How to film someone running with minimal resources?

E

Elinious

Hello everyone,

I'm new here. I want to make a short film to a piece of instrumental music, 9 minutes long. This short film has no dialogue, it's sort of a silent movie. It's my interpretation of the music, if you will.

The main character in the film is going to be me, as this is the easiest. This is not a problem in most of the scenes, since all scenes can be shot with my camera on my tripod. Some scenes do involve camera movements, but nothing too difficult. A friend of mine is helping me with this, and it's do-able. There is however one scene I have trouble with.

I have to run very fast at one point. And I need to shoot this. There's one shot that shows me running, from the front. The best example I have is how Forrest runs from 0:37 to 0:42 in this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN8kAjbuCIA

Now, I do have a friend to help me, but how do we go about doing this? The camera doesn't have to be super steady, but steady enough.

We don't have acces to any fancy professional equipment. I basically have no budget, I need to work with the things I have (luckily I do have a camera and final cut, lol). Do you have any ideas on how to shoot this? The location of the scene is a quiet street.

My idea was to maybe shoot it from the back of a car. As audio isn't a problem (it's a music video), sounds of the car don't matter. Someone could sit in the back with the camera, holding it as steady as possible, and I'll run after the car (of course the back will be opened. As the car won't be going very fast and it'll be a quiet street that won't be a problem). I'd have to find someone to drive though, as I'm the only one in my group of friends with a license (we're 20, but we're from Holland so we use bicycles and public transport).

I'm concerned about the steadiness of the camera in this scene though... What do you think?

What do you think? Do you have any better ideas? I've used a lot of creativity for the rest of the film, and have it all figured out, but I'm a bit lost here.

Thanks!
 
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if u have no budget, the car thing will do. itll depend on how smooth the road is and how well the cam op can hold the camera.

u could go the rodriguez way and use a wheelchair as well if u want.

or if u have a bit of cash, look into making a diy dolly for the scene.

none of these methods is going to be super smooth but u can get a passable shot.
i would do tests with different methods and see which one suits ur scene the best. maybe u want a little shakiness in there for effect. (sorry, didnt watch the utube link.)

and welcome to indietalk!
 
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Ditto to what Dready said. If the street is smooth enough, and you've got the camera on a tripod (Papertwin's "steadicam" is a good idea too), it will be surprisingly smooth. And then, you can smooth it out even more in post.

It's worth noting that when you stabilize shaky footage in post, it zooms in on the picture at least a little bit, so if you know you're going to go that route, when you shoot this particular footage, you should make it slightly more wide than you actually want it to be.
 
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You can Google 'home-made steady cams' and you'll find a lot of options.

Or, you can get in the trunk of a car, where you can often find our fearless leader:

45566_1589712582531_1227354055_31596357_2494420_n.jpg
 
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Randy Ericksen said:
Shoot it from a bike. With a little practice it can be rock steady. One hand on the bars and one holding the camera. Or use a tandem.
Click to expand...

Uh, no. Sorry to be so blunt, Randy, but no.

I'm an avid cyclist. Been riding every single day for the last 2.5 decades. I can balance like nobody's business. I'm also pretty steady with a handheld camera. I've actually shot from a bike before -- it's not even slightly easy (not if you want good footage).

M1chea1 -- that picture is hilarious. I've shot from the back of a hatchback before, but this is something else! Even better than the back of a hatchback is the bed of a truck.

Just make sure you're driving has a soft touch on that pedal.
 
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Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions :)

Especially many thanks for the steadicam suggestion, it looks promising, not only for this film, but also for the future.

I've decided I'd try some things out, and see where it goes. I have no deadline or something for this film, so why not mess around, lol :)

@ Randy Ericksen & Cracker Funk: I am going to try the bike suggestion. I think it will be too shaky, but I can try. I once filmed mountainbiking of a mountain, it was just a straight path down and not very steep, and it was cool but shaky. When I try this for my film, someone will be sitting on the back of the bike to film and another person will be pedalling. Maybe it works, maybe not.
 
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Take to the air

Going airbourne is a great solution, however there are skill sets that take years to perfect not to mention the safety issues and legal issues. In Canada when you fly a camera it is considered a UAV and is goverened by Transport Canada. You have to deal with then in order to aquire a SFOC ( special flight operations certificate) also need 1 Million in liability insurance. In the US you run into the same issues. I have been doing it for years now,you do get some amazing footage but not withut spending alot of time and money. Definatly worth it if you are willing to take the time to learn. Here is a link , you can see the advantages just go to the media page

Flyigcam.com
 
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I've used both the tripod solution and the vehicle solution together before... that worked pretty well... make sure you have an external monitor or a flip out LCD of some sort so you can see what you're shooting.

Then stabilize in post. Every shot that is supposed to be smooth (and that ends up in the edit) should be run through a stabilizer/ shot smoother. They do this on huge budget films to get them "perfect." Watch a dolly shot now compared to a film from 20 years ago... night and day difference.
 
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