Solo Filmmaking

[Danomitism]

Im gonna be doing a lot of self filmmaking and was wondering if theres a way to do a lot of dslr camera focusing/interesting camera shots/zooming by yourself?

 

[unknown_user0004]

Im gonna be doing a lot of self filmmaking and was wondering if theres a way to do a lot of dslr camera focusing/interesting camera shots/zooming by yourself?

If you're on a Canon DSLR with continuous autofocus, you can use a remote shutter and turn off the servo, so it only focuses when you want it to. Beyond that, I'm afraid I can't help ya.

 

[TheWillBox]

Short of purchasing a robotic filming head, you pretty much need to frame, shoot, frame. Then for zooming use editing software to crop and expand and pan.

There is remote software available to auto set the focus via a laptop or ipad or something.

 

[FlipRJ]

um, this is gonna sound stupid, but if I take a shot where I need the focus to shift and I can keep my out of the shot, I'll attach a really long stick to the manual focus and change it that way (i suggest lots of practice).

recently I used a tripod to do shots that made it seem like the camera was following me. That's just getting the angle right and keeping your arms out of the shot.

for shots higher than the chest area, I have no tips ...

 

[Danomitism]

Thanks guys

 

[TheRomanticsWB]

You can't do this very well without some expensive equipment. There is absolutely no reason you should need to or be required to to get some quality if you're just a 1-man show. People get it and admire it. Do the best you can and people will love it for the hard work too.

 

[Chef Kendra]

I do a lot of shots with just a tripod and cheap video camera. It can be done, it takes time and practice. What I did was going around my kitchen and take test footage of ever shot and angle I could thing of. I sort of made a map of the shots. I ended up with 22 legitimate camera angles I could shoot from, plus I had a reference. I use a regular tripod and a smaller one to sit of counters and stuff. There this http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/20/2647710/swivl-hands-on that could also help. I don't know if they make something like this for a DSLR.