ACTION FILMMAKING
ABOVE In wintry conditions it’s worth investing in a quality zoom so that you don’t have to keep changing lenses. into the snowwill be gone for the day or possibly forever, while snow falling into bags will turn to water and then ice as the evening freezes everything again. Make sure the equipment in your backpack and all the other equipment your crew are skiing with is also well packed. A lumpy camera bag will hurt you if you fall, so pad the bag with extra fleeces that could also come in handy if the weather turns unexpectedly. Carry two-way radios for safety and communicating with the snowboarder about to ride down, since shouting won’t be heard in that vast mountain scape. Also be aware that riders will get tired; don’t push them too hard and always enquire as to their energy levels. Do they need a rest, a coffee or to go home if they’ve tweaked or slightly injured something? Keep them safe and don’t ask them to do anything beyond their own ability. For me filmmaking has been a natural progression from stills, but it wasn’t easy tomake themove. I’ve had to work hard, burn a lot of midnight oil and have a very understanding and supportive wife! It’s a different thought process, but if you’ve got an eye for action you’ve got a head start and hopefully the reactions you need tomake it all work. Think inmoving sequences, plan how you’re going to execute everything and consider carefully the gear you need. Think also about your endmarkets and who youmight sell to: actionmight be a niche, but it’s a popular one with plenty of potential clients, so see who’s out there and tailor your work to suit. No one would suggest this is an easy way to earn a living but if you canmake it work it’s certainly one of themost exciting!
SHOOTING SLOWMOTION
a DJI Phantom4 Pro drone, and as I look around the office I can see that I’ve also got just about every Apple product going! I genuinely need all this kit for the diverse range of shots I come up against on a daily basis. Rental’s not an option: I can’t drive the 800miles to the Alps, get all the way up amountain to pull the camera out on a glacier on the only sunny day of the week to have it fail because it was dropped on a previous rental. Withmy fully owned kit I know its history and therefore can have greater trust in remote areas. I occasionally cast an eye at the bigger camera offerings and nearly pull the trigger but they can be cumbersome in extreme situations and the small gain in quality can meanmissing the shot because of the extra issues involved in set-up times, getting the camera on location and operating it in tough conditions as a oneman band. In terms of tips for working in wintry conditions, I suggest you go for a quality zoom so that you’re not constantly changing lenses in deep powder, and you should put the camera in a sealed plastic bag when entering or exiting a warmbuilding so that the condensation forms on the outside of the bag not on the surface of the camera/ lens/monitor. Invest in a cover if there’s a chance your rig will be sprayed in snow. When it’s cold take extra batteries and leavemore somewhere you can easily access at the bottomof the lift system. At times like this your rig will chew through batteries at a frightening rate. After February the Alps will get quite hot in direct sun, so your black cameras will too. This means a spray of snow instantly converts to water and will ruin cameras in seconds. Then when the temperature dips later in the day that water will freeze on to your camera, so it can be a real problem. Take a chamois leather with you since nothing soaks up water as well. Always zip up your bag; any kit falling
One of the most useful techniques to master for any action photographer is the slowmotion sequence. However, it’s not just a case of setting up your camera and hitting the slo-mo button: you need to be able to think in slowmotion and anticipate what a scene will look like, and you have to have the right subject for things to work. For example, a skier hurtling through the snow at high speed will be throwing up a spray and moving quickly through the scene, so even on a high frame rate you’ll have plenty going on. However, more sedate subjects, such as a fielder in a cricket match getting ready as a bowler runs in, could result in a sequence that sends people to sleep. Obviously there are lots of choices in terms of what frame rate to select. Even 60fps, which is available on even some consumer level video cameras these days, can deliver a strong result and you can obviously speed it up or slow it down further in post to vary the effect. However, because I’m often on a snowboard myself filming other snowboards at high speeds, I often have a requirement for a far higher frame rate, which is where the Sony FS5 and Convergent Design 7Q+ combo really comes into its own. This set-up can give me a really useful 120fps in true 4K, which is usually enough, but if I do need more I’ve got the opportunity to go faster still at 240fps in 2K. These are great options to have in an outfit that’s still relatively affordable, and really the next step up from here would be a specialist and very cumbersome Phantom camera that could deliver up to 1000fps. I’m not likely to ever have the need for that, and my kit covers everything I need while still being compact and portable.
More information www.davidspurdens.com Instagram: @rapt.tv
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WINTER 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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