Tip: Filming Highway Signs

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OddBirdman

Carbonite Member
When I was out on the the road filming videos of multiple cities I found it would help to establish a city using highway signs when stuck with limited time to establish a location. The best signs are posted right in the middle of the highway on overpasses. It's pretty dangerous to slow down in the middle of the highway to get the perfect sign shot - just enough time for the brain to process the sign. I started playing with a modified version of the contra-zoom, or the rapidly swelling or dissipating background while the focal point - usually someone's head- stays on one fixed place: The Hitchcock shot. I found if you zoomed all the way into a sign while it's still pretty far away, and then wait patiently for the sign to just about fill the view finder - leaving the borders of the sign to reach the "safety zone" - then rapidly zoom out using the auto-zoom the sign will appear to float and hang longer as it stays in one fixed place for a few seconds making it way easier to read.

The zoom speed and the speed of the car are inter-played to keep a consistent visual distance between the sensor and the sign. The background warps a bit. If you stick to shooting the signs at night - when they are best lit - the warping disappears in the blackness of the night. It's a way to get that shot without slowing down in busy traffic. The effect itself gives a very brief ghostly feel or detached feel to the image of the sign. The best way to master this technique is to have a friend drive you down the highway at night for about 50 miles in a major city. Keep filming and playing with the timing until you can grab the camera quickly and get the shot you need. The fixed zoom speed on your particular camera will always be the same. Once you find the sweet spot for your camera and and the speed you are traveling grabbing that sign shot becomes muscle memory.
 
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I thought maybe I had an example in my reel but it's not there. If you watch my reel posted in the new members section I literally fell upon this idea on the RV shot right at the beginning just after the timelapse roofcam shot. I had the lead car pass the RV and then floor the gas when we were both in the same lane. The idea was to pass the RV and then speed away. When the person driving the convertible I was hanging out of hit the gas I almost fell out of the car onto Highway 1. I tensed up and squeezed the zoom button on accident. It happened at just the right time to create the warping effect. Then later, our of sheer boredom on the road I started playing with the zoom on the signs and terrain in a similar manner and it worked. I have a drive of footage coming via FedEx in the next couple of days that has some of the road sign examples. I'll try to post some when I have it.
 
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