Taking your best shot
When I started out in the film-making business, I wanted to make a film about a friend who was attempting to climb an 8,000-metre peak. I did a lot of research about the equipment I needed. I bought a MiniDV camera, a tripod, an external mic, two extra batteries and several tapes. I was really smug about all the extra gear I had in comparison with other trekkers who were shooting video on their little cameras.
When I got home, I was looking forward to seeing the footage I had shot. I uploaded the six tapes to the computer (a process known as ‘capturing’) and started to watch it. I was blown away by how bad it was. The footage was absolutely shocking. I had only used the tripod twice. I hadn’t taken enough batteries or tapes. I had zoomed in and out repeatedly. And I hadn’t positioned the microphone close enough to the people I had interviewed. In fact, I had made pretty much every mistake in the book.
The camera question
I learnt about film-making the hard and expensive way. But the interesting thing about making a film is how easy it is to get into these days. You can put a reasonable film together on a modest budget. That said, if you’re serious about making a film, you have to find the space and means to carry all the equipment that will enable you to do so. And if you can justify taking all the necessary gear, I would urge you to get hold of a professional camera while sticking to your budget.
If you’re unable to afford a brand-new professional camera, then you could buy its predecessor, either in a sale or on eBay. Sony recently released the Z5, which is set to replace the industry workhorse, the Z1. Unlike a consumer high definition (HD) camera, the Z1 shoots broadcast-quality, high-definition video (HDV) through a decent lens. It also has many features that are essential to a film-maker, including a manual focus ring that allows you to control the focus of the image, and iris control, which enables you to adjust the aperture. It’s worth noting that many expeditions use the little brother of the Z1, the HVR-A1E, with great success. If I was on a very tight budget, I’d rather buy an old professional camera such as a Sony PD170 than a new consumer HD camera.
Even if you own a professional camera, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be in the right place at the right time to record a spectacular avalanche or an encounter with a snow leopard. At the end of the day, your story is the most important thing, but without footage, you won’t have a story to tell. Ensuring that every team member has a device to record video will increase the chance that you’ll get that footage. This might be a pocket-sized camcorder, a helmet-mounted camera, or a photographic camera with a video setting. If it’s jaw-dropping footage, then viewers will forgive a shaky or over-exposed image.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about recording footage onto solid-state media. Some very low-cost cameras such as the Flip series record onto solid state, which makes capturing footage onto your computer easy. At the other end of the spectrum, professional cameras that record to solid state can cost tens of thousands of pounds.
Although solid-state media are the future and prices are tumbling, cameras that record to inexpensive MiniDV tapes still dominate the expedition film-making market. MiniDV produces a reasonably high-quality image and, unlike solid state, doesn’t require a computer in the field on which to download the footage.
Plan ahead
Long before you depart, it’s important to write a synopsis of your story in order to nail down what you want to achieve. Once this has been decided, you need to think about what will make the story compelling. People are what makes life interesting, and they’re usually what makes a film interesting. It’s no surprise that interviews are the beating heart of most films. These can be formal, informal, or even video diaries, so long as they capture what individuals are thinking and feeling. Do some research on the expedition members and write down some questions to ask them. You might also want to put together a shot list of general views (known in the industry as GVs) of scenery and wildlife so that you can tick them off during the course of the expedition.
Sketching out some storyboards of the key scenes you want to capture is a fabulous way to build a story. It enables you to think creatively about framing a shot, camera angles and movement, and whether it’s going to be tripod-based or hand-held. You don’t need to be Michelangelo to draw a storyboard; stick people will do. Remember to leave plenty of room for flexibility so you can react quickly to changes in things such as the weather and itinerary.
Kathmandu isn’t the place to start learning how to use your camera. Go and make a film before you leave. It’s cheaper to learn at home than on an expedition. It might be a weekend in the hills or an afternoon in a local park. A lot of things might let you down when making a film; the ability to use your equipment should not be one of them.
Whether you use a consumer or professional video camera, there are three items that will maximise the chance of returning with usable footage. The first is a decent microphone, because if you don’t have good sound, you don’t have a good picture. Sound recorded by a microphone that’s built into a camera will be unusable because the quality of the mic will be poor and it will pick up the tape noise being made by the camera. Make sure that your external microphone has a windjammer to reduce wind noise, and use a decent pair of headphones so you can monitor the sound while filming.
The second essential item is a video tripod, because if your footage is steady, the production value of your material will be much higher. Learning how to pan and tilt with your tripod will improve the overall look of your film. If you really can’t justify the weight of a tripod, then at a pinch, a mini-tripod will be better than nothing.
The third piece of kit that will make a huge difference to your image is a matte box or lens hood. These increase contrast and detail in the image. Although matte boxes are only made for professional cameras, lens hoods are available for many smaller cameras. They are definitely worth using.
Protect your kit
Wet, dusty, humid and sub-zero conditions can be fatal to a camera. If you’re shooting in cold weather, keep a fresh battery warm in a pocket next to your body and rotate it with the battery on the camera at regular intervals. The LCD screen will freeze at about –20°C, making it unusable. At –30°C, a camera will only operate for a short period before the tape heads start to struggle and the mechanisms controlling the focus and zoom rings begin to stiffen.
Condensation can destroy internal components. If you’re moving from a cold exterior to a heated interior, put the camera in an airtight bag before stepping inside or remove the battery and leave the camera outside. If dust can get in, it will get in. I tape up every socket with electrician’s tape.
I only use a couple of lens filters. A neutral-density filter gives me more creative control in bright light, and a clear UV filter lives on my camera to protect the expensive lens from salt water, sand and snow.
Depending on the assignment, I protect my gear in a Lowepro rucksack or a Peli case when I’m on the move. I use a rain jacket over my camera when filming in bad weather. Weatherproof covers are available for all makes of video camera, including small consumer models.
When you get home, make capturing your footage onto your computer a priority. There are great pieces of software to help you turn your footage into a film, most notably Apple’s Final Cut Express/Pro and Adobe’s Premiere Elements/Pro. You’ll need a computer processor that is sufficiently powerful to handle the huge amounts of data and an external hard drive that is large enough to store it all. One advantage of shooting on MiniDV tapes is that they can become your back-up if stored off-site away from the drive.
Filming your expedition is one thing. Creating a finished film is another. Attending the Adventure Film Academy at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival is a fast-track to getting up to speed on every aspect of expedition film-making, including editing. The course is designed for beginners as well as more experienced film-makers and is a great way to get your expedition film off to a flying start.
Al Boardman is a film-maker who has worked with several high-profile expeditions, most recently the Catlin Arctic Survey and the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition. For further information see www.snowlineproductions.com
More info
For further details of the Adventure Film Academy, visit www.mountainfest.co.uk
0ctober 2009
When I got home, I was looking forward to seeing the footage I had shot. I uploaded the six tapes to the computer (a process known as ‘capturing’) and started to watch it. I was blown away by how bad it was. The footage was absolutely shocking. I had only used the tripod twice. I hadn’t taken enough batteries or tapes. I had zoomed in and out repeatedly. And I hadn’t positioned the microphone close enough to the people I had interviewed. In fact, I had made pretty much every mistake in the book.
The camera question
I learnt about film-making the hard and expensive way. But the interesting thing about making a film is how easy it is to get into these days. You can put a reasonable film together on a modest budget. That said, if you’re serious about making a film, you have to find the space and means to carry all the equipment that will enable you to do so. And if you can justify taking all the necessary gear, I would urge you to get hold of a professional camera while sticking to your budget.
If you’re unable to afford a brand-new professional camera, then you could buy its predecessor, either in a sale or on eBay. Sony recently released the Z5, which is set to replace the industry workhorse, the Z1. Unlike a consumer high definition (HD) camera, the Z1 shoots broadcast-quality, high-definition video (HDV) through a decent lens. It also has many features that are essential to a film-maker, including a manual focus ring that allows you to control the focus of the image, and iris control, which enables you to adjust the aperture. It’s worth noting that many expeditions use the little brother of the Z1, the HVR-A1E, with great success. If I was on a very tight budget, I’d rather buy an old professional camera such as a Sony PD170 than a new consumer HD camera.
Even if you own a professional camera, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be in the right place at the right time to record a spectacular avalanche or an encounter with a snow leopard. At the end of the day, your story is the most important thing, but without footage, you won’t have a story to tell. Ensuring that every team member has a device to record video will increase the chance that you’ll get that footage. This might be a pocket-sized camcorder, a helmet-mounted camera, or a photographic camera with a video setting. If it’s jaw-dropping footage, then viewers will forgive a shaky or over-exposed image.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about recording footage onto solid-state media. Some very low-cost cameras such as the Flip series record onto solid state, which makes capturing footage onto your computer easy. At the other end of the spectrum, professional cameras that record to solid state can cost tens of thousands of pounds.
Although solid-state media are the future and prices are tumbling, cameras that record to inexpensive MiniDV tapes still dominate the expedition film-making market. MiniDV produces a reasonably high-quality image and, unlike solid state, doesn’t require a computer in the field on which to download the footage.
Plan ahead
Long before you depart, it’s important to write a synopsis of your story in order to nail down what you want to achieve. Once this has been decided, you need to think about what will make the story compelling. People are what makes life interesting, and they’re usually what makes a film interesting. It’s no surprise that interviews are the beating heart of most films. These can be formal, informal, or even video diaries, so long as they capture what individuals are thinking and feeling. Do some research on the expedition members and write down some questions to ask them. You might also want to put together a shot list of general views (known in the industry as GVs) of scenery and wildlife so that you can tick them off during the course of the expedition.
Sketching out some storyboards of the key scenes you want to capture is a fabulous way to build a story. It enables you to think creatively about framing a shot, camera angles and movement, and whether it’s going to be tripod-based or hand-held. You don’t need to be Michelangelo to draw a storyboard; stick people will do. Remember to leave plenty of room for flexibility so you can react quickly to changes in things such as the weather and itinerary.
Kathmandu isn’t the place to start learning how to use your camera. Go and make a film before you leave. It’s cheaper to learn at home than on an expedition. It might be a weekend in the hills or an afternoon in a local park. A lot of things might let you down when making a film; the ability to use your equipment should not be one of them.
Whether you use a consumer or professional video camera, there are three items that will maximise the chance of returning with usable footage. The first is a decent microphone, because if you don’t have good sound, you don’t have a good picture. Sound recorded by a microphone that’s built into a camera will be unusable because the quality of the mic will be poor and it will pick up the tape noise being made by the camera. Make sure that your external microphone has a windjammer to reduce wind noise, and use a decent pair of headphones so you can monitor the sound while filming.
The second essential item is a video tripod, because if your footage is steady, the production value of your material will be much higher. Learning how to pan and tilt with your tripod will improve the overall look of your film. If you really can’t justify the weight of a tripod, then at a pinch, a mini-tripod will be better than nothing.
The third piece of kit that will make a huge difference to your image is a matte box or lens hood. These increase contrast and detail in the image. Although matte boxes are only made for professional cameras, lens hoods are available for many smaller cameras. They are definitely worth using.
Start the slideshow (11 pictures)
Protect your kit
Wet, dusty, humid and sub-zero conditions can be fatal to a camera. If you’re shooting in cold weather, keep a fresh battery warm in a pocket next to your body and rotate it with the battery on the camera at regular intervals. The LCD screen will freeze at about –20°C, making it unusable. At –30°C, a camera will only operate for a short period before the tape heads start to struggle and the mechanisms controlling the focus and zoom rings begin to stiffen.
Condensation can destroy internal components. If you’re moving from a cold exterior to a heated interior, put the camera in an airtight bag before stepping inside or remove the battery and leave the camera outside. If dust can get in, it will get in. I tape up every socket with electrician’s tape.
I only use a couple of lens filters. A neutral-density filter gives me more creative control in bright light, and a clear UV filter lives on my camera to protect the expensive lens from salt water, sand and snow.
Depending on the assignment, I protect my gear in a Lowepro rucksack or a Peli case when I’m on the move. I use a rain jacket over my camera when filming in bad weather. Weatherproof covers are available for all makes of video camera, including small consumer models.
When you get home, make capturing your footage onto your computer a priority. There are great pieces of software to help you turn your footage into a film, most notably Apple’s Final Cut Express/Pro and Adobe’s Premiere Elements/Pro. You’ll need a computer processor that is sufficiently powerful to handle the huge amounts of data and an external hard drive that is large enough to store it all. One advantage of shooting on MiniDV tapes is that they can become your back-up if stored off-site away from the drive.
Filming your expedition is one thing. Creating a finished film is another. Attending the Adventure Film Academy at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival is a fast-track to getting up to speed on every aspect of expedition film-making, including editing. The course is designed for beginners as well as more experienced film-makers and is a great way to get your expedition film off to a flying start.
Al Boardman is a film-maker who has worked with several high-profile expeditions, most recently the Catlin Arctic Survey and the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition. For further information see www.snowlineproductions.com
More info
For further details of the Adventure Film Academy, visit www.mountainfest.co.uk
0ctober 2009
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