Can you spare a tip or two on handheld?

D

discover

Member
Been shooting to build my reel; spec spots, freebies and favors, mostly on sticks.

Then I went and got myself hired at a rate which... well, like I said, building my reel.

I'm about to embark on a handheld project; following people in offices, homes, dance clubs, both INT. & EXT. Was wondering if you could enlighten me on the zen of handheld. This will be a 2-camera shoot. I'm on A.

Have handheld before but not to this extent. What should I avoid? What are, and how can I anticipate, the pitfalls of running from an INT to a bright sunny EXT witout missing the action?

And if a producer doesn't supply any sort of continious light source for an INT shot, am I left to pray the Iris does the trick?

Rules of thumb? Secrets of the handheld trade on a low/no budget gig?

-Peace and thanks
 
Last edited:
Well... you have to know your camera very well.
You need to be able to switch on the gain if it gets too dark,
quickly adjust iris and focus on the fly
(do not use auto iris and auto focus unless you want it to look like home video)

also depends on the camera.
If it is a DVX or HVX or any other non-shoulder mount camera, you absolutely, positively have to get a shoulder brace, or your handheld work will suck, especially for long periods of shooting.

Going int to ext, you have to quickly adjust iris and the filter from tungsten to daylight.

If shooting handheld, try to stay zoomed out most of the time, the more zoomed in you are, the shakier the shot will look. If you absolutely have to zoom in on something, stand still, and breathe like a monk in meditation, deep, slow, steady breaths. Seriously. Holding your breath can help too sometimes.
Staying zoomed out wide is best. If you zoom in a lot, it will look bad.

When you walk while shooting, maybe following someone,
1.) keep the lens at full wide.
2.) try to keep yourself level as you walk, like a french horn player in a marching band. They keep the instrument level, don't bounce up and down as you walk. Keep it smooth. The ideal is to transform yourself into a human steadicam.

And if you can, practice. a lot. Good luck.
 
if necessary, you can make presets for yourself for white balance, (or if you are in one location and then another, you are prepared to go back to the first.)

For a cool handheld effect, again if needed, jack up the shutter speed and go crazy with the handheld, gives you that cool saving private ryan look (need alot of light tho).
 
When you wrote "adjust... the filter from tungsten to daylight" you meant switching the white balance from 3.2 to 5.6k?

and thanks you others as well but the job got cancelled 10 hours before I was supposed to start...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top