Does anyone know of a good list of... shot types? Like pans, tilts, etc?

[samtihen]

A lot of my shots are very plain. Either slow pans, or flyovers, or just slowly following a fish butt.

I'm looking to improve, and wondering if anybody knows of a good resource for such things.

 

[ronscuba]

Do you have any of your videos we can view ? Curious to see what you mean by very plain.

Shooting good footage with camera movement like pans, tilts, etc., is very difficult underwater. A bad pan is a lot worse than no pan at all. There needs to be a reason to pan. Think of the pan as revealing something to the viewer as it goes from start to end.

You can reveal with a pan, but you can also reveal just by sequencing two separate clips. For example, your dive buddy signals you and then points to something. You can reveal what they are pointing to with a pan, or cut transition to another clip.

The beauty of the cut transition, is you can get creative and put almost anything in the 2nd clip. The viewer will have no idea the 2nd clip was not what your buddy pointed to. I do this all the time. The 2nd clip is often from a totally different dive on a different day.

If you buddy is a good actor, you can have them pretend they found something exciting just so you can record them signaling you and pointing. Ever have a divemaster find something interesting and then have to wait your turn while others look at it or take pictures ? Record that. It will make a nice intro clip to the footage of the actual subject.

 

[Interceptor121]

I agree with Ron, you have to be very careful underwater not to create headaches by moving the camera too much. Usually you use transition to create a disruption between clips that are quite short themselves

Couple of things you can try include descent and ascent with the camera going in and out of water and half and half shots

Generally you always have your wide middle close scene and the pin ups, wrecks and fish scene and behaviours

Behaviors are excellent and transform an otherwise boring subject into an more exciting live footage

 

[j2s]

Have you tried food in a glass container w/holes in the lid so some of it or the smell leaks out ???....Or putting a mirror near the entrance of a territorial species.....Wrasse and octo's hate themselves !!!!.......Put your camera on a tripod and wait ......If you use the glass container around octo's, tape the lid w/clear packing tape otherwise they twist it off ..

 

[orm]

I think that you're already on the right track by examining your footage and wanting 'more'.

Too many people fall into the mistakes of following like fish and putting up long meandering single shot footage.

For a year, I used to sell underwater DVDs to divers less than 10 minutes after they came out of the water, I had to show them the footage un-edited, so I had to make the film in-camera with the end viewer in mind.

I don't think it matters if you're filming a latest Holywood blockbuster or making an underwater film for your mate, many of the principles hold true. If fact underwater filming can give you more scope because you're not bolted to one plane, you can also go up and down. But as Ron says, use camera movement wisely. This is what I'd say:

Work for at least 2-3 shots, wide shot (establishing), mid-shot, close-up. (you can leave out the mid shot.)
Respect the 180 degree line rule, i.e if the subject is swimming right to left, don't cross the line and film them crossing left to right. Always stay the same side, unless you film the cross!
The types of shots I use are:
- Wide
- Close
- Helicopter view
- Over the shoulder follow.
- Underneath looking up.
- Pan
With the pan, you should try and move your camera in a single purposeful line with a defined start and stop point ensuring that there is something of interest in each of the frames.

An example of this is that you have a wreck over on your left, diver on your right. You start on the diver then pan to the left - diver is now out of shot and you've got nothing but a lens full of blue, then after a while, you still don't see the wreck, then you notice that you've panned to high, so you bring the camera down to finally land your viewfinder on the wreck. It don't look too good.

Do a dry run, diver in shot, pan to the left to reveal the wreck. At every frame, either the wreck or diver, or both are in frame.


Of course going the other way Wreck to Driver makes the clip a completely different one, season to taste.

I'd try put as many different angles as possible in to keep the view fresh. Try keep the clips down to 7 secs or under, unless you have something really interesting going on.

Watch loads of films, and documentaries and just be aware of camera movement and editing.

The web has ample info, you can start on wiki:

Establishing shot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the bottom is a list of other shots you could use:


Aerial perspective
Aerial shot
American shot
Angle of view
Bird's eye shot
Bird's-eye view
Boom shot
B-roll
Camera angle
Camera coverage
Camera Dolly
Camera operator
Camera tracking
Cinematic techniques
Close-up
Crane shot
Dolly zoom
Dutch angle
Establishing shot
Film frame
Filmmaking
Follow shot
Forced perspective
Freeze frame shot
Full frame
Full shot
Hanging miniature
Head shot
High-angle shot
Long shot
Long take
Low-angle shot
Master shot
Medium shot
Money shot
Multiple-camera setup
One shot (music video)
Over the shoulder shot
Panning (camera)
Point of view shot
Rack focus
Reaction shot
Shot (filmmaking)
Shot reverse shot
Single-camera setup
Tilt (camera)
Top-down perspective
Tracking shot
Trunk shot
Two shot
Video production
Walk and talk
Whip pan
Worm's-eye view



Post stuff on here and have people give you feedback, that's the best resource available!

Good luck and happy shooting :O)




~ Mark Ormesher ~