I was just curious if there is anyone out there that could recomend the best and most economical way to make homemade surf films?
I have a laptop, digital8 camcorder, and some music. Would love to know some tips, and get some direction. My first project would be a 15 to 20min film, and
would ramp up a second project based on my learning curve from there… but this is something I’ve always wanted to do.
Any and all constructive advice much appreciated!
Thank you in advance,
Tyson
Get a tripod, make sure you get a tripod, and not a crappy $10 one.
Keep panning and zooming smooth and subject in frame. Remember too, often the wave is the subject, not always the surfer.
Film everything and edit later.
Have fun with it.
Thanks great tip.
For a windows enviroment, what would be a good editing software that I could i could incoroporate effects and text and music without getting over technical?
Thanks
Ask Oldy, hes the man to ask on film related know how
Get a Mac,imovie is very easy to use
I agree about the Mac and Imovie. On windows you might try Adobe Premiere Elements or Sony Vegas Movie Studio, both under $100.
UBUNTU STUDIO!
No need to pay for software, linux is free (all open source).
You
can install it in another partition, so you can choose ubuntustudio or
windows at boot. Really easy and you can find all info online (about “dualbooting windows and linux”).
Ubuntu Studio. A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.
We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available
for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and
redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination.
Don’t be afraid, it’s really easy. The installation is 100% graphical, linux is not like in the old days anymore!
Opensource is a bit like swaylocks, everybody shares it’s knowledge and that results in some great things!
I used Pinnacle Studio to edit mine.
http://www.balsabill.com/TheSummerof67.htm
It’s inexpensive, very user friendly, easy learning curve and there’s nothing that it wouldn’t do for me.
Oh, another thing- Do yourself a favor and anybody who going to view your movies and avoid using all the cheesy transitions that come with all these softwares. Simple cross fades work 99% of the time and looks way more professional.
I concur. That is excellant advice.
The old term for them in video (or motion pictures) is “dissolves” (fading out one scene while another scene fades in over it).
The term cross fade used to refer to audio.
Use dissolves and fade ins and fade outs (fade to black).
Hey Tyson, I did a video a couple years ago and am considering doing another soon. All the tips above are good, especially the one about getting a good tripod, you just can’t get a good shot by hand when you are starting out. Also make sure you can get your subject to take up most of the frame, there are lots of crappy surf vids on you tube where it looks like the wave and surfer are being filmed from a hundred miles away. Simple transitions and leave out the special effects. Change up your angles and try to get some unique viewpoints. It’s also really good to try to tell a simple story with your film or at least capture a common feel. also for your 1st one try to do soemthing for your local crew or area or a really niche group that may not get a lot of coverage and will appreciate your efforts.
One of the biggest things you can do is try to get a HD or 3CC camera with a built in hard drive, they are not that expensive anymore and make a huge difference in picture quality. you can get a decent shot with a D8 camera but you need perfect light and you have to be very close to yuor subject, too much zoom degrades pic quality.
There are lots of good editing suites out there for PC, I used to use Adobe premier and Ulead media studio, no need to go buy a whole new mac, (use that money for a good camera)
Expect to spend a stupid amount of time filming, unless you roll with pros about 30-40 seconds of good footage per session is pretty good, and then you edit until your eyes bleed.
It can be a tremendously satisfying experience however when you get it all done, maybe even more so than shaping a board.
here’s a link to a trailer for the vid I did, with a review. I also have some short vids on you tube if you search my username shoelesspat42.
http://www.coastalbc.com/surf/st611gorillasinthefog.htm
www.youtube.com/user/shoelesspat42
have fun
tripod is excellent advice. My biggest chunk of advice to give you is to get in touch with the pros in the area, if you are in an area where the pros are the guys you see in every issue of the major mags, then get in touch with the lower level pros, and tell them what you are doing and that you want to get some footage of them for a short surf vid you are making. Most won’t care if you film their session and will probably be glad someone is filming them. if they are cool with it have them let you know where and when they are surfing.
also don’t slow down the film when someone is getting barreled, and speed it up when they are doing turns, people can tell really easily what you are doing.
good surfing makes for enjoyable watching, expect to shoot at least four times the length of film you plan on using.