GH3 Sports Cinematography reel

S

Scim

Member
Hey guys I just thought I would post up this reel I just made for sports work I have done. I shoot mostly with the GH3 Rokinon 85mm, dfocus rails mattebox and follow focus, monitor, and sometimes NDs.
https://vimeo.com/161307296
I would have liked to put in more environmental type shots but most of it was 24p canon stuff and decided to keep it on the field. Also I shoot a majority of normal speed work but during the edit ended up with this!

Let me know what you think! I am really liking shooting this type of work.
 
Thanks for posting. I like the video a lot. I shoot a lot of sports so I am partial ! You captured some great moments. It takes a lot of time and a good eye to grab these moments out of the rest of the footage.

Is this for business or just pleasure?
 
Bassman2003 said:
Thanks for posting. I like the video a lot. I shoot a lot of sports so I am partial ! You captured some great moments. It takes a lot of time and a good eye to grab these moments out of the rest of the footage.

Is this for business or just pleasure?
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Thank you! Means even more coming from experience. Due to the nature of playoffs and timeliness, there is a lot of footage that I have not even looked through, along with stuff that only gets a quick skim for highlights depending on the project. Do you have any examples of your work? Would love to see it!

A little bit of both pleasure and business right now. I run a sports show for my high school just for fun, but also do recruiting videos and game coverage for commission. I've actually lucked out and found quite a lot of more of this type promo type sports work for local leagues and organizations too. All word of mouth so far but as I'm starting to seek them out I put this together as a do all teaser type reel, along with some previous projects.
 
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Bassman2003 said:
Here is my YouTube channel. I shoot with a 1/3" camera instead of a larger sensor but I might change for some projects if the right camera comes along. https://www.youtube.com/user/WatchMyMVP?feature=mhum

I liked your music a lot. Could I ask what site you purchased it from?
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Oh nice, loved the intros on those college videos, and yes the larger sensor is always a struggle to work with at the low budget manual focus level.
 
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Bassman2003 said:
Thanks. This is the direction I am moving towards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2SLOo-xORw&list=PLE1Y3F2nS-mQ9IjinaqrL2r3okq4jRDWm&index=5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux8jA1gf0Wo

I shoot a lot of sports for the live, game film aspect but want to offer the more of the story oriented type of edits. They are fun to do and people really relate to them when it is their team.
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Indeed, as an outsider to those teams, those two of on field coverage with highlights included were nice. Those stadiums you have down there are massive too! Documentary style coverage of the team seems interesting too. I have a job traveling overnights with a lax team and will definitely be experimenting with that, but just for a personal project or end of year banquet type video.
 
Thanks again. I find lacrosse to be quite a challenge. You need a decent sized monitor to follow the ball! I use a 10" and it barely is enough. The stadium in that video is Cowboys stadium. We are spoiled around here as they often have the high school teams play inside which is a nice experience.
 
A general question - do you guys do any research prior to the game? Such as - this winger always dribbles/shoots or that QB will always toss it long? Or do you plan shots in general?
 
Beautiful camera work and tight editing - makes the viewer want more! My being a really old f*rt, the trendy ultra high AR crop seems to work against itself too often, though, but it's still a compelling piece.

Pete
 
DLD said:
A general question - do you guys do any research prior to the game? Such as - this winger always dribbles/shoots or that QB will always toss it long? Or do you plan shots in general?
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I don't do any research but am constantly trying to learn about positioning for each sport. If you are in the correct position your odds go way up of capturing something nice. Every sport is different and they have their areas where you can and can not go.

When handheld on an active field or sideline I am on high alert, looking for every creative shot I can find in the time available which is a lot of fun. If you film a team for an entire season you learn about certain players but I find it is better to be 100% in the moment and let the action or gameplay lead you instead of anything preconceived.
 
Bassman2003 said:
I don't do any research but am constantly trying to learn about positioning for each sport. If you are in the correct position your odds go way up of capturing something nice. Every sport is different and they have their areas where you can and can not go...
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The reason I asked was because, as a long time soccer fan, I used to be quite amused by the American cameramen and directors lack of understanding of how the game flows. It's gotten considerably better over the twenty of years of MLS but it still trails the European and South American coverage.

I saw your soccer clip (here comes the criticism ... but I think it's constructive, even if it addresses only a single shot) - there's a point where one team takes a free kick from the center circle and everyone on it runs toward the other team's net. Obviously, this was going to be a long "hail Mary" type punt that was going to travel about half-length of the field in the air. The camera, however, stays with the player taking the kick, then quickly whip-pans toward the area where the ball was inevitably aiming. A European director would pull out more and anticipate the flight of the ball toward the penalty box before the ball was even touched.

BTW, in MLS TV coverage, you still see this sort of stuff. During the PK's, a common sense global TV approach is to include the entire net, the ball and the short run-up from the top of the box. American directors will often concentrate on the ball and the PK taker so much, they end up cutting off the net as if it was inconsequential, so a TV viewer is often left wondering if the goal was actually scored.

PS. I guess I am more than a soccer "fan".
 
nice post! subscribed!
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DLD said:
The reason I asked was because, as a long time soccer fan, I used to be quite amused by the American cameramen and directors lack of understanding of how the game flows. It's gotten considerably better over the twenty of years of MLS but it still trails the European and South American coverage.

I saw your soccer clip (here comes the criticism ... but I think it's constructive, even if it addresses only a single shot) - there's a point where one team takes a free kick from the center circle and everyone on it runs toward the other team's net. Obviously, this was going to be a long "hail Mary" type punt that was going to travel about half-length of the field in the air. The camera, however, stays with the player taking the kick, then quickly whip-pans toward the area where the ball was inevitably aiming. A European director would pull out more and anticipate the flight of the ball toward the penalty box before the ball was even touched.

BTW, in MLS TV coverage, you still see this sort of stuff. During the PK's, a common sense global TV approach is to include the entire net, the ball and the short run-up from the top of the box. American directors will often concentrate on the ball and the PK taker so much, they end up cutting off the net as if it was inconsequential, so a TV viewer is often left wondering if the goal was actually scored.

PS. I guess I am more than a soccer "fan".
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Could you tell me what the name of the video is and what time you are speaking of? I will have a better response if I see what happened.
 
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I see. Yes, I should have framed the kick more to the left to leave more room for the ball travel. I think there was a long pause due to injury right before and I was unsure of his intentions, so I framed safely. Yes, if this was closer to the goal I would have had the net involved but this was not even across midfield. The TV stadium shooters have the advantage of being more telephoto and away from the field. I am right on the sideline with my camera up on a 25' pole being run by remote servo. I think your use of the term "whip pan" might be a bit of an exaggeration. :) Btw there is no director, just me with my camera.
 
Bassman2003 said:
... I think your use of the term "whip pan" might be a bit of an exaggeration. :)
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Hey, I was going off memory (of eight hours ago).

But the next question I was going to ask is where you position your camera. I am very picky about that. There are some old English stadiums where camera is virtually eye level on the sidelines and you can barely see the other side of the field. At other times, it is so high, the near sidelines are almost straight down. My favorites are the German broadcasts from Schalke's and Mönchengladbach's type new stadiums. Historically, soccer had one midfield (black and white) camera until the 1970 World Cup that introduced the behind-the-goal camera and the slow motion replay. 2002 WC introduced HD but only for its hosts, South Korea and Japan. 2006 was in HD on ABC. 2010 was HD online and on cable too. 2014 was supposed to have a trial 4K run with F55's, recording only, but I've never seen that video.
 
Going back a few posts I definitely agree with Peter. Also just to be clear, even though I shot all of this on primes, I don't recommend it in the slightest! Any lens that will frame well near the net will be poor out in the neutral zone and beyond obviously. We do multi camera shoots for important state championships, like with a 50 behind the net, 85 in the wing and 135 at half, but dealing with the 180 rule when cutting angles together in a coherent sequence is always difficult. On the 85 I can never run it past 2.8, so the aperture is not an advantage for on the field. The Metabones speed booster is a life saver when shooting in dim gyms and rinks though. You can stop down to F4ish and still have the light needed for slightly higher shutter speed slow mo.

In terms of positioning, yes and no. Set up shots are pretty much impossible, and I am equally happy a shot from either side. It's nice to have a mix of players facing you broadside while shooting, but over the shoulder type shots are pretty neat to. I tend to rotate through lower shot percentage locations such as behind a goal and safer ones like corners and midfield to get a nice mix. There's some players that I know really well, and there's nothing better than seeing a play before it happens and shooting it perfectly!

The real reason I joined these boards was to get a feel on what other people are shooting with for lower budget "cinematic" sports rigs and just see how others shoot stuff like this. I'm getting an image stabilized 70-200 2.8 this spring and am trying to figure out the best way to balance pulling focus, zooming and tripod movement. I'm thinking about rigging up a motorcycle throttle grip on my tripod to actuate a focus whip for zoom control, but might have to bite the bullet on a motorized focus pull.
 
Scim, I think something like a DVX200 would be the optimal if it had a faster lens. I find the flexibility of the PX270 to outweigh any shallow DOF concerns though. But I am not shooting for beauty or true cinema type shots as much. I use a lot of shots where I am at full 22x tele which would be impossible with a cinema type camera. Other times I would like less DOF so I am hoping Panasonic comes out with a pro version of their design.
 
Bassman2003 said:
Scim, I think something like a DVX200 would be the optimal if it had a faster lens. I find the flexibility of the PX270 to outweigh any shallow DOF concerns though. But I am not shooting for beauty or true cinema type shots as much. I use a lot of shots where I am at full 22x tele which would be impossible with a cinema type camera. Other times I would like less DOF so I am hoping Panasonic comes out with a pro version of their design.
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I haven't really been looking at fixed lens offering in that price range, but having checked out some sample footage wow! I'm not sure what my shooting focus is, just trying out some different things, but I don't ever plan on using that level of zoom or doing full coverage on my own gear. I'm not pursuing filmaking as anything more than a hobby as I am putting myself through engineering school, so having the canon lenses for photo work is a huge benefit.
 
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