Filming a Cinematic Lifestyle Video

1. Trailer: Being able to create videos that capture a lifestyle and applying it to fashion or some of the funnest projects. Your job is essentially to capture the best of that lifestyle. You're making a glamorized, you're making it the best that it could possibly be. Hi, I'm Arnold and I spent years shooting with some of the top brands, creating lifestyle look book, videos. These tips and tricks I've learned come from years of capturing all of these types of videos and understanding what goes on behind the scenes. Now this course is perfect for the beginner or someone who was looking to take your video to the next step. My goal as your instructor in this class is to give you a framework to plan stylized, and shoot a fun, aesthetically pleasing lifestyle Look Book, video. If you're ready to begin, I'll see you on the inside. 2. Setting the Scene: Hey, and welcome to the class. So first thing we're going to talk about is location known where you're going to shoot, time of day you're going to shoot and being familiar with the place that you're going to shoot it. Now, for example, I'm here at Khan poly resort, which is a beach type area. There's a ton of hotels here and it's all really nice and well put together. I live like 510 minutes on the streets. I'm really familiar with this area. Now. That is in my advantage because I know exactly where to shoot at. I know how to make the most use or the best use of my time when I hire a model or when I have someone that's here shooting with me on a limited time. And with a lot of these productions, you'd have a limited time. Imagine having the makeup artist here, the hair person here, the model here. And you know, your sunlight is like burning away for golden hour. So a lot of this is important to take into consideration as you're going out and shooting your lifestyle shoot. So a good tip to have when you're going out shooting is to know your location and plan out the route that you're going to take as the sun goes down, as around like 34 o'clock right now, as the sun goes down, the sun's going to change where it lights up. So this part that's lit up right now wasn't lit up like not too long ago. And the camera is actually in the place that's really shady right now, but in 20 minutes or so it's going to be lit up. So understanding that and understanding how this plays into the lifestyle of the shot that you are taking. Say for example, you're shooting an ocean theme, that type of lifestyle shoot. There are many different types of ocean Team shoots, whether it's at the same, whether it's on the reef or maybe it's on a low tide reifi Sandy spot. It's good to have a familiarity with where you're shooting and what type of theme that you're going for because that way you can make the best bit of shooting it. In the next section, we're going to talk about style and having the right feeling so that when you're shooting this lifestyle type video, it's very authentic and Ron, that people see and know that you know what you're doing and it communicates the best type of feel that fits in with what you're shooting. So if you're from a place where you think it's not as photogenic. For example, like maybe you're in a suburb, try and think of the most photogenic spot. But if you can't, you could rent out studios. And with the studios is best to know where the light comes in from because with what I do, especially natural light is very important. So knowing where the light comes in and knowing where to make the best use of all that light and where to place your light is very important for understanding the scene. And this also segments into using props, because as you're shooting all of this is important to build the setting in seeing out. So when you do that, it's important to have props. For example, I'm doing beat because this is my whole lifestyle. Beach includes surfboards, skateboards, rollerblading, or fins, whatever it is, it's very important that you know exactly what fits in, right, with the scene that you're shooting at. So for this chapter, key things to take note are make sure you understand the scene or setting that your app. So then when we're filming this, it builds the whole scene. Be familiar with it, understand how the light works on it, and then have a set schedule or plan as you're going through and shooting all of this. 3. Feel + Style: Now these are the two things that really make up your video or film. Let's break it down. So emotion is how you make your vir, feel after they watched your video, say for example, you're shooting a lifestyle video at the beach. The first thing you need to consider is, what is this feeling that you want people to feel when they think about this video? Wonder at the beach. So what comes to mind for me is sunshine, feel unhappy, you're on vacation, there's tropical Blue Waters. You feel relaxed. You feel like dang, this is paradise. This is the dream. That is the feeling that I think about when I think of beach lifestyle type videos. Now we wanna take into consideration all the different little things that make people feel that way. So like I mentioned, a Blue Waters vacation feelings and like surfing. You have to consider how all of these little factors play into your ultimate film or video and makes the viewer feel like they are in Hawaii. Now the emotion drives into the cool factor of the video, which is the style factor. Style is something that separates your film from just any other film. You could shoot something at the beach in have all the elements that I mentioned, like water and surf boards and what not. But if you don't have proper styling, it's gonna come off inauthentic. And authenticity is the key to making something that is good. Repeat after me, authenticity is the key to making something that is good and compelling. And when you make videos for people, you want it to be big, good, compelling, especially for marketing because you want the viewer to take action. So you're working with a brand. The brand definitely wants more customers. And when you have a good video that really drives people to want to buy from that brand. That brand is going to hire you more because you're bringing them more clients, you're making them money. So that's how I feel. The feeling connects with the style of it. And when you have the feeling and Stile go together very well, it's going to be a powerful piece. Now style doesn't come easy. Style takes a lot of observation depending on your niche and depending what you do, it's very important to be authentic. So when I say that, I think about the beach lifestyle, of course, because that's the left side I'll live and many people will just come to the beach. They shoot videos with the same stuff and they call it a day. The thing with this beach lifestyle is there's so many little US-centric things that make it raw and authentic and real. And these subtle little things communicate to the viewer that this is an authentic video. So for example, with bring props to the scene, like someone could bring a surf board. It might be, you know, just some cheap sir, for the got off Craigslist. But to anyone that knows and to a lot of yours too. They are surprisingly very sharp and intuitive about things that are inauthentic. And you might just have bought a $20 surfboard off Craigslist, but that surfboard doesn't match the theme of the video and it comes up very inauthentic. Now, the best way to learn all this and to stylize your video properly is to know which type of props go well with that scene. So for example, if I were to do a contemporary beat surf lifestyles shoot, I'll pick the right type of surfboards that go with that scene that looks cool and not just some sort of force from the nineties or not to some surfboard from the past that doesn't fit in with the theme that I'm going for now. Now, the seventies is coming back in and there are a lot of closer force from the seventies that are very romanticized now. And it's totally okay to bring those two reports back and issued with it these days. What I'm saying is you have to be knowledgeable of what prompts we'd bring into a scene and how you can bring this scene to life and incorporated all into style. And style is the name of the game, especially if we're doing a look book type video. Think about brains like gucci, Louis Vuitton. There styling is top-notch. They create a sense of feel and style where you're like, wow and taken a back, you know, you're in awe because this is so grand and luxurious and amazing. And think about all the different types of clothing and lifestyle look book type stuff out there. It's a huge range that all incorporates style as well. Think about street where, street where has all these different ways to wearing your shoes, how pain through cuffed and how like people are addressed to match Street where and essentially that is style. Like how things fit in perfectly, where it reflects the lifestyle of the people around there. It reflects the culture of the people that you're trying to shoot. And it's a great representation of what makes your video look book, look authentic and separates you out from all the ones that aren't. Now if you're doing a gate for someone and you're not quite sure what style to do. What I would recommend is you actually do your research, look up a few brands that are similar to the brand that you're working for. Notice the things that they're doing it. Notice what things they have in common. See what elements make their photos good, what prompts make their photos good? What colors make their photos good? All of these go into understanding this style and in knowing so you can emulate that style and create something that is as authentic as possible. 4. Lenses to Use: So today we're talking about the lens options that we have. And here two lenses that I use a lot. And while these may not be the typical lenses that people use, these are the ones that I bring all my travel since I am in Hawaii right now. And let me go through this one, which is the canon 24 to 105 F4. And the reason why I like this so much is because it's super versatile. It has 24, which is super wide as 35, which is in between like 50, which is what we will say is the most accurate focal distance because it's like essentially what your eye sees. I think the math shows that it's actually around 42 or something. But let's just say it's 50 for now. So 35 is in between 50 and something wide. So it shows something that's very similar to what you're ICs and at the same time covers a bit wider of a view versus when you shoot with a 50 millimeter, it's very tightly cropped in. So that has a lot of that in here. And finally, you have the 50 to a 100 plus region that you can explore, which is very zoomed in and very up close to the subject so that you can show what detail is in the shot. And as I mentioned in my other class, the most important thing in setting a scene as having the whole scene setup in a wide view. The medium shot, which is kind of close, it shows the scene that's going on and also it shows the subject. And the last shot is the detail shot, which is way up close, zoomed in showing the details of the subject that you are filming. Now, with all of those in order, you have the whole scene setup and that makes for a good film or video. And that is why I think this is a very versatile lens because it covers all of those bases. Now when I mentioned the focal distance on these lenses, it is actually in a full-frame point of view. So typically with many crops sensory cameras, you get the 1855 lens that comes with it. And when you shoot with an 18 to 55, it's not actually 18 on the widest lag. It is actually 18 times 1.6. So you would get something around maybe 24, which is perfect dinner situation because that's exactly what I mentioned. And just like with all the other focal length as well and that lens, it does have to be multiplied by 1.6 for you to get what I am referring to, since I am using a full-frame camera. Now, that also doesn't mean you shouldn't be discouraged they were shooting with a crop sensor camera because you can still capture just as good a film and as long as you know what to do and what elements to capture. For instance, there's also micro four-thirds cameras which have a two times crop factor. So if you're shooting what the CH4 or some of the other Panasonic options or most micro four-thirds cameras, it's two times what is the distance of the lens? So say for example, your lens says it's 18 to 50, it's actually 36200. Okay, now, let's get on to the next lesson. 5. Shot Analysis + Shot Ideas: In this section, we're going to break down my video shot by shot. And I'm going to explain the thought process behind all of these shots that I took. So let's begin by playing the whole thing first. Okay. So this scene that like because it shows her in-frame and it's not super zoomed in, not suited for zoomed out. It's her in a very flattering position just doing something dynamic, which in this case is brushing her hair back into her. Just this scene, as you can tell, is also very similarly compose. It shows her in-frame, not too tightly cropped, not too wide, and doing something dynamic again. This next scene is very up close. It's a detail shot like I call. It, shows her brushing the tree so that you get a sense or the viewer gets a sense of feeling the tree. It also does a good job of establishing the setting and what's in it. Now there's a few things to notice with this 1. First 1 is that there's separation between her and the background because it's at a lower aperture, so it focuses on her. The second thing is that her hand is still on the tree. So it shows the connection between that last seen in this scene, putting it all together with her hand on the tree, establishing it for the viewer. Now this is a panning shot of the tree so that I can use it to transition into another scene. Completely takes the attention our buffer, and into something else. And at the same time establishes that it is indeed somewhere with a tree and somewhere that is green and forced the for this shot, I noticed that the cameras coming from a lower angle on the side and come and up slowly to bring attention into her holding onto both sides of this tree about to climb onto the tree. Okay. So this scene now is her on the tree. That last shot setup for this shot to make sense. So right here is her on the tree focused on her. There's some dynamic action going on, and it's also panning at the same time so that the viewer has to be dynamic and engaging going on so that it keeps them focused. Okay, very similar composition to last shot, but this shot shows a another scene of her sit in the same spot. And that just creates a scene like a whole scene of what is going on. Because the first one it shows your closing our eyes doing something else. And this is her with her eyes opening, smiling. And it's also still dynamic, as you can see, I'm painting from the left to the right because that always keeps the viewer's attention. So this one is fast, dynamic in a way it's a transition from the last scene to the next scene. I chose us because the scene that I'm going to put after this is her continuing this dance in slow motion with the same type of depth of field where she's for the most part in focus and the back is a bit blurry. So here is a very dynamic shot of her dancing. And it shows her moving from the right side of our v right now to the left side of our view. And at the same time I'm also painting the camera from the left side to the right side. So this creates a type of flow in the shot so that it keeps the viewer's attention on the scene. You could also see her briefly make eye contact and smile. So that brings a lot of attention to her smell as she's doing the dance. This next shot is actually shaky. It's not something that people technically would think is good looking the personally for my style, I think it is very cool and engaging because it's active. It shows her dancing and has me moving. And it kinda shows a very familiar, friendly type of field to this. It shows that like, hey, the person that is shooting this film is familiar with the model and they're both comfortable and working well together so that they can create something that is in sync. So this seen the way that I typically like to edit it as I would put some grain on it, I would make it seem like it's a home type video, like it's either VHS or some super eight film. That way it has this very intimate feel to it and it looks raw and authentic. This shot here shows the building that she's in and shows the establishment how wide it is, how big it is. And her on their hand railing just sets the whole scene up in a way where we can see her and we can also see the scene behind her eye like this in particular, because it is utilizing the rule of third, you can see that she's on the third left of the screen and moving to the second, third of the whole frame. So this in a way is dynamic. It's framed well, and it establishes where the scene is taking place. And finally, it's a great shot to end this whole video with. That's why in the sample, I showed that the logo should be going there. And you can simply do a fade in, fade out type a logo. 6. Ending: Okay, thanks for watching. Now, I know there are a lot of steps to go on about doing this, but don't get discouraged. There's many different ways to do it. Just take it step by step, apply one thing, shoots, practice some more. Apply the other steps, shoot practice some more and eventually they will turn out really good. Anyways, I would love to hear what you think about this and any other improvements that you'd like to see or stuff you'd like to see for future videos, please let me know. Alright, thanks a lot.