Explorations

Introduction

“How can you find, explore, and/or expand your passion?”

To conclude our junior year in freestyle, we were challenged to explore a film-related skill that improves upon our 21st Century Skill-set. Through extensive research and practice, we attempted to hone this skill within a month, and see if we could reach the film industry standard.

For my project, I chose to explore camera movement and expand on my Creativity, as this overlooked skill can dramatically improve the quality of your shots and help immerse the viewer in your film.

process

To better understand the skill, I tried to recreate the movement from iconic shots that demonstrate professional camera movement. This meant outsourcing the equipment, learning how to use it, and putting it to the test.

I choose to recreate shots from Stranger Things, Inglourious Basterds, and Moonrise Kingdom.

I did thorough research on the basics of camera movement, the different types of equipment used, and the different types of movements in order to fully understand the film industry standard.

I spent multiple days researching the topic to become an expert on camera movement.

After understanding the basics, I consulted with my film production teacher Mr. Taylor, to discuss what equipment I should use to recreate each shot. Fortunately, Freestyle Academy has a plethora of advanced equipment for student use, so I was able to get what I needed.

I ended up using a Gimbal, Jib, and Dolly to recreate the different shots. For the Stranger Things shot we used a gimbal, a piece of equipment that balances a camera to allow for smooth movement on all axis, some gimbals also allow for rotation. For the Moonrise Kingdom shot we used a dolly, a tripod mount that lets you horizontally move a camera. Lastly, for the Inglourious Basterds shot, we used a jib, which is a rig that operates similarly to a see-saw and lets you vertically move the camera up to large heights.

Using this advanced equipment proved to be challenging as they had a slight learning curve which made them difficult to use. However, after taking the time to understand the equipment, I was finally able to go out and recreate the shots.

Outcome

The following videos show my recreation of the three iconic shots (with the original version linked underneath them).

Recreation from Stranger Things
Recreation from Inglourious Basterds
Recreation from Moonrise Kingdom

Takeaways

After having completed the explorations project, there are a few key takeaways about camera movement that are worth mentioning. First and foremost, it is important to understand that there is A LOT of preparation involved and things don’t always go according to plan, you may not always be able to recreate your vision under your given circumstances.

Secondly, you need to familiarize yourself thoroughly with your equipment. Unlike our versatile tripods that we’ve been using all year, most of the advanced equipment has very specific uses, meaning that you need to understand the purpose of your equipment and how to use it.

Lastly, despite being complicated to understand, It can make our storytelling much more effective by immersing your audience and giving you control over our creative atmosphere.

Reflection

I truly valued the explorations project, as it gave me an opportunity to delve into a topic that I was deeply interested in, and it was a very fun conclusion to an exhausting school year. It also gave me the chance to use and familiarize myself with some of the advanced equipment that we will be using next year. Investing time into this project has definitely made me a better filmmaker, and I will now be able to apply these newfound skills going into my senior year at Freestyle.