact process of how I shoot a property, you can watch this video right here. And if you had any questions, please leave them in the comments below.