Filming fast motion (sports)

[TimH86]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to filming and am trying to figure out how to best capture a fast moving subject in sports (parkour or free running). I know this probably highly depends on my preferences.

The stuff I will be shooting would probably best resemble a chase scene. It will also include relatively fast movement with great precision, like jumping onto small railings and ledges or moving in trees. After some limited experimenting, I can't figure out what the best mode is to film in and keep getting jerky shots. Even some slow panning can look disturbing in 25p and isn't pleasant to watch. I hoped that I haven't overlooked major sources of information on this forum and the www, I took my time to search. I know that with time and practice I can figure this out, but some starting guidelines would be nice and I'm looking to film some interesting stuff soon that I don't want to waste simply because of faulty settings!

So: what are your personal preferences and/or do you have any tips regarding filming a chase scene?

- From the manual and some searching the web, I am guessing that instant autofocus should be on? The manual focus is hard to reach on the hv20 and I can't control it without jerking the camera a little.
- Filming in 50i for better slow-motion and less jerky fast movement or panning?
- No clue on the shutter speed, going by the manual: "High shutter speed to record fast moving subjects or a slow shutter speed to add motion blur, emphasizing the feel of movement". Searching motion blur doesn't give me much..
- Any other popular settings or accesories to go with the action? Popular lenses I came across are the fish-eye or wide-angle lenses to emphasize depth (good for the precision movement aspect I guess).
- My guess is that moving with the subject will yield the best view of the precision movement, since that's where the focus of the viewer will be, I also see this in most parkour/freerunning videos around.

Thanks much in advance!

[CycleWriter]

Have you tried using the Sports mode?

[TimH86]

I have, but I am wondering if there is more to get out of the camera if you get a feel for doing things manually and, if that is your experience, what kind of settings you prefer. I also thought the manual was confusing on filming moving subjects and could not find any answers when searching this board. Hence the question.

[Video Frank]

I shoot indoor ice hockey in Shutter mode, as high a shutter speed as I can get away with (dictated by banding issues with the lights), 60i. This has proven to be the smoothest, both regular speed & slo-mo. 30p did not work - too jerky when slo-mo'd. YMMV.

I've uploaded a frame from a 60i game, probably shot at 60 fps. It's a screen cap from Vegas.

[tvnewsbadge]

I have, but I am wondering if there is more to get out of the camera if you get a feel for doing things manually and, if that is your experience, what kind of settings you prefer. I also thought the manual was confusing on filming moving subjects and could not find any answers when searching this board. Hence the question.

I agree. Those modes are nothing more than gimmicks to sell cameras. You get much better results if you "roll your own".

[Sir Charles]

To reduce the jerkiness widen out a little and physically move closer to your subject, longer focal lengths can amplify the effects of unsmooth moves.

Shoot in TV mode and set the shutter for 1/100 or 1/150 for daylight. This will make the camera add ND and close the iris rather than use shutter speed to control exposure. Shutter speeds of 1/250 and 1/500 tend to make things look like a horror movie unless you're on nice sticks.

Post some video, I love that parkour stuff.

[craig198]

i wanna see it too. write down all your settings too.

[TimH86]

Thanks for your helping comments guys, I'll be shooting a lot of footage of my movement in September and try some different settings than the ones you recommended as well to compare. I've seen the 25p + cinemode being used in some static parkour shots and loved the look of it, as long as the camera doesn't move a lot. Hopefully it won't be too ugly combining some of those cinemode shots with the tv mode stuff. I'll post some of my results here for sure!

[Rambo]

This would be my modus operandi based on what i do and have done in the past with a similar camera Canon HF100.

• Shoot with Cam on a Fig Rig
• Get up close and use a wide angle lens
• Shoot with auto focus (enable instant focus if wide angle lens doesn't obstruct beam)
• Shoot cam in TV mode (50i Pal, 60i NTSC) lock shutter at 120
• Enable Image stabilization
• The lighting you will have to play with.

Obviously try and get steady footage following the moving subject and use Prodad Mercalli Stabilizing software to remove the shakes/jerks in post in SELECTED clips. You only have to run Mercalli in minimal mode for it to have a noticeable effect on camera motion without loosing resolution through scaling up of the image.

Do the slow-mo's in Vegas with "Eugenias Buttersmooth Slow - mo" tutorial
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2009/0...th-slow-motion
(use the Vegas method)

I shoot Ocean Sports from the back of a Jet Ski using these guidelines and am happy with the results, but still learning all the time.

Fig Rig i use is here http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=20113

A Mercalli Stabilized video i shot of Olympic Gold Medalist Clint Robinson is here http://rambos-locker.blogspot.com/20...-zoomed-4.html

Good luck with the project

Cheers Rambo

[FilmingTheForest]

Hello everyone!
I film a lot of mountainbiking-high speeds and jumps.
HV 30 pritty much dissapointed me in that area.
Since all of the action is going on in the woods with the light being ideal very rare I can speed up the shutter up to max 1/500 without losing quality of the video.Footage is blury ,and using simple slowmotion in Vegas looks real bad.I have came across Eugenias tutorial on how to do smooth slomo,but the procedure is very complicated and it demands to change frame rate to 50fps and my computer only offers 25.
What am I doing wrong,can I get my footage any less blury?

[CycleWriter]

You need to read the thread on rolling shutter. The HV is not very good at motorsports and fast action, especially closeup.

[dearcatastrophe]

you need to look into one of the little action cams that can mount on your helmet or the handlebars or somewhere else on the frame. they do much better then using the HV for that kind of thing.

[FilmingTheForest]

I don't mount the camera anywhere,I film the riders from still position.
When I'm viewing the footage on camera lcd there is no ghost like problem-Even when I press pause in the middle of the fastest action(and i zoom in too) everything is sharp.
What can go wrong in capture process(like wrong settings) that moving shots become like that?
Last time the lightning was perfect and i had the shooter set up to 1/2000 and still even some of the slow riding became ghost like on my laptop?!
Is there a possibility that something is wrong with the camera?
Footage of non moving objects are great like they are supposed to be.
I use Sony Vegas 9 Platinum for capture and editing.
If You have any questions that could help You to realize what could be the problem please ask.
Thanks a lot for Your help!

[CycleWriter]

Did you bother reading the thread I told you about or doing a search?

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=26612

Your thread has been merged with a similar one. You might want to read through it.

[TimH86]

Hi again

Just posting to update a little on my progress so far. I've tried to shoot stuff in Tv mode and like to get at least a 120 shutter speed. I haven't had any trouble with bad image quality so far and am happy with the results. I exported the video in 1080 720, progressive frames (I filmed in 25p, which I liked better) and .h246 codec for uploading on YT. Because of the size I had to export at 85% quality but to my eye nothing much has changed. Enjoy the video

Here is the link to the video on YT: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCwiFbz48x4"]YouTube - Tim Hirschler Summer 2009[/ame]

My girlfriend was nice enough to film most of the action, I think it will show for some of you that she is not experienced with shooting film. None the less, I think the results turned out nice. I also haven't decided on a lens yet, so the entire video has been filmed without one. I'm thinking of getting a semi-pro fisheye or wide angle soon, it really helps with the depth and allows me to get closer shots which sometimes is inevitable.

There's a shot in the middle of the long running sequence that clearly changes color. I think it looks ugly, but I guess I'm lucky enough to have people focusing on the movement and not the image quality. If anyone has suggestions for any of the settings, camera work, editing (my first edit in premiere), correcting that color or ofcourse on the movement, please don't hesitate

[TnT55]

Don't use the macro mode for filming sports, it doesn't work too well!