Shooting an MMA fight...

ZazaCast

ZazaCast

Major Contributor
So, I've been asked by a friend to shoot her upcoming MMA cage fight. I've never been to one of these and have no idea what to expect. I'm told I will have a special pass allowing me right down by the ring. I will be using my HMC150 on the shoulder.

Any advice, thoughts, comments would be most appreciated.... Thanks in advance.
 
If you're going into the crowd or following a fighter to the ring get a good light on the camera. You won't need it for ring shots but from my experience they dim down the lights once the action starts.
 
I DP'd a multi camera MMA event several years ago.

I told the promoter to keep the ligts up full.

We also has elevated camera positions around the octagon that gave us a good vantage.

Shooting through the cage sucks.

See if you can get above it.
 
Marino215 said:
If you're going into the crowd or following a fighter to the ring get a good light on the camera. You won't need it for ring shots but from my experience they dim down the lights once the action starts.
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Thanks...yes, I was concerned about this and still have no idea of their set-up.

mcgeedigital said:
I DP'd a multi camera MMA event several years ago.

I told the promoter to keep the ligts up full.

We also has elevated camera positions around the octagon that gave us a good vantage.

Shooting through the cage sucks.

See if you can get above it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm hoping I can somehow get above the cage. Not looking forward to shooting through the side of the cage. I should be talking to the fighter today and then I want to talk to the promoter to make sure I have the proper permissions to even shoot it!
Favors like this can turn sour fast in my experience.

Thanks.
 
I would use a tight framing. Not the best friend for your friend, if he wants to see mistakes and such; but it looks a lot cooler.

A couple of female boxing vids I shot recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDeqbD5ANlo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtEcu686mM4

If you watch those, you'll see why I wouldn't be afraid of the cage at all: I intentionally tried to get a populated foreground (got bit once, when they hid for a few seconds behind the post I was using for that).
 
Samuel H said:
I would use a tight framing. Not the best friend for your friend, if he wants to see mistakes and such; but it looks a lot cooler.

A couple of female boxing vids I shot recently:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDeqbD5ANlo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtEcu686mM4

If you watch those, you'll see why I wouldn't be afraid of the cage at all: I intentionally tried to get a populated foreground (got bit once, when they hid for a few seconds behind the post I was using for that).
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He is a she... it's a female MMA fight. I'l check out those video links... thanks. I'm in touch with the promoter to see about getting above the ring!
 
* my friend is a she too: waaaaay more impressive, those 54Kg (that's 120 pounds) ladies were little lovely girls... full of crazy power!!!

* check the videos, I wouldn't have switched my location for one above the ring

* also, I shot with slightly increased shutter speed (1/100s) for a very mild staccato effect, and I kind of cheated a bit, in the usual way: shot 24p, conformed to 25p (which YouTube supports with no issues, as it's the PAL standard)
 
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Samuel H said:
* my friend is a she too: waaaaay more impressive, those 54Kg (that's 120 pounds) ladies were little lovely girls... full of crazy power!!!

* check the videos, I wouldn't have switched my location for one above the ring

* also, I shot with slightly increased shutter speed (1/100s) for a very mild staccato effect, and I kind of cheated a bit, in the usual way: shot 24p, conformed to 25p (which YouTube supports with no issues, as it's the PAL standard)
Click to expand...

Yes... she fights at the 125lb. level....and I would NOT want to get on her bad side! :shocked:

Checked your videos...and they are great, but this is MMA and they fight in a cage. Shooting through the ropes works nicely for boxing, but I don't know about the grid of the cage, I would think it's distracting after awhile(or it would be for me).
Here's one of her fights from a camera phone, note the cage they fight in:

Here's another one of her, but from above the cage:

This shoot is mostly for fight review, so it's important to see every move clearly.
 
* pretty baddass
* if it is so she can review and learn, then forget almost everything I said; for that, my friend got another guy to shoot everything from a stationary tripod, and yes, it would be better if it was above the cage; pretty boring to watch, though...
 
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