Shooting Professional Event Videos

1. Intro: Event videos are a great way to earn a living as a freelance videographer or cinematographer. Events are happening everywhere, every time, maybe with the exception of a worldwide pandemic, I suppose. And there are so many of them that it's relatively easy to get jobs even as beginner. My name is Dennis and I'm a freelance cinematographer based out of Hamburg, Germany. And I had been making event videos for over three years now, I've been too tiny to our events where it was hard to find anything interesting to shoot and amazing three-day events where I didn't know where to point the camera first. And honestly in those years I've learned what works and I have learned what doesn't work. So in this beginner's class, I'm going to take you step-by-step through the process of making great event videos for your clients. Which camera do I use? Do you need 4K or even 6K resolution? Which stabilizer should I work with? How can my shots be better than those of my competitors? Which mistakes should I avoid? And do I need to talk to people on the event? I will answer all of those and many, many more questions in this course. Guys, the last few years for me have been a journey to realize that, you know, to make great videos and films that has much less to do with the camera you choose or how expensive your lenses. Because at the end of the day, I think it really comes down to the skills of the man or woman behind the camera. And that's exactly what I'm going to teach you how to do. So without further ado. I'm excited to use this downtime that many of us have these days and get ready for when the event industry starts off again and needs this army of talented individuals to capture those events for them. See you inside the course. 2. Choose a Camera: So let's get started with our first lesson. And before we can go out and produce amazing event videos that capture the essence of the moment and awakening excitement and extreme cases of FOMO and everybody watching. Well, we first need the right equipment to make that video, right? So here's what I consider to be the necessary gear for event video production. First, let's talk about the camera. And the first thing I want you to understand is that there really is no such thing as the one perfect camera. Every camera has a different mix of functionality, usability, purpose, and of course, pricing. And so the first lesson is not to make this one mistake. So just look at superficial specs like the image resolution, maybe frame rate options or the bit depth of the image and reality, it's a bit more complex than that. And when you handle a camera on a job, you might quickly forget about resolution and worry more about reliability, usability, and other things. So for now, let's take a look at the few relevant factors for choosing the right camera for event videos, in my opinion. And by the way, these are in no particular order because they all play into consideration. And at the end of the day, it's up to you as a professional to make that decision, image quality. So the first thing we want to look at is the image quality. And image quality has a lot of fact mission itself like Resolution, Color, Science, bit depth, dynamic range, and much more. But to keep it simple, I personally like to have at least a 4K or UHD image to capture the quality of footage that I want. And more importantly, to be able to crop in post-production. And here's why event videos can be fast at times and you might not always be as close to your subject as you want. So being able to crop in a bit in post production while maintaining a sharp image is really, really helpful. So then are you saying I cannot shoot event videos and ten ADP? Of course not. I think in 2020 you can still totally deliver event videos and ten ADP. And I do that most of the time actually just because that's what the clients prefer or in other cases, all they really need, you know, many people watch videos on their phones and on platforms with lots of compression like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. So most cases 4K video, 4K resolution won't really matter. But what I do say is that I appreciate the flexibility that 4K resolution gives me over ten ATP for the types of events leaders we talk about today. Most mirrorless or DSLR cameras come with the basic specs that really fits your needs. And most of the time, some will be better at some things and some will be better another things. But in general, in order to make a really good event video, it will not fail at the point of my camera, but at my skills as a camera operator, but more on that later. So the next and maybe slightly counter-intuitive thing to consider or your potential client expectations. And here's what I mean by that. There was a dirty, dirty secret in the lower end of video production industry. And by Laura di actually so mean what we're doing right now. That doesn't evolve like really big sets with lots of people working. A one-person crew will always be some sort of low end of video production. So in this case, those dirty, dirty secret right here to a certain degree and a certain level, the size of your camera kind of matters more than your skills as a filmmaker or even the final results sometimes. So to put a plainly, some clients don't want you walking around with photography camera because that's just not legit. You know, they want you to be walking around with the fully Rick cinema camera. That looks like the real deal. And in those clients minds, that's the difference between videographer or video person and a real professional cinematographer is the difference between a kid who just wants to earn a couple of bucks by making some little videos. And a professional that knows how to get the job done. And it's also often the difference between being paid $500 for a video or $5 thousand for pretty much the same video. And that's why you will see some people buying red cameras setups for over $50 thousand or even more to produce results that they could probably achieve with the setup for a fraction of the price. And I have a specific memory where I was totally confused about something like that. I used to work for a video production company that produces content mainly for YouTube. And they were usually recording in 8K raw for YouTube, a platform where the vast majority of people don't watch an 8K. They don't watch in 6K. They don't even watch in 4K. Most people on YouTube still watches in ten ADP or below on their tiny phone screens. And yet they somehow invested that kind of money and I didn't get it. Why didn't they get four, maybe five fully rigged out cannon C to a hundreds or something like that for the same money. And I believe the answers, apart from actual difference in production value and functionality that those cameras do offer, It's not super black and white. But generally speaking, I think the reason is that the canon probably would not have been as helpful to get more clients and jobs. And I think that's a viable business decision. But now let's make one thing really, really clear. The sturdy secret is often coming from pride and ignorance on the side of the clients. Obviously a fully rigged cinema cameras, very, very capable and in many cases will produce a better image quality then a mirrorless camera. But that does not mean at all, that's the right tool for the job and the size is definitely not the right factor to decide the quality of the work. But that being said, the best thing we asked creators can do is use this knowledge to our advantage and play with that. We will talk more about that specific topic later on. But for now I just wanted to drop that thought in your mind. Next time let's talk about functionality and here's what I put under functionality. Frame rate options, the Kodak choice, camera inputs and outputs like HDMI and STI, microphone and audio jacks, recording limits of the camera and picture profiles. And here's what it is important to me in terms of features. I like to have the ability to shoot in higher frame rates, then 24 frames per second. So I can decide to capture slow-motion footage. And for me, 60 frames per second is usually enough or that anything above is too slow for me, in my opinion most of the time. And it also needs to much light because you remember it erase the shutter speed in order to record slow motion. And apart from that, things like recording codecs and recording limits don't matter as much most of the time, recording limits can become an issue when you want to record something continuously for more than 30 minutes. And if you camera cannot do that, you might have to get yourself mixed on recorder for that single-purpose. And in terms of camera inputs, we need at least one microphone jack to capture audio and one headphone jack to monitor the audio that we're capturing. Picture profiles are nice to have for my Sony I7 three that I typically use for event videos. I usually film an H G3. And just for information here, my exact settings for H G3. Now the next thing is ergonomics, and here's what I include in ergonomics, the size and weight of the setup, the available lens options, the ease of use of the setup, any sort of Button placement, the reliability of the camera, and that's a big one. And then the question, can we use it on a Gimbal or stabilizer? And here we come back to what I said in the beginning because different cameras are made for different purposes, a big and bulky cinema camera is going to be fine and exactly what you need and want when you put it in a studio environment on a heavy tripod. But it might not be as awesome to work with if you have to carry it around handheld for hours and hours on a long shooting day. And that's probably the main counterarguments for filming on cinema cameras compared to mirrorless or DSLR cameras that have much smaller bodies and are much lighter. But even for that, there is a solution. Have you ever heard of easy Rick's later on in this section where I talk about specifically about stabilizers and things like that, I will explain more about them, but it's basically a support system that will allow you to walk around, handheld with a big camera all day without getting ready to exhausted. And that's certainly gonna create more cost and makes the setup more complicated and not quite as run and gun as a Sony ISAM three for example. But it's a good way to make the capabilities of the cinema camera more mobile-friendly and more run and gun. And that brings me to the next thing, which is the use of stabilizers and Gimbels. We will talk more about the amazing shots that we can get with the help of Gimbels and exactly how to get them. But which one do you use or if you can't even use, one will depend on the size and the weight of your setup. And pretty much any mirrorless camera will be amazing on a handheld gimble like the Rhone and S, or steady cam like the Flight camera at King or something like that. But with cinema cameras, it really depends on the exact camera model, whether those Kimball's will work or not. Some of them will need bigger Gimbels that you cannot really operate with one hand and some of them might not even fit on those bigger Gimbels. Keep that in mind when deciding for your camera. Now let's options are something that you also should really keep in mind right now, I mainly using his own DSM-3 and my Sony has the Sony amount. There are many, many amount lenses available, so that's good. And the probably most common lens man with the highest number of available lenses is the Canon ELF mount. You can also check the availability of any sort of adapter because for example, between E f and E mount, you can easily adapt any sort of lens without sacrificing too much of the quality. And you should definitely check for your specific camera. What's the available lens range? What are the available lenses for you that you can choose to do your work? Battery life and reliability in order to shoot for hours and hours, we need our cameras to be reliable and to have good battery life. We don't want to carry around dozens of batteries, and we don't want to be worried that the camera just gives up on us in the middle of the shot because it's overheating or something like that. So make sure to check both of those aspects of your camera. There are mirrorless cameras with acceptable battery life and some with terrible battery life. And cinema cameras, on the other hand, have the benefit of usually being run by a, something like a V mount battery, which is much, much bigger battery, it's much more heavy, but it also had much more power and it will be enough for the camera to last a long time. But at the end of the day, this is really too specific to generalize. So make sure to also check that. So let's quickly recap what we have learned. We talked about the benefits of 4K resolution to be able to punch in and post-production. We talked about the topic of client expectations and the influence of having a big legit looking camera. Rick, we have talked about the importance of having a camera setup that is mobile, easy to use and fast. And also we went over the importance of long-lasting batteries and reliability. So as you can see, it's not as easy as you might have thought to find the one right camera. And there might be no obvious right choice. Nonetheless, I took the time to compile a list of cameras that in my opinion and experience deliver on what we need as professional events cinematographers, I included some choices in different price ranges and from different brands, both mirrorless and also cinema cameras. And you can find the list linked in the description of the class or under this link right here. And the decision will be, of course yours. But I'm confident that with the knowledge of this class, you can make a well-informed decision. 3. Choose a Lens: Alright guys, in the last video, we talked extensively about which camera to use for event video production. And now that we have chosen our camera system, the next thing that we need to think about is obviously which lenses to use. And first off, let's address the question of prime lenses versus zoom lenses. So let's take a look at the pros and cons for both of them. Here are the pros of prime lenses. Prime lenses usually have a better image quality competitor zoom lens operating at the same focal length because they were made to perform at peak performance at that one focal length only prime lenses also often smaller and lighter compared to zoom lenses, which makes them not only easier to carry, but also easier to, for example, balance on a Gimbal are steady cam. Another benefit related to that is that the lens barrel never extends, as may do with a zoom lens doing zooming. The next thing is comparing prime lenses to zoom lenses at a similar price point, the prime lens usually will be faster, meaning it will have a wider aperture and therefore offer you more like to work with and a shallower depth of field. But there are also some not so positive things about prime lenses. Number one, you will pay a lot more money for the same amount of focal range compared to a zoom lens. For example, the typical 20-40, 70 millimeters will cover a 243585070. That makes this one typical zoom lens, basically the equivalent of four typical prime lenses, which leads me to the next Khan. They take a lot of time to use practically because you will have to switch between the lenses to get the same folk arrange. And on top you will always have to carry them around with you. And now comparison, let's look at the pros and cons of zoom lenses. Number one, with a zoom lens, we have less to pack and carry around because we have several focal length in one single lens, we need less time switching lenses during shooting because we now have the ability to just zoom in and out. And zoom lenses aren't taught usually cheaper than the equivalent set of prime lenses. But here are the cons of zoom lenses. Number one, the upticks might not be quite as good as prime lenses, especially on wide open apertures. Number to zoom lenses sometimes might be too heavy. Balance on Gimbels because oftentimes, especially with long lenses, they might create a setup that is to front-heavy too easily balance. And then the same token, the lens barrel extension during zooming might cause problems with Gimbels and steady camps as well, as well as, for example, for matte box if you use one. So let's go about the points in a bit more detailed, specifically in the context of doing commercial video production and especially event videos. So let's talk about image quality. Prime lenses and especially the very high priced ones, are generally speaking, going to offer you a superior image quality compared to the zoom lens operating on the same focal length. Now, the reason for that is because those prime lenses are really manufacturer to work best at this one single focal length. There are specialists said this one job if you want. Whereas zoom lens is kind of more like a generalist that needs to do a decent enough job at lots of different jobs. And now that's the theory. Practically speaking, there's a bit more to the story because if we look at the difference in image quality between a high-quality zoom lens and a high-quality prime lens. I can confidently say that for event videos, zoom lenses are more than enough in terms of image quality, you know, the difference will not be visible to the person who watches the video because they will never see it completely side-by-side. Your client will not ever come to you and notice or let alone complained about the fact that you shut this 150 millimeter shot at f 2.8 on a zoom lens and not on an F1 0.8 prevalence. And the goal for an event video is obviously to look amazing. Not to create a cinematic masterpiece like a feature film where you have enough time to swap out lenses and really go for the last 5% of image quality. Events are usually not the place to take your time and set up the perfect shot to get a breathtaking result. You have to get as close to this breathtaking result and seconds, and often in the first try so you don't have time to switch lenses. And that brings me to the topic of ergonomics and usability, which is even more important in the context of event videos. We simply don't have the time to switch lenses all the time. Getting the right shots to create a beautiful event video after depends on you being at the right place at the right time. And that means you've gotta be able to move fast and adapt to the shot in front of you. Let's play this out. If you carry around, let's say a 16 to 3521st 70, you have a white folk range available to you just with two lenses. If you wanted to cover a similar focal range with prime lenses, you would need at least a, let say 16 millimeter, a 2585, and maybe an 80 in comparison to the 70, those are five lenses. Now, full disclosure, the image would probably look a bit better on each one of those lenses compared to the zoom equivalent. But the problem in event video production is that you might just never get the shot in the first place because you don't have time to switch the lens. Because first of all, you wouldn't carry around five Lenses while running over the event location. And even if it would just take way too much time to change from the 85 to the 16 to get the shot in front of it. So until now, everything really points to using zoom lenses over prime lenses for event videos. But we haven't yet talked about the size and the weight issue. Zoom lenses are usually much heavier than prime lenses. Just take a look at this beefy 21st 70 Sony G master zoom lens. This thing weighs 1.95 pounds, which is 886 grams. That's almost two pounds. And on top of it even extends itself when zooming in. Just to compare, here's what this 50 millimeters Sony F0 and 0.8 looks like in comparison, 186 grams is 0.4. one pounds. And I'm speaking from experience, I can tell you that there's definitely a noticeable difference in how stable Myrone in S gimble takes those two lenses. But still, even with the heavier setup, with the solid balancing beforehand, I can get smooth shots anyway. And if for some reason you cannot balance properly because the balance point of the setup is too far out and it's maybe two front heavy. You can actually make use of counter weights just like those. They will make balancing quite a bit more easy and give you the smooth shots that you want, even with the heavier setup where the whole thing might be able to front habits. So what's the verdict on lenses specifically for event video production? In theory as well as in practical experience. I think the right thing to do for event videos is without a question at all. To use zoom lenses for most occasions, a 20-40 70 alone will get the job done nicely for you. And if there's anything where you need something, you know, super wide or super tight, like a 7200 or 1635. Most likely you will know that beforehand and you will be able to read one out or bring the one that you have. And especially for the 70 to 200, that's any way, usually not a focal length that you would put on a Gimbal. So that's going to be fine as well. 4. Choose a Stabilizer: Now that we have our camera and lenses, the next important key thing for event videography is some sort of stabilizer. And there are three different product categories that I want to talk about today. The first one are the motorized one-handed 3x is Gimbels. And I'm really sure that you know those already. Gimbels used to be those big, bulky, and expensive tools reserved only for higher level production. But in the last couple of years, those smaller hand-held Gimbels flooded the market and made stable footage basically really available to anyone. And the way those Kimball's work is that they stabilize the camera on three different axis with little motors inside that keep the camera stable at all times. And those are those three. We have this one right here, the very one, the one at the very top, which stabilizes basically the up and down movements. We have this one here, which basically stabilizes, rolling the camera left and right. And then we have this one here which stabilizes the panning motion left or right. The one thing that those Gimbels obviously don't save lies is the up and down movement that you do with your hands. So obviously the camera moving down will still be visible. The camera moving up it will be visible. But other than that, those Gimbels will give you a very smooth image. And those mortars Archie, extremely precise and if well-balanced. Beforehand, they offer extremely smooth for even with fast movements like running. Great examples of handheld Gimbels are this one here, the DJ outgrown and S, which I'm using at the moment, the Mozart Er2, which I've been using in the past, I can say it's very good. And then obviously the Zion crane lineup is very, very popular as well. The other type of stabilised around the market are the steady camps, hold on. And the main difference prosthetic camps besides the size itself, is that the stabilization happens completely mechanically. There are no electronics involved whatsoever, at least in this type of steady cam, there's some where you can connect monitors and stuff, but the stabilization is completely mechanical. And with the weights built, the silicon looks like this, where you have the one stabilisation here, left and right, where you can have the panning left and right stabilized. You have to tilt up and down. And then you have this handled right here, which basically stabilizes in pretty much all directions. So the main difference with a steady chemists that us, the steady came operator, have to do a considerable amount of work with lots of practice involved to keep the steady cam really stable, even close to the stability of a motorized Kimball. The most popular products in the lower budget category of steady camps are the Flight camera at King, which is this one here. And then the more expensive glide cam series. There are also a bunch of very cheap knockoff brands available on the market, but I would keep my fingers off them as they don't really compare instability and quality overall. So let's go about the different aspects of those handheld Gimbels in comparison with the steady camps. Number one is that Gimbels are going to give you a smoother results, easier. They will not need a lot of practice to get really good results with the Gimbal compared to a steady cam. Apart from that, it's worth mentioning that without being a pro or con in itself, the kind of stabilization that you get with both of those systems looks a little bit different. Generally, Gimbels will give you a almost clinically precise stabilization that in some people's eyes look unnatural and somewhat robotic. And I personally agree with that. Steady camps on the other side maintain a more, let's say, natural and organic Look due to the fact that the movement will still be very strongly influenced by actual human movement, it will be less perfect, so to speak. And there are many people who prefer steady hands for that very reason. Now in the context of having to be fast and having to react to lots of different situations without time to maybe read balance of the time, I personally find the fast and reliable stabilization of a gimble to be a pro. And that brings me to the second probe, which is the mere fact that I don't have to rebalance my Gimbal as often as I have to rebalance the steady cam. And that's because it can take slight changes of balance and still work just fine because of the motors. For example, if I zoom in and out with the heavy zoom lens, my steady cam might have to be rebalanced. One, my Gimbal can handle that slight difference and still get perfectly stable shots. The third prose that the battery of my Gimbal actually power my camera as well while shooting. So especially on the ventures that don't last longer than maybe four to five hours, I can get longer times without having to change camera batteries, for which I would need to take it off the stabilizer anyway, regardless with the steady cam and with the Gimbal and then have to set it back on. And that all just takes time and maybe I'll lose shots. And this time, and the power of the Gimbal battery will last long enough to power Gimbel and camera at the same time for about four to five hours. Now all that being said, there are a couple of downsides to using Gimbels. I will go into more detail later, but mere reliability can be a problem with these things. They are electronic pieces of equipment and electronics can fail, and that can create real problems if you have to rely on them. And the second part is that they're not as rugged and durable as aesthetic Canvas. You know, this thing is massive, it's durable. You can, you know, if you wanted to, you could drop it and it's probably going to work just fine, which is not the case with the Gimbal. You know, you've gotta be careful how you treat it. And in the heat of a crowded event space, that might be a little bit difficult sometimes. And lastly, I think Gimbels can be a bit slow attempts. Super-fast movements are not the strength of Gimbels even with the sport mode or whatever. And just moving fast yourself even before the shot is way easier to do with the steady cam then with the Gimbal where you need to, you know, you need to be careful how you hold it and where you touch it. Now let's go over the steady chemist comparisons. First off, your steady cam is much more reliable in terms of build quality and being safe from any technical issues. I have had a gimble give up on me once during issued without any obvious reason or misuse of my site. And I ended up having to finish the gig without a stabilizer. And guys. That is an important point, like really, really important. If you as a camera operator, to not trust your gear, you might as well leave it at home, honestly. And that's why I really appreciate the physical reliability of a steady cam. And before we go into the negative points, obviously aesthetic m is very capable of getting a smooth results. I'm not going to repeat that because that's the job that it's built to do. But there are a bunch of things that are problematic with static camps in my opinion. The first thing is that it is more difficult to balance and it needs rebalancing more often. And both of those things have an influence on the speed of your work. And speed can be very important in event videography. Again, it's always context-dependent. For example, let's use the very common example of zooming in and out with the zoom lens after, like I already said, that will change the balance of the whole setup to the degree that you need to rebalance the steady cam to get really perfectly smooth shots and ultimate control over Aesthetic camp. And you know, maybe that's something that you could potentially work out by being very experienced and very fast with your steady cam so that you can do those kinds of changes on the run between the shots. And the final thing is the problem of wind. Jimbo will be relatively untouched by wind within a reasonable range. It doesn't care. You will get smooth shots anyway with the steady cam, that's a bit different in my experience, stronger winds will easily throw off your balance and make it extremely much harder to get smooth shots at all. And with events often being outside, that can create problems as well. So for me personally, I have used Gimbels before. I have used static camps and since I changed to the Ronen S, I did not have any reliability issues. And so for me, I have decided to stick with Gimbels for now. They give me stable shots with less work for me to do. And they offer prolongs battery life, camera setup. And they also let me do some movements that I could probably not even do with my steady cam. But at the end of the day, it's also a bit of a style question and a personal preference. I've shot events was steady camps before. And especially if you give yourself a couple of weeks of experience, that is definitely possible and a great way to work. Now I quickly want to touch on easy rakes. We have talked about the idea of using cinema cameras for event video in the beginning. And the main argument for not doing that would be the sheer size and the weight of the camera setup that you will need to carry around a handheld all day. And the answer to that is the easy Rick or similar piece of gear obviously. But the easier because not a stabilizer in the sense that a gimble or steady chemists, in fact, both are often used together. The easy Rick does is that it carries the weight of the camera for you to be able to carry a set-up like this for the whole shooting day without getting too exhausted. And in that way, you can have a handheld cinema camera setup and the argument of physical exhaustion is gone. Now, easy R6 are quite a bit more expensive than stabilizers and with smaller set-ups, you wouldn't even need them in the first place. But for those of you who consider shooting with the cinema camera, you would have a different budget anyway, probably show I found a worthwhile to include them here and you should definitely check them out. If that's something you're thinking about. 5. Other Equipment: There are a couple of other things that you might find useful on your event video shoot. So I quickly want to mention those right now. Number one is obviously a microphone. You should always have a microphone available for capturing room tone and potentially some interviews that might be useful. I like bringing my on-camera shotgun microphone, like the Road Video Mike pro for the room tone. And if I have any sort of talking head and interview sequences coming up, I prefer to use lavalier microphones with a wireless connection to have consistent audio quality regardless of how close or how far I am standing from the subject. And for those times I like to use my wrote wireless go. Next, a tripod should be always in your camera package, even without a specific use case that you could think of beforehand, that will be the time where you need one. Maybe you want to record a longer sequence on the locked frame. Maybe you want to create a hyper lapse or timelapse and you need the camera to be still. A small tripod is enough to get the job done and you will be thankful to have with you when you need it. I also recommend that you bring a small and battery powered LED panel. The reason is simple. First of all, they're really easy to carry and light. And at 1 in time, you will find a light like that really handy. Maybe you need just a bit more light for the talking head or interview that you're recording. Or maybe you want to like really anything. There really so many possibilities where you would want to use a little light and it's small enough to not be such a big decision. So I would say just take it. And finally, I will take a set of variable ND filters for anyone who doesn't know ND filters, think of them basically as sunglasses for your lens. Whenever you shoot outside at daytime, you will need those to maintain proper shutter speed and aperture in your image. 6. Preparation for the Shoot: Now that we have the necessary gear covered, let's talk about how we can best prepare for a good shooting experience, both for yourself but also for your client. Your job as a videographer and the event is to inform yourself properly so that you know where to be, at what time, who or what is important. On other words, What's your subject? So basically it comes down to clear communication with your client beforehand. Make sure that you have all your questions answered and you know what the clients want and you know what is important to them on the event. And here's what I usually want to know before I can start my shoot. How longest even going to be. What are the important happenings during this event? What kind of shots would you like me to get? Is there any interview or talking head section plant? How long shall the final video be? Are there any specific people to focus on and then having all those bases covered, is there anything that is especially important to you now apart from getting the basic information of what, when, and where, it is helpful to dive a bit deeper into the location. I think, especially if it's a bigger event and maybe a location that you haven't been to before. I recommend visiting it before the shoot if you can. And it's not something that I do with every little event video, but for the bigger gigs I think it's worth doing. And here are some things you want to be aware of when you visit the location, beautiful corners. Is there any specific corner that you can see that might make for a nice framing? And how about the access? Can you access the complete location without any restrictions? Or maybe you need to organize some access for yourself, apart from obviously the actual location of the whole event location and the size of the venue. You can save yourself a lot of time and stress. If you know the good spots to film from your location, Can you make amazing foreground revealed from this one spot? Does the image have maybe really great depth? If you film from this way, will the framing look especially good? Just two steps to the left. Every place has positions from which you image will look best. And sometimes during the event, you won't find them because you're too busy looking left and right and being in the zone, You know, so use your chance to do that beforehand. So you have an advantage when it's time to get the shot. 7. Client Expectations: Learn about your client's wishes and expectations. In this section, let's talk about your client's wishes and expectations you see. I believe that there's always a discrepancy between what's actually happening and the client's perception of what's happening. Let me explain. Imagine you come to the event to make an event video, okay? You research the location, you know what the event is all about, you know which shots to get and you have all the necessary information. The very first meeting between you and your client that you had four weeks ago. Why? Because you took notes and you care. You're a great videographer, Good job. And because of that, you feel like you don't want to burden your precious client with all those annoying questions again, on the already stressful day of the event, right? Sounds amazing. So far, so good. So you just do your job, get amazing shots and do everything you need to do for great video. Now the client doesn't necessarily see it that way and doesn't necessarily know all that. They might not know that you took notes and remember those nodes. They might not know that you know what to do, and that's why you don't communicate with them as much. They might as well. Things that you don't take it seriously or that you don't care enough to ask them. It's very possible that both your client and you experienced the same situation totally differently. And that's why it's not only important that you do your job, use professional equipment and are trustworthy as a professional, it's also just as important that you communicate exactly that to your client because in some sense, if they don't know, it might as well not be the case. You know what I mean? So long story short, I recommend that you rather over-communicate then under communicate with your client respectfully, make sure that they always know what's happening and ask them several times for their input and preferences. What does the client really want? People ask for event videos, but means something very specific in their head. And not everybody agrees on what an event video should look like. Do they just want to show up the cool location so they can get new clients for themselves. Is it going to be some kind of internal recap video for the employees? Maybe the real deal is to present special brands for getting sponsorship, you know, ask yourself, who are the stakeholders? Which moments are important? Which locations and areas on the venue are important? Which people are important? Asked all those questions and shoot and edit the video accordingly and keep your client and check about all of it. And you will be on the same page all the way. 8. The 10 Most Important Shots: In the previous video, we have covered the gear that we need for event video production and we talked about the process of preparation. But today's the day it's time to get to work and shoot the event. So to start off right away, here are the ten shots you want to get for your event video. Number one, establishing shot again in no particular order. The first shot that I wanna mention is the establishing shot. And just a little refresher, what is an establishing shot? Basically you're established or is there to establish the context of the video, it gives the viewer an idea of where something is happening and maybe even what is happening practically establishes are usually white charts that show the location as a whole. And those can work both from the ground, but also has drawn shot if you have location, why that works, the reason establishes are important is to give the viewer an idea of where they are. But also it's just a great way to start the video. Number two, drone shots. Bronchials are great way to add different perspective to your event video and increase the production value. Many things just look more interesting. It's more special from above. And so I definitely recommend getting drone shots, obviously always in compliance with the local loss. Number three, smiling faces and people having fun, regardless of what sort of event or brand or location you want to promote with your video. One of the best ways to make something look at is to put smiling people into the fray. Just kidding. If we, as the viewer see other humans genuinely having a good time doing something that makes the activity that they're doing and the location that they do it in, look so much better. It basically sends the signal. Look at those beautiful people having a great time doing this wonderful thing. That must mean it's really fun. I want to do it too. And so people smiling, laughing, and having fun should be one of the main things you're looking for from whatever perspective you're Filming, that's always a good idea. Number four, people interacting with the camera as an extension of people smiling. It's also good to have people interacting with the camera in general. And as you can probably imagine, different people react differently to a camera being held on their face and pointed at them. And some people are uncomfortable. And for those, I think it's your job as a videographer to recognize that early and obviously Stop filming because your job is not to be there and make the guests feel uncomfortable. Your job is to make the whole event look amazing on camera, and that obviously includes the people you are filming. But then there are those people who get really, really excited about being on camera and they will do all kinds of funny and silly things when you point a camera at them. And those are interesting for you because it creates moments, smiles, actions in all the good stuff you can use later on. One thing that I learned later on my career, the simple fact that it's really helpful to be BIT outgoing in these moments may a camera operators are actually super technical and introverted people. And for those occasions, it's really helpful to you to push yourself as much as you can to break out of that a little bit and just talk to people. And often it doesn't need much of a conversation even at all, you know, Smalltalk would do the job. Ask them if they enjoy the event, make a funny comment or joke to elicit a response. And of course, this is very much a soft skill and you'll get better at it over time with more experience. Number five, all important people. So depending on the event, that will be often one or more individuals that are important in the context of the event. So that might be. The CEO of the company that celebrates their anniversary. It might be some celebrity being invited to some charity event on a wedding and obviously would be the bride and the groom. You get the idea. And here's what the preparation comes in handy because you have to have a complete list of who's important on that day and also an idea of when they will be, where. So you can make sure to include them in the video. Make sure to get at least a few good-looking shots of them that you can later use in your film. You might never use them, but you wanna be ready when your client comes and asks you, hey, do you have a couple of shots of Jimmy, the CEO by any chance? And it would be a sad answer if you had to say no to that. So make sure to always get the important people in front of your lens. And also make sure that it's not just the shot with her face on it. Make them look as amazing as possible. Number six, important locations. The same thing that applies to the people at the event goes for the event location, the specific parts of the venue as well. Make sure to have a few beautiful shots of the important parts of the venue. Have the entrance, have the stage, have any interesting looking areas like a beautiful ceiling or something like that. And you can really put those kinds of shots on your shortlist and work them through. You want to have them available later on, even if most of the time you might not use them. Part of being a real professionals to be ready for those eventualities and later on shore consistent quality in your work. Number seven, the venue looking crowded, one of the most common requests of my clients is to make the event look nice and crowded and well visited. And nothing is really worse to promote an event than a recap video that shows that the event was barely visited The last time. That's a clear signal for everybody watching not to attend the next time because apparently it wasn't worth it the last time, so nobody came. But the problem is you might ask yourself, what do I do with that when the event is actually not that well attended? And that's a very common problem. And the answer is, as per usual, it's your job to make a work. So fight angles in moments where it looks for and from my experience, a good trick for that. It's actually use a lot of close-ups and also use titer lenses. Close up on a 50 or higher will be much easier to look full and crowded. Then a super wide angle, 40 millimeter shot of the whole room. You know, on the other hand, if the location is actually really for those 14 millimeter shots can look really impressive as the whole room will look even much bigger than it actually is. And therefore, a huge room that is completely packed obviously is great. So you have to look at your specific situation and act accordingly. Number eight, visually pleasing detail shots. So now with previous tips, we have covered a lot of what makes up a good material for an event video. But you will always need those little b row clips that can function, you know, like fillers when you don't know exactly what's used, you always want to have some beautiful shells that you can put in between. And that's where your eye for beauty comes in. You should make it an automatism to always look out for visually pleasing imagery regardless of what it actually, as you know, having nice shots, River right next to the event, maybe a boat passing will be nice. Having someone pour a glass of wine with blurry background can look amazing. Too beautiful humans having a conversation can be great. Maybe the location has some beautiful architectural details. I don't know. It really depends on the situation, but basically just look out for interesting and beautiful things and make sure to get some amazing looking shots that you can later use to fill the remaining gaps in your edit if you even have any number nine and ending shot. So since we have an establishing shot, it only makes sense to have an ending shot as well, right? And in fact, it's probably the shot that I have forgotten to take the most times when shooting event videos, because usually after many hours of filming, when the event is almost over, it's an easy thing to forget. And then it comes right back at me and the editing process later on, you always want to have a couple of dedicated charts that can be used as an ending. And to be honest, it doesn't need to be anything super-special. A simple pan over the location can be grade a wide shot over the location can be great. In general, I think of an ending shot as actually pretty similar to an establishing shot, with the key difference being that one looks like the beginning and the other one looks like an end. And you can achieve that effect easily by having some sort of turning away motion in your shot. You know, for example, instead of coming from the outside, maybe panning to the subject to the location that you want to show. Maybe you start pointing to the location and you slowly pan away into the sky or into some sort of less important area. And then you can make a nice transition and use that as an end number ten, a timelapse or a hyper lamps. So now that we have covered the basis of what makes a great video, there's one little nice to have that sometimes makes sense to just try out and usually creates a nice little WOW effect. Mclain for time elapsed, you just find yourself an interesting frame where there's some kind of movement that looks good when it's sped up and posts. So an example for that could be the sky with clouds passing by. It could be ships moving far away on the horizon. It could be an event location being built up in the very beginning. One thing that doesn't look that great in my opinion is just lots of small things moving very fast on the frame. So a good example of that would be just people moving, people passing by that can look kind of hectic and almost like a bunch of ants moving around. That's not necessarily something that I find visually pleasing. But basically, when you found your frame, go directly into the time-lapse function in your camera. Or if you don't have that, you can buy remotes specifically for that purpose and start taking photos for the time lamps, because there's two main ways to create a time-lapse. One is by just recording normal video and then speed it up later on. And the other one that is a little bit more elaborate, but also better looking is to actually take still images at a certain interval for a certain duration. And to do that, some cameras have some internal functionality to set the interval and the duration. Others need external remotes for that. But in any case, the benefit of doing it with the sil images is that you can basically capture Ross still images at a higher resolution and usually much better quality. The counterpoint obviously is that it does take more time and potentially additional equipment. And also in post production that will be a little bit more of a post-production workflow to do that. Now for hybrid apps, you didn't the exact same thing, but the only difference is that you are doing the shots manually and you slightly change your position every step of the way after each still image to create an effect just like this one, those shots really offer a nice visual dynamic to the video. You know, it's something different and unique that you don't see everywhere. Not everybody is doing that. And especially not in a well executed manner. You know, you see lots of crappy hype relapses and crappy time lapses everywhere. But I rarely see someone doing it the right way, especially with those still images. So anyways, here you go. Those are my top ten shots for every event video. If you manage to get all of those on your gig, you will have everything you need to create amazing event videos. Now if you have any specific questions to any of those, feel free to leave a comment down below. And until then, I see you in the next lesson. 9. Mistakes to Avoid: So in the last lesson, we went through the Top ten shots for making a great event Video. And those equip you with a lot of knowledge. And now as a follow up, I want to talk you through a couple of things that beginners typically make that keeps them from making the video they otherwise could make. So here are the typical beginner mistakes you want to avoid when shooting event video. Number one, getting the same shots over and over again. One of the most common mistakes that I have made myself so often is to have the shots you want to get in your mind and then going through the location and getting those same shot over and over again while completely disregarding anything else happening that might be useful to capture. So to a certain extent, I can tell you that this will change with experience. But you can speed up this process a bit by thinking about video while you're shooting. And when you do that, you will notice over time that the shots of someone pouring a glass of wine only get you so often, you know, the shut off a musician performing on stage will usually not make up half of your video. So try to get a variety of shots and keep an open mind even with those ten shots and mine that you've learned in the previous lesson, if you already have the material, you need to try something new, you know, be creative people, try something you haven't done before and just break out of the pattern of doing the same thing over and over again. Another version of doing the same thing over and over again, to stay in the same location for too long. So let's say you found a good spot with a nice framing and interesting things to happen in front of the lens. Then I would say make sure you get what you need in state. You get a couple of interesting shots. But also be careful to not stay forever and keep moving a little bit. You know, that's a big part of getting the right chart is to get a feeling for when to stay and when to keep moving, not talking to people. Now, I know, I know to some of you this will come totally natural and others of you might totally freak out about the idea of talking to strangers. But one thing is for sure and that is that you will get better shots when you do it. Period, that's just really clear. I myself am definitely more on the introverted side of things. And I used to go to those events thinking, that's great. You know, it's amazing. I can walk around with my camera and be a fly on the wall. And when I see someone interesting looking that I wanna include in my video, I just wait until they randomly start laughing or smiling, and then I'm ready to get the shot. And then I waited. And I waited some more. And I kept waiting. And they just never smiled. And I don't know if it's because Germans are just not that happy or something, but the smell just never came naturally. So I never got my shot. And then one day I worked on a big event together with a more experienced photographer. And this is what happened. This guy would just walk up to random people that he doesn't know, smile at them and literally says, okay, you're my model right now. And introduce, stand like this and do this. And then your friend comes over and you cheers with your wine glasses and you smile and laugh. And so the people willingly turned into his models for the next three minutes of, you know, personal shooting time. And he got smiles. You got beautiful faces, perfect framing and all that from 15 perspectives. And within like two or three minutes and I was torn apart between standing there with an open mouth, not believing what I'm seeing, and quickly racing my camera to be part of that moment and get some beautiful shots from my video capturing what's unfolding in front of me. And that's when I couldn't help but face the reality is that. I can either keep making mediocre event videos that are OK. And we'll sell fine. Or I can go and talk to people and get the most amazing shots in a fraction of the time. And by the way, on top of everything, as soon as you start talking to people is just so much more fun. And the truth is, you can't make that decision yourself. That's not something I can teach you with the video course only. You gotta go out and try talking to people and get better at it. You would probably not be as charming as my photographer friend for the first time. And I don't think I'm anywhere close today myself. But you will a 100% have a better shot at getting those images you want foreshore compared to not doing it at all. So my advices talk to people to whatever degree you are comfortable with. Try to be funny, tried to be a little bit more assertive. Tried to ask nicely whether you can film them doing something. And as you get more comfortable over time and you can read how far you can go with people. Start directing the more and more. And you will be actually surprise what people are going to be willing to do for you in front of the camera. If you just nice and ask, starting without a clear shortlist, timetable or plan that you can later referred to. What I basically mean by that is don't come unprepared when I started out, I thought I'm so on top of things, let me just memorize the event and what happens on which stage, at what time. Let me remember the four important things that my client wants me to focus on. I got this and five hours later, I was on the way home and suddenly remembered, oh shoot, I totally forgot this one guitar player on stage three at six o'clock. And well, maybe it's because I'm forgetful or maybe it was just because I was too busy getting some other shots all the time, the truthful answers because it did not set myself up to remember it. You know, it's not my job to keep a thousand things in my mind all the time. My job is to be prepared to get the job done anyway, regardless of whether I'm forgetful learner and a shortlist or timetable of what's happening, when and where is something that I really recommend. And also a list of the things that your client told you are important to him. That way you can always come back to that list and keep in check that you've got everything you need not communicating to your client. I have touched on this already in a different video, but I do want to say it again because it in fact is one of the most common and worst mistakes to make. You have to communicate with your client. You can be the best cinematographer in the world. If you are not nice to work with, you will not get many jobs or many callbacks for the same person. And it's really easy to fix, just make it a habit to communicate things clearly and often. And you will be fine. Make sure you know, when to come, make sure, you know, went to leave. Make sure you know what you're kind wants in terms of specific shots and also have a clear understanding of the delivery time of the final video. Keep all those things in mind and you will be on the safe side being a guest instead of a professional. Another thing I noticed over the years is that sometimes photographers or videographers on events start acting almost as if they were a guest on the event rather than a professional doing their job. And now if you're close with your client and they, for example, tell you it's okay to make breaks in between an eat or drink something and that's fine. You know, go make a break and have some food and drinks, but don't start drinking alcohol. Don't be the guy that's just being seen making breaks all the time and having too much of a grand old time yourself. It's just not the kind of impression you want to make. I believe so. Just keep an eye out on that and make sure you don't forget why you're at the event in the first place, you are there to work. 10. When to leave the party: When to leave the party. Now the last thing that you might ask yourself is, when is it okay to leave the event? And the first thing is obviously, any kind of agreement that you have with your client on that should be part of the negotiation process in the first place before the job to clear up went to come and when to leave. After all, you agreed to spend a certain amount of time working there and your compensation is probably at least partially based off of that. So I think it should be clear for everyone regardless, but practically and in my experience, you should communicate with your client anyway like always, and not just leave at 09:00 PM sharp, just because that's what the agreement says, because maybe there are a couple of more things to do. And if that's the case, then you should not just leave your client hanging and leave. Another scenario is that they kind of leave it up to you to decide whether you got the shots you need to make the film or not. And in that case, that's precisely the question you should ask yourself as well. Do I have everything I need to make the video, you know, go through the shortlist that you have again and make sure everything is checked off. And if that is the case, then I would say use common sense and decide whether it's reasonable to live with more experience. You will be better at this and your client will grow trust in you that, you know, you're not the guy that just comes latest and leaves first. And they will know that you can get the job done at the end. Just make sure that you leave with a clear communication, preferably in person. You inform your client that the event when could you get all the things you need to make a great video and that if they don't have anything anymore, that you would leave and then you'll be fine. 11. Student Project: Now as you know, part of every good online class is participation on the students side. And that is exactly why we have student's project in every single class so that you guys don't just sit lazy in front of the screen, but you actually start doing something. And here's what I want you to do for this class. I want you to practice creating a shortlist for an imaginary or if you have one, even a real event should think about the video that you want to create. And think about the shorts you imagine yourself putting onto the timeline after shooting it, and then write them down in a shortlist so that you can actually try and get those shots when the time comes. I cannot say often enough, thinking about the end result before and during the shoot really increases your chance of having the end result look actually the way you thought about it before. And I know it sounds simple, and if you think about it, it is simple, but it's also something that beginners often overlooked. So come up with the shortlist for your event video and write down every single shot you want to get. And when you're ready, upload the list here in the project section. And that is all. Have a look so that we can learn altogether. As always, I would look at and comment every single entry and I'm curious to see what you guys come up with. 12. Thanks for watching!: Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for watching. Now you're equipped with all you need in order to create fantastic looking event videos. In the coming weeks, I will publish another class on how to edit event today. So go ahead and follow me here or subscribe to my newsletter over on Danish SCADA.com to be personally informed whenever that's ready to go. And until then, I really want to say thank you for watching. If you enjoyed the class and you learn something, please consider leaving review. This would really help me out because more people will see it. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave a comment or write me an email directly. You can reach me at Denis, Denis Radha.com and until next time. God bless you all and bye-bye.