Close Glidetrack & Steadicam shots, are they feasible?

[SimonD]

During my research most footage I have seen is distant, one of my 2 favourite tools for camera movement were the Glidetrack for short dolly shots and revealers then my steadicam for tracking etc.

With the cameras wide angle I'm assuming it's going to be tricky and potentially dangerous so I was thinking is it feasible to try these shots in 4K then crop to zoom to 1080p in post?

I would like to do a lot of low level work with the drone as well as high up stuff.

I know I won't be able to use DOF as good on the Mavic Air.

Here's a couple of early test vids I shot with the above tools and hope to get with the Mavic Air or close to them.

Test Footage

Glidetrack Test

Any advice, tips or no-no's appreciated.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

During my research most footage I have seen is distant, one of my 2 favourite tools for camera movement were the Glidetrack for short dolly shots and revealers then my steadicam for tracking etc.

With the cameras wide angle I'm assuming it's going to be tricky and potentially dangerous so I was thinking is it feasible to try these shots in 4K then crop to zoom to 1080p in post?

I would like to do a lot of low level work with the drone as well as high up stuff.

I know I won't be able to use DOF as good on the Mavic Air.

Here's a couple of early test vids I shot with the above tools and hope to get with the Mavic Air or close to them.

Test Footage

Glidetrack Test

Any advice, tips or no-no's appreciated.

Very cool! I think you are on the right "track". I like it.

I was doing a similar thing, but more with time lapse. Here is a video spoof I made. I wanted to see if anyone would catch on to how these shots were made. Nobody did. Maybe you can.

Not all of the shots are time lapsed, but take a look. See if you can identify shots where I obviously "cheated".

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[SimonD]

That's an excellent combination of techniques, I was always mesmerised with the H O C intro dynamic hyperlapse.

Difficult to produce those shots, I could spot the straight drone shots but I couldn't tell if you were using automated dolly track or lots of patience and doing the string marking method?

Either way it's frikkin superb.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

That's an excellent combination of techniques, I was always mesmerised with the H O C intro dynamic hyperlapse.

Difficult to produce those shots, I could spot the straight drone shots but I couldn't tell if you were using automated dolly track or lots of patience and doing the string marking method?

Either way it's frikkin superb.

Thanks. Yeah I agree on the HOC. I always wondered "How'd they do that?" So that inspired me.

To make my video, I definitely cheated... meaning I wasn't flying for some of the shots. In fact, if you just look at those clips where the primary movement in the time lapse is the shadows from the sun (secondary movement is a pan), it's impossible for a flying drone to get such a shot. First of all, sun movement shots require one to two hours of shooting. For sun movement, I'd take pictures at 20 seconds a shot, then I converted them to 30 fps video. I don't know of any drone that can fly for an hour or more. Funny that nobody on the forum caught it and said "Hey, wait a minute!". ?

For the high up clips where it looked like I was flying, I build a scaffold. For secondary movement, I zoomed in and did a digital pan. For the time lapse panning of the fish pond, I build a lazy Susan connected to a clock that would rotate 45 degrees in 15 minutes.

I was thinking about building a straight rail dolly like you, but I ended up just doing that movement in post. Not as good as yours because it's limited and you lose quality zooming in.

A lot of what I did was beyond the capabilities of the MPP, and I feel somewhat dishonest. But it was fun producing it.

I'm currently working on another video that requires clips of storm fronts and other nasty weather. I can't effectively fly and take time lapse in 30 mph winds or in the rain, so I was thinking of building a 30 ft tower. Crazy! It may not happen.

Now you know my secrets. I'd be interested in more of your work and techniques.

 

[SimonD]

You obviously put a lot of hard work into that production, I think it came out near perfect, nothing jumps out as wrong, if you have managed all of that with your drone camera I'm more than impressed!

I hopefully will use my drone to compliment other video techniques rather than pure drone footage, only just started but I can already see it's far more than just a drone, the camera even handheld is far better than my full rig steadicam!

I mixed handheld DSLR with slider shots for a video of my Vespa, using a lot of pull focus & shallow DOF, it's one limitation the drone can't cope with, obviously you can get DSLR drones but they are right out of my price range.

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First flight tomorrow hopefully, I want to do some low level shots and hopefully try a few of it's box of tricks with my Vespa.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

You obviously put a lot of hard work into that production, I think it came out near perfect, nothing jumps out as wrong, if you have managed all of that with your drone camera I'm more than impressed!

I hopefully will use my drone to compliment other video techniques rather than pure drone footage, only just started but I can already see it's far more than just a drone, the camera even handheld is far better than my full rig steadicam!

I mixed handheld DSLR with slider shots for a video of my Vespa, using a lot of pull focus & shallow DOF, it's one limitation the drone can't cope with, obviously you can get DSLR drones but they are right out of my price range.

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First flight tomorrow hopefully, I want to do some low level shots and hopefully try a few of it's box of tricks with my Vespa.

It's all the drone camera, and it took me two weeks.

Regarding your Vespa video, excellent timing on clip length. Keeps the viewer interested. Very professional. I tend to make the mistake of excessive clip length.

Looks like you applied a mask for a color change between two key frames. Whatever you did, nice effect. I need to try that. What are you using for post? I'm into Final Cut Pro X, works OK for me so far.

Someday, I'd like a drone that will do DOF!

...oh yeah, nice ride!

 

[SimonD]

It's all the drone camera, and it took me two weeks.

Regarding your Vespa video, excellent timing on clip length. Keeps the viewer interested. Very professional. I tend to make the mistake of excessive clip length.

Looks like you applied a mask for a color change between two key frames. Whatever you did, nice effect. I need to try that. What are you using for post? I'm into Final Cut Pro X, works OK for me so far.

Someday, I'd like a drone that will do DOF!

...oh yeah, nice ride!

Watched it again, I'm staggered how good it is and opened my eyes to what the camera is capable of.

Clip length is something I learned over the years, I tend to do 3 edits, each one trying to cut it to the shortest possible time, it's wrenching to loose footage your proud of but I watch it from a viewers perspective, if I'm tempted to skip through the video I've failed.

This one was my hardest ever edit, trying to tell a story while changing pace enough to not be boring.
I wish I had the Mavic Air when I shot this!

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I use Premiere Pro though I am now starting on an iMac.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Watched it again, I'm staggered how good it is and opened my eyes to what the camera is capable of.

Clip length is something I learned over the years, I tend to do 3 edits, each one trying to cut it to the shortest possible time, it's wrenching to loose footage your proud of but I watch it from a viewers perspective, if I'm tempted to skip through the video I've failed.

This one was my hardest ever edit, trying to tell a story while changing pace enough to not be boring.
I wish I had the Mavic Air when I shot this!

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I use Premiere Pro though I am now starting on an iMac.

Jesus! You are a professional! I know I can learn something from you. Very nice.

Your video effectively tells a story. One thing I noticed is your balanced usage of fade and no-fade between scenes. Sometimes I struggle with when to use fade - blending fade, fade to color or just no fade at all.

I really find cinematography interesting. Every time I watch a movie, I think about the kind of shots they use - the pans, reveals, wide shot, etc. Neat stuff. The other thing is the music. The first thing I research after deciding the story I want to tell is the music. Very important.

If I may, I'd like to share another video, made this spring while camping in Michigan's upper peninsula... It's one of my favorites.

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Make some drone videos and post them. I'm going to follow you on this forum.

FYI... love my iMac Pro.

 

[SimonD]

Jesus! You are a professional! I know I can learn something from you. Very nice.

Your video effectively tells a story. One thing I noticed is your balanced usage of fade and no-fade between scenes. Sometimes I struggle with when to use fade - blending fade, fade to color or just no fade at all.

I really find cinematography interesting. Every time I watch a movie, I think about the kind of shots they use - the pans, reveals, wide shot, etc. Neat stuff. The other thing is the music. The first thing I research after deciding the story I want to tell is the music. Very important.

If I may, I'd like to share another video, made this spring while camping in Michigan's upper peninsula... It's one of my favorites.

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Make some drone videos and post them. I'm going to follow you on this forum.

FYI... love my iMac Pro.

Thank you

Fades are often overused, it's something I learned the hard way, I was obsessed with using fades in my early videos but like yourself I leaned by analysing films and TV shows, they are rarely used, though in they can be effective when changing time-span shots or dramatically different shots.

Coming from a photography background I found video a natural progression and tried to transfer some of the skills across, such as using foreground, middle ground and background and to my delight it works even better in video, especially dolly shots, I eventually found video more rewarding as long as you treat it like 'moving photos'.

Music and audio is my main problem, you can produce a great video but if the audio is bad it ruins it, all the viewer focuses on is the bad audio.

Liking the River shots, our local river is pretty dull and murky.