Video Recording Equipment and Specialty Tools We Use
As technology forges on, new tools and techniques are being created that have made a recent dramatic impact on the corporate video landscape. In the army, you have a soldier and a rifle. In special forces, you have all sorts of different weapons and ways to get the job done.
At Serendipitous, we feel that in addition to a strong “standing army” to cover your corporate story, that a “special forces” group is imperative to give the video an edge in this highly competitive battle field for the attention of the viewers. This means thinking outside of the box– and in video production, the box is a static camera, about five feet high (where the cameraman’s eyes are). Many video production companies tell the majority of the story from this point of view.
We don’t throw that away– it’s a very important tool, like the standard carbine for the foot soldier. But we add to that with a bunch of “unconventional” weapons for getting those dramatic and critical shots for your video.
Video is movement– we believe video cameras need to move.
Our unconvetional equipment includes:
Dollies and Sliders— Just less than ten years ago, to get the camera to move left or right, in or out from the subject, you needed a rail system with a very heavy dolly to handle the large high quality cameras. Today, the cameras have gotten much smaller and the quality has gotten better. This means you can use smaller, lighter tools to move the camera left/right, in/out. In addition to the large dolly, now there are small sliders, “rails” that go on a standard tripod to get two, three, four feet of movement. It’s been very effective.
GoPros— with the smaller cameras, GoPro captured the industry with a line of high quality, extremely small cameras that could be mounted and placed just about anywhere. Three days ago, I mounted a GoPro on the side of a block for an extremely large crane. We have it on RC helicopters, sides of vehicles, on a long stick we can hand hold into a dangerous area. These are versatile cameras that can get HD video and time-lapse as well.
Aerials— While we do have clients that we go up in real helicopters, with gyro mounts and remote camera controls, a burgeoning area is the RC helicopter industry. With the cameras coming down in size, now you can put them on small helicopters and fly them around to get extremely unique shots. We have a large 8-bladed “octocopter” as well as the small quad copter that’s become more common.
Jibs and Cranes— A jib gives you the up down movement as opposed to the dolly’s left/right and in/out movement. Put the jib on a dolly and you’ve got quite a flexible tool. The jib consists of a large boom, with the camera mounted at the end, with counter weights on the operator side. Smaller jibs can be operated at the camera. Larger ones need to be remotely controlled from the back of the boom.
Steadicam— There are now all sorts of handheld suspension rigs out there, contraptions designed to give you minimal shakes and bobbles as you move the camera around. This tool can get some very dramatic shots.
These are just a few of the unconventional tools we have to best tell your story and capture the moment no matter how fast it’s moving. Contact us for questions on equipment we use and how we can assist you in creating the perfect corporate video.
