Fashion video filming tips!

Last year MK Productions  produced around 100 fashion videos, mainly catwalk stuff, some hair & makeup, interviews with designers, models,nightlife videos and wannabees.. I wanted to share with you the modus operandi we, as cameramen have to face when we are standing at the end of the catwalk pointing a camera at the runway. Firstly the lights used to light up the catwalk are very bright, it’s so hard to find the right balance and to make sure the models faces don’t look over exposed. If you have a Cannon XHA1 or a Sony Z1 you should be able to get a firm control over your aperture and exposure. If you play around with these elements a little bit, you can get a great picture.

My advice is don’t have the exposure too high or you will get a trail effect and the result will give you a stop motion effect or blurred effect on your footage and its impossible to correct in post production if your footage is burnt out with white faces. I sometimes feel its also best filmed slightly under exposed so that you can play with the brightness levels and color correction in post production. Something else to consider are the people controlling the lights. They will change the lights for different clothes or models to create a different atmosphere and this can completely throw your camera and exposure off and ruin your footage. If you do film over exposed there is no way to correct the footage in post production. Trust me, it’s happened many times and it’s something I will never do again!

OK so now we have the exposure out the way, make sure you have the correct white balance in place, this can easily be achieved by putting a white piece of paper in front of the lenses and pressing the >b< balance button on the camera. This way you will get a perfect white balance for the room! (try not to use “auto function” as you will need to tell the camera what white is. Since this is such an important topic, I have included a video for you to see on a cannon XH A1.
Happy filming!

Signing off

Realitypod team!

Video Publishing Platforms

Since the revolution of broadband we have seen a massive upswing in online video. This, coupled with the price drop in consumer technology and basic editing software which is included on most operating systems, almost everyone has become a Video Director.. Well, it’s so easy to upload a clip to youtube.com and broadcast yourself to the world that I believe this makes it one of the most exciting industries to come out of the internet and it’s opened up a whole world of creativity to be enjoyed, both on the consumer side & business sites.

We have all known for a while that the way forward for business on the internet is to get much more interactive, by introducing video on their websites as the best way to engage and communicate with their customers. Business from all sectors has been a bit slow to embraced online video as a medium to communicate for reasons I will discuss in another blog!  BUT this makes me happy as the market is still very young and there is a massive opportunity!

Internet entrepreneurs from all sides of the planet have been waiting for this revolutions and the service providers have been trying to come up with a content management solution to managed, report, deliver and encode the video in one platform. This makes it much easier to manage their growing online content requirement! The best sites I have come across that achieve this are Brightcove, Move Network, Maven Networks, Narrowstep, The Plaform and Kit Digital (formally Roo). there are a few new others on the block, like Kewago, Ooyala, iolo & best TV, vimeo.com

So you see there is no shortage of businesses to help get your content online!

Signing off 

Realitypod Team!

Reflection

As we start the last quarter of the year, realitypod’s production team reflects on what we have achieved so far. We have polished our camera lenses and carried the tripod to France, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Morocco & Sardinia. The start of the year was a big coop producing a number of catwalk shows for Kisa fashion, Rodnik and 156 Fashion Magazine at London Fashion Week. We have interviewed some of the most exciting celebrities including Estelle, John Legend, Kelly Rowland, Fat Joe ,Bridgette Nelson, David Furnish and fashion designers such as Issa london, Corto Moltedo and charlotte Della.

Towards the middle of the year we have been busy producing & directing a series of shows for Fashion TV at the Cannes Film Festival and just over a week on the Fashion TV Boat in Sardinia, the sun was burning hot and the water was crystal clear as we took the opportunity to film and direct some of the lovely models in the world.

Last but not least, we are about to release the forthcoming video on Defected Records, for an internationally recognized dance act called “Copyright” for their new track “Yema Yema YA!” So watch out for this video to be posted shortly on the site and all over the world!

We have now produced over 70 videos for a number of high profile clients and we are ready to look ahead to see what else we can take our “Lights, Camera, Action style of video too!

Signing off!

Realitypod.tv team!