Tips for Creating Killer Product Videos - Vimeo

Nine tips for creating killer product videos on Vimeo
Their article includes examples of each talking point.
1. Context is king
2. Show and tell
3. Tell your story — or let your customers tell it for you
4. Beautify your home
5. Cater to your target audience
6. Don’t use scare tactics
7. Inject your video with some personality
8. Include a call to action (CTA)
9. Connect, human to human

How to Get Hired as a Videographer

Some of the most important keys to getting hired as a videographer

• Tell everyone you know (and strangers) that you're a videographer.
• Have a few excellent samples of your work (you may need to do these for lower cost to acquire your first clients since they are taking a gamble on you).
• Do work for non-profits to have footage for an online reel
• Know what your market can bear for pricing.  A pro videographer in Southwest Montana said that $50/hour is on the low side for video production.
• Sell yourself.  Use Facebook, a website, and LinkedIn to promote your work and help potential clients discover you.  Blog and post to Facebook regularly.
• Get back to potential clients in the same business day or within 24 hours.  People often want video right away and responsiveness will show potential clients that you are serious and interested. 

A handy guide to hiring video professionals on Vimeo has a range of prices that indie videographers and agencies charge for their work.

Total Cost of Buying a Panasonic GH3 for Wedding Videography

Using a static camera to focus on the bride or groom's face when filming weddings can mean the difference betweeen a profesisonal final product or an amateur effort.

Why buy a Panasonic DSLR for wedding videography?
They are the only DSLR manufacturer that allows their cameras to record for longer than 30 minutes continuously.  If you're filming wedding ceremonies or any other live event that runs longer than 30 minutes, other great DSLRs from Nikon and Canon may create production challenges.

Regular DSLRs can also overheat if they are used continuously throughout a day for too long.  Panasonic has engineered their GH3 and GH4 cameras to withstand longer video recording times.

If you're considering buying a Panasonic GH3 for wedding videography (as a second camera), here's a cost breakdown for the camera and accessories you'll need.

Panasonic GH3 camera body
$800-850 new or about $620 used in very good condition.

Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8 lens (70-200mm equivalent)
$1,095 to 1,500 new or about $940 used.
This lens will allow you to get tight close-ups that are essential to capture the emotion of a wedding ceremony.  This type of cinematic look will separate you from videographers that are using camcorders.

Panasonic DMW-BLF19 Lithium-Ion Battery (extra battery)
$51
If you're shooting long events, keep at least three batteries for each camera.  Four batteries will probably ensure you don't run out of power.

Tiffen 58mm Variable ND Filter (fits the Panasonic 35-100mm lens)
$110
Anytime you're shooting outdoors and want to keep a fast aperture to get the cinematic look, you'll need an ND filter to reduce the light reaching your lens to allow f/2.8-f/5.6 to be possible.

Shotgun mic (to pickup scratch audio for syncing later or ambient audio when filming things other than the ceremony)
$200-300

Panasonic MS2 Shotgun Microphone
$230

Rode VideoMic Pro
$203

Rode Stereo VideoMic Pro
$259

Here's a cost summary for buying the Panasonic GH3 to shoot medium telephoto footage. Again, this assumes you would be buying the GH3 as a second camera when you already own a Canon, Nikon, or Sony DSLR.

Camera $800
Lens $1,200
Two extra batteries $102
Variable ND Filter $110
Shotgun mic $230
-----------------
Total: $2,442

10 Things to Know About Videography with DSLR Cameras

1. Most DSLRs can only record for 20-30 minutes per clip.  Nikon, Canon, Sony, and most major DSLR makers have set a maximum clip limit at 29 minutes and 59 seconds to avoid a European tax on cameras that record for more than 30 minutes continuously. The only DSLR cameras on the (2015) market that shoot longer than 30 minutes are the Panasonic GH2, GH3, and GH4.
2. Focusing (pulling focus) on a DSLR can be very difficult on the fly.  Focusing using your camera's viewfinder for photography is easy, but constantly changing focus using a tiny 3" LCD is very difficult .  Shoot at f/4-5.6 to still get shallow depth of field with your telephoto zoom lenses, but give yourself a wider target to hit.
3. Video will be unacceptably shaky unless you use some kind of camera support.  Wedding and event videographers typically use monopods or shoulder mounts to quickly move from shot to shot.  Turning on image stabilization in your lenses will also help smooth out camera shake when not using a tripod.
4. Older DSLRs do not shoot full 1080 HD at 60 frames per second.  Only specific models of DSLR cameras (and the 2015 models from Nikon and Canon) can shoot slow motion at 1080p.  Many professional camcorders offer 1080p at 60 frames per second, but most DSLRs on the market today only shoot 60 frames per second at 720p.
5. Be prepared for extra audio equipment.  External audio recorders are essential if you want to capture professional quality audio.  Some DSLRS do not have a headphone jack to monitor your audio, but you can solve this problem by using a splitter cable on your audio recorder.  One end of the splitter would feed into your DSLR so your audio can be pre-synced and the other end would allow you to monitor the audio with headphones.
6. ND filters are not built into DSLRs.  If you're shooting in sunny or partly sunny conditions, you'll need an ND (neutral density) filter to reduce how much light is reaching the lens.  This will allow you to keep the cinematic look.  Without an ND filter, you'll have so much in focus that it will look like you filmed with a camcorder.  Look for a variable ND filter that can give you 2 to 6 to 2 to 8 stops of light reduction.  Lenses can have different filter thread sizes (measured in mm).  Most professional Canon lenses use a 77mm filter thread, so you may be able to get away with buying only one or two ND filters.
7. Have lots of batteries on hand.  If you're shooting live events where the camera cannot be plugged into the wall for power, ensure you have lots of extra batteries.  When recording video, DSLRs drain batteries very quickly.  I recommend having a minimum of three batteries for each camera if you want to film weddings or other long events.  Bring your battery chargers with you just in case you need to recharge them on location.
8. Always use full manual exposure.  Even mid-range DSLRs that shoot video should allow you to have full manual control over your Aperture (F-stop), shutter speed, and ISO settings.
9. Focusing will be even more difficult in low-light situations.  Modern DSLRs can produce fantastic images at high ISOs, but because the camera sensor is doing extra processing for low-light settings, the image on your Live View LCD will be less sharp than when you're shooting in daylight.  It will be more difficult to tell if your focus is set correctly.  Use an on-camera LED light or another light strategically positioned and "gelled" to give your camera more light to work with so you get sharper and less noisy footage.
10. Faster memory cards will save you time.  Ensure you purchase CLASS 10 or faster SD/Compact Flash memory cards for your camera.  If you invest extra in faster cards, you'll save time transferring footage from long shooting days.  Mid-range cards will transfer at about 60 MB/s over a USB 3 connection and high end cards will transfer at 80-100+ MB/s.

Montana promo videos

Make it Count - an incredible adventure travel montage

Why it works:

• Fast-paced editing to set the pulse.
• Montages with the filmmaker running across the frame in different countries.
• Makes you want to see more by this filmmaker. 
• Music doesn't overpower the message or the visuals.
• The variety

How to Get Great Interview Footage

9 Tips to shoot an interview Documentary Style
Create an outline with several points you want to cover.

Have the subject repeat the question in their answer.

Shoulder rig with follow focus used during documentary interview.
[frame from Shooting a Documentary Style Interview - Video Tutorial - YouTube]

Shoot your interview with two cameras. Choose the camera positions by where you would like the subject to look. One wider shot showing the subject in their environment, and a close up camera that creates intimacy with the subject.

Capture two audio sources in case one of them has a problem. A wireless lav mic is great for interviews because it cuts down on background noise. A shotgun mic can capture a second audio source.

When a question sparks emotion, follow it up with questions along the same line.

Make the interview conversational and always look at your subject so they feel comfortable.

Get B-Roll about everything possible that your subject talks about.  It will make the editing process go much smoother and makes the piece a lot richer.

Don’t give out specific questions in advance
I cannot stress this point strongly enough. It’s perfectly acceptable to give someone a general idea of what the interview will be about, but do not give them your list of questions. If you do, they will try to memorize their answers in advance and you will lose spontaneity and freshness. Your interview will end up feeling stale, unauthentic and rehearsed. [via: Top 10 Video Interviewing Tips for Documentary Filmmaking]

Learn more:

What I Learned After Conducting 40+ Interviews for My First Feature Documentary

Top 10 Video Interviewing Tips for Documentary Filmmaking

Major Motion Pictures are Still Shot on Film

Film is not dead just yet for major motion pictures.

Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic Interstellar was shot on film.  Even the upcoming Star Wars sequel, Episode VII was shockingly shot on film (despite the last two movies being shot 100% digital).

Other notable motion pictures shot on film:

• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Mission Impossible 5
• Jurassic World
• Cinderella
• Foxcatcher

Read more:

RedShark News - Kodak confirms that film isn't going away

The Best Cinematographers in the Last 25 Years

Roger Deakins - IMDb
The Cohen brothers' man of choice.

Skyfall
True Grit
Doubt
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
No Country for Old Men
A Beautiful Mind
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Big Lebowski
Kundun
Courage Under Fire
The Shawshank Redemption

Janusz Kaminski - IMDb
Spielberg's cinematographer

War Horse
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Terminal
Catch Me if You Can
Minority Report
Saving Private Ryan
Amistad
Schindler's List

Things usually work out better than you plan. When you're shooting a film you're so close to it, it rarely lives up to your expectations while you're there. You always want it to be better, more perfect. When you see a cut, maybe two or three months later, you come to it fresh. It's generally much better than you thought it would be.

Someone said to me, early on in film school... if you can photograph the human face you can photograph anything, because that is the most difficult and most interesting thing to photograph. If you can light and photograph the human face to bring out what's within that human face you can do anything.

The prep period is especially important. Joel and Ethan Coen and I really enjoy it. By the time we're on the set, we're discussing not what we're doing that day but rather something we're doing later that may be a problem.

Emmanuel Lubezki - IMDb
Alfonso Cuarón's go-to cinematographer
Birdman
Gravity
The Tree of Life
Burn After Reading
Children of Men
The New World
Meet Joe Black
A Walk in the Clouds
A Little Princess

Jeff Cronenweth - IMDb
David Fincher's favorite master of light.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Social Network
Fight Club
Hitchcock

Wally Pfister - IMDb
Christopher Nolan's right hand man.

The Dark Knight Rises
Inception
Intersellar
The Dark Knight
The Prestige
Batman Begins
Memento

"Sadly, some people think of good cinematography as a beautiful sunset or a spectacular vista. I believe we affect the audience in a much more subtle way. We're manipulating them emotionally with light, darkness, colors, contrast and composition. I know the Dogme 95 theories, but I believe actors respond to light. Just look at a Rembrandt or Caraveggio painting or any of the Dutch masters, and tell me light isn't important. The pictures have to be true to the narrative, but I like to test the boundaries and see how far I can go."

"Film has an enormous amount of exposure latitude and dynamic range, which gives us infinite creative ability in creating images. I can underexpose it by 3 stops and overexpose it by 5 stops within the same frame and see the entire spectrum on the screen. That's simply not possible in any digital format I've seen. Every digital camera is trying hard to emulate 35mm film, and there's a reason for that."

 
Robert Richardson - IMDb
Django Unchained
Hugo
Shutter Island
Inglourious Basterds
The Aviator
Snow Fall on Cedars
The Horse Whisperer
Casino
JFK
Born on the Fourth of July
Platoon

Bruno Delbonnel - IMDb
Inside Llewyn Davis
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
A Very Long Engagement
Amelie

John Toll - IMDb
Braveheart
Last Samurai
The Thin Red Line
Legends of the Fall
Cloud Atlas
Gone Baby Gone

Eduardo Serra - IMDb
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and II
Defiance
Blood Diamond
Girl With a Pearl Earring (Oscar nominee)
Unbreakable
What Dreams May Come
The Wings of the Dove (Oscar nominee)


Caleb Deschanel - IMDb
Passion of the Christ
The Patriot
Anna and the King
The Natural
Jack Reacher
Fly Away Home

Matthew Libatique - IMDb
Cinematographer for Darren Aronofsky (4 of his last 5 movies as of 2014)
Black Swan
Iron Man 2
Iron Man
The Fountain
Everything is Illuminated
Requiem for a Dream

Andrew Lesnie - IMDb
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Hobbit Part 1 & 2
King Kong

Michael Seresin - IMDb
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Directed by Alfonso Cuarón)

Newton Thomas Sigel - IMDb
Drive
Three Kings
X-Men
X-Men 2


Danny Cohen - IMDb
Les Misérables
The King's Speech

Bill Pope - IMDb


The Matrix

John Mathieson - IMDb


Discover more cinematographers

IMDb: Masters of Cinematography - a list by TarquinMcLusky

Raphael Rogers | inspiration of the week

Acting as a one man band, filmmaker and writer Raphael Rogers wrote, filmed, and edited his 8 minute Sci-Fi short film "Beyond".  The film boasts impressive visual effects layered on practical shooting locations, all in California.

Rogers shot "Beyond" with a shoestring budget using a Canon C100 camera when a RED camera was not available.  He filmed in three days in March 2013 and posted it to Youtube on August 21, 2013.

"Universal Pictures’ Syfy Films division has optioned the rights to the sci-fi short Beyond, with the short’s director on board to produce and helm the big-screen translation."

As of January 2015, the film has an "announced" status on IMDB, so it may be filmed in 2015 and released in 2016.

In November 2011 Rogers posted a 1 min, 20 second teaser video that utilized some slick editing and post-production work to create a Hollywood-style action/thriller feel.

Freeze frames from the film:

Read more:

Syfy Films Picks Up Sci-Fi Short 'Beyond' (Exclusive) - The Hollywood Reporter

Interview with Raphael Rogers - the director of Beyond | One Small Window

Beyond (2015) - IMDb

Filmmaker's Spotlight - A One Man Band | Hurlbut Visuals
(March 2014)