Video Trends and How You Approach Them

16mman

16mman

Active member
You all know the recent video trends: hand-held rigs, slider shots, shallow DOF, extensive color correction, GoPro footage, drone footage, time lapses, hyper lapses, and then you have trendy tech like DSLRs, full frame sensors, 4K etc. Twenty years ago there was a whole different set of video trends, and I'm sure twenty years from now there will be a new set. My question is: what's your approach to trends like these? Do you embrace everything? Just use what works for you? Avoid them all like the plague? How do trends figure in your work with clients?
 
It's all just tools in the toolbox. Not every job needs all the tools, but it's good to know what they do and how they work in case you need to use one.
 
Technique is always good to know. Being aware of trends is helpful if you're being hired by clients who want their product to look like the trends.

But artistically? Why engage in a trend just because it's a trend? Do what you find to be appropriate for YOU and your project, not what everyone else is doing. If the "trendy" stuff happens to coincide, then so be it, but don't go that way just because everyone else does.
 
Embrace everything that you can be good at. It's better to have a very flexible skill set, and then choose what works best for the job.

In 30+ years of shooting stills ( and 10 years shooting video ) I have seen all kinds of crazy make-shift/cardboard/plywood/gaffer-tape sets and shooting-contraptions that look like sh*t from behind the scenes, but look like a million bucks in the finished result, and unless you had the imagination to try these crazy things you would never get there in the end.

...If you had to choose, would you prefer to be limited by your skill-set or by your own imagination ?
 
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