Real Estate video?

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David Evans

Well-known member
Hey guys,

I’m starting some real estate videos this weekend, which is a little out of my comfort zone. Besides shooting with ultrawide lenses (I’ll be using a Tokina 11-16 with my Ursa Mini 4.6k), what else is specific to this kind of videos? Frame rate, shutter angles?... Coming from the film business, I’m always reluctant to shoot at more than 24/25 fps, but I understand if the real estate video is supposed to be more “videoish” and free from any kind of motion blur.

Thanks!
 
Do you have a steadycam? Most real estate videos that I've seen make extensive use of steadycam/gimbal shots. Someone on this forum recommended that I shoot steadycam shots at 30 FPS and drop it into a 24 FPS timeline, for a "floaty effect". Your camera might have enough dynamic range to hold detail in the room and outside the windows. If not, you could shoot two passes with a motorized slider at different exposures, and composite the darker exposure into the windows so that they're not blown out.
 
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The two tools that are usually used for real estate videos are gimbals (or steadicams)
and drones. Ultra wide lenses yes. If you don't have a gimbal or steadicams maybe
a slider to 'enter' a room? The reason for the gimbal is to be able to walk through
each room and show what it looks like smoothly. I'd suggest getting money up
front. In my experience realtors are some of the worst at expecting big results
for very little money.
 
Thanks guys. I will be using my glidecam for this kind of work. What I'm unsure about is the frame rate. Being a filmmaker, I rarely shoot over 25fps. Is this also the norm for real estate videography?

Thanks
 
I don't think there are any 'norms' in real estate video. Anyone who thinks something looking more 'videoish' is a good thing is an idiot, so just ignore, make it look pretty and back your instincts.
 
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Drones are a must-have for nicer properties where flying is allowed.

As far as framerates, 24p should be fine if you're operating well (not making any stutter noticeable), but I would most likely shoot real estate videos at 30p for a balance between 'cinematic' and 'normal'.
 
I would recommend to check Parker Walbeck’s tutorial How to Shoot Real Estate video on youtube.
 
Frame rates, shoot 2X your delivery rate. I'd recommend also shooting wide or panos on a high res stills camera, so you can do some HDR and panning in post.
 
I would say that is a good approach - 60p for 30p delivery. Just shoot with 30p movement in mind. The difficult thing about anything real estate is the window/indoor exposure imbalance. If you can pick your times of day it will help. Is this high end or not? I know on the still side, high end means a lot of lighting and nit picking for a single shot.
 
Can you ask your client for a visual reference? (I'd consider doing this before booking any kind of job, really helps with expectation setting)

Just to make sure your client isn't expecting something like this -- (NSFW, but actually booked as a real estate video, believe it or not)

 
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dcoughla said:
Can you ask your client for a visual reference? (I'd consider doing this before booking any kind of job, really helps with expectation setting)

Just to make sure your client isn't expecting something like this -- (NSFW, but actually booked as a real estate video, believe it or not)

Click to expand...

This is his goal:


I don't even think it's very well executed, but I guess it's probably the look of this kind of videos. Windows are blown out, it looks videoish, but this agent is kind of his personal hero so he wants to do like he does. I'm guessing this video was done with no artificial lighting, very little care for balancing between outdoor and indoor and 90% of it relies on the agent's talent for selling the house, right?
 
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