Making the Most of Film Day: Elevate Your B-Roll
Shoot day is the whole reason I got into this career. There’s few things more exciting to me than taking a camera in hand and capturing powerful images. There’s more to it than just pointing and hitting record, though. You need to understand all the elements that go into the story to make sure you capture everything you need to have what you need in the edit. Today we’re going to dig into the pieces of shoot day to better prepare you for your next story!
Welcome to Smartphone Storytellers, where it’s my goal to give you the skills you need to tell powerful visual stories using the smartphone you already own. If you’re new here, make sure you subscribe to get regular videos talking through everything from the techniques to the gear you’ll be using.
September is for Storytelling is going on through the whole month, and each week we’re focusing on a different element of telling a great story. It’s like Toyotathon or Honda Days, but for stories. If you haven’t already, make sure you check out the Smartphone Storytellers Facebook or Instagram pages to enter to win some swag in the form of a hat and stickers. Over here on Youtube, though, we’re giving away a filmmaking kit to one lucky winner. That includes a Rode Wireless Go, Aperture Amaran 60x S as well as a Light Dome Mini SE, Ulanzi grip and 80” tripod. Throw in your Smartphone and you’ve got the basic elements you need to take your storytelling to the next level!
THE PHILOSOPHY
Last week we talked about the preproduction that goes into telling your story, and this week we put that work into action. There are two types of shoot settings we’ll look at - capturing b-roll and filming the interview or talking head segment. Not all projects use both of these, but if you have a basic understanding of these pieces then you’re equipped to tell a story. First let’s talk a little philosophy of how I cover events.
The first thing I do is that I want to be as unobtrusive as possible. This is one reason so many creative filmmakers wear black. If you’re filming in a darker space, the black clothing helps you to blend in just a bit more. It doesn’t catch as much light, so people aren’t as drawn to looking at you. Next, you want to make sure you’re not being obtrusive when capturing the footage. Ideally, you’re just capturing the moment already happening. There certainly will be moments when someone will notice you filming them and you’ll get a shot of them cheesing the camera, but ideally you’re capturing what’s already happening at the event. One way I try to do this is by using longer lenses when filming. That’s a bit harder on your Smartphone, as the zoomed lenses don’t have as good of low light abilities, but if you’re able to then it’s worth trying those lenses out. If you can’t do that, though, then try to at least keep your distractions to a minimum.
Next, make sure you’re thinking through the story. You already mentally tracked your story in pre-production, so now you’re just keeping that in mind as you capture the footage. This way you know what kind of shots you’ll need for your edit. I always like to shoot a bit extra just to be safe, and if you see a moment you didn’t plan for it doesn’t hurt to catch it, but ideally you’re looking for the moments that help to illustrate the story that you’re telling. Check out last week’s video for more of an in-depth look of what kinds of shots I’m talking about.
THE GEAR
Before you film, you need to make sure you have the gear you’ll need for the shoot. We’re not going to talk specifics of models, but I’m going to at least outline the gear I tend to bring on these types of shoots. For specifics, check out my video on the gear I took to Brazil earlier this summer.
First, you need a camera. Per usual, this one is easy. It’s your Smartphone. Make sure you know what app you like, but there are quite a few options that all work great.
If you’re capturing an interview you’ll want to make sure you’ve got an audio source. This can be a lapel microphone, shotgun microphone, or even the on-camera mic. They all work in certain situations, but ideally you’d use something that can be wireless and film at a distance. The closer to the audio source your microphone can be, the better.
Next, if you’re filming an interview then you’ll want to consider lighting. This can just be using the available lighting, or it can be a situation where you add in extra lights to set up a spot that may not have ideal lighting. This is too deep of a topic to go into on this video, but make sure you’re considering both the quality of the lighting as well as the color temperature. You don’t want to mix two different colors of lighting. You can see more on this when I talked about using the lighting you already own, but I’m hoping to do some deeper lighting breakdown videos in the future.
When you’re filming, shaky video can be a very real problem. Smartphones have great stabilization features built in, but they’re not perfect. When I’m filming handheld, I like to have a grip relocator to have a better handle on my phone. This helps me to give the phone more of a traditional camera feel and keeps things a bit more stable. Additionally, if I’m filming an interview I like to put the phone on a tripod. This keeps the focus on the content the talent is saying, since holding the phone stable for a longer interview can get tiring and sloppy.
THE SETTINGS
There are some solid rules to filming, but keep in mind that rules are made to be broken. That being said, it’s important to at least understand the rules so you can figure out when it’s the right time to change things up. That’s why we’re going to briefly focus on the ideal settings for filming. If you’re filming in the stock phone application, it’s going to handle most of these for you, but if you’re using something like Filmic Pro, Blackmagic Camera App, or CinemaP3, then you’ve got full control over most of these.
First, make sure your resolution is where you want it to be. I typically film at 4k on my phone, but that’s because I know I have the free space to work with. If you’re working with a phone with less storage, or if it doesn’t have the ability to shoot 4k, then 1080p will work great.
Next, frame rate will depend on what you’re filming. 24 frames per second is the “cinematic” framerate, so I like to edit all of my project in that framerate. If I’m filming b-roll, though, I often like to film that at 60 frames per second, but then convert it down to 24 frames per second. This creates a nice slow motion shot that helps you to stay in the emotion of the moments. That being said, it can look weird when people are talking, so you’ll want to judge which framerate is right for you. You can also film in the slow motion setting on your phone, but this handles things slightly differently. Play around with that mode before you commit to using it on a shoot.
If you have full manual settings on your phone, you’ll want to check your shutter speed, ISO, iris, and white balance. Warning - the following is a VERY simplified overview.
Shutter speed should be at double whatever your framerate is, or at 180 degrees. It all depends how your application measures it. So if you’re at 24 frames per second, it should be set to 1/48 or 1/50. If your app measures in degrees, then 180 degrees will automatically set it to double the framerate.
ISO adjusts the sensitivity of the sensor of your camera. You want to keep this number lower, as higher numbers mean your image may be noisy. That just means you’ll have tons of small particles all over the video that may not look great. Cameras normally have a native ISO that they look best at, but I haven’t been able to find that number for the iPhone.
Iris will adjust the brightness of the image, but also how shallow the depth of focus will be. If you want a brighter image with a more shallow depth of field, set it to a lower number. If you want more in focus, then you’ll want to change your iris to a higher number.
Finally, white balance adjusts how your camera interprets the lighting of the space. If it’s a space lit by daylight, then you want it to be around 5600k. If it’s lit by tungsten, or those more orange bulbs you typically find around your house, then it’ll be around 3200k. If it’s a mix or a florescent light, you may find 4500k to be better. Ideally, though, you’ll set your white balance and not keep it on auto. If it’s on auto, the camera will continuously change it while you film and make the colors change.
Those are a VERY simplified look at those settings, but you want to make sure you consider how to adjust them when filming. If you use the stock app, it handles most of that for you, and sometimes that’s great. But other times it’s going to make the wrong calls, so manual is best if you understand how to adjust it. Take a look at my “Which app should I film with” video for more information and a deeper dive!
THE SHOTS
Finally - it’s time to look at actually shooting. First, filming b-roll. Anytime I film b-roll, I keep the story at the forefront of my mind the whole time. I’m looking for those moments that will help me to tell the story. That being said, I find there are many mini-stories to be found at every event. While the full event may have one main story, there are smaller pieces that help to make it up. For instance, if you were telling the story of a reunion, the big story is talking about these people who came together after being apart. At the event, though, you’ll have people in different settings. Maybe some people are playing some games together, while others may be enjoying food and drinks. Each of those areas are different mini stories within the event. When I’m shooting my b-roll, I want to make sure I get shots to piece together each of these smaller stories.
I break my shots down into three main categories - wide, medium, and tight. The wide shots help to set the stage for where everything is taking place. It helps the viewer to understand the setting while getting an idea of how everything fits together. Then I go in for the medium shots. These tend to be the majority of the shots I capture. It focuses on the people, but usually smaller groups of people. These shots may be head to toe or waist to head, but they more so capture the people together and help you to understand the main actions happening. Then, I grab the tight shots. These are the detail shots. They may be a tighter shot of someone talking or laughing, or maybe it’s a tighter shot on an item involved in the scene. These shots help the viewer to focus on some of the smaller details that may not have shown up otherwise.
Then when i’m in the edit, which we’ll talk about next week, I use these types of shots to tell the mini stories. Each of these shots give a different piece of each of the stories I’m telling, and help the viewer to understand all the areas that made up the larger event. This doesn’t mean that every edit is wide then medium then tight, and then repeat. It also doesn’t mean I use every type of shot in every “mini story.” But it does mean that I’ll have the pieces I need to tell the story when I’m editing.
THE INTERVIEW
The last piece I capture is the interview. This can be either a direct to camera “reporter style” shot that is the host telling the story, or it can be an interview with someone where the interviewer is off camera. Both have their place in storytelling, it all just depends on how you want the story to connect with the viewer.
For a direct to camera shot, I typically have the spokesperson talking directly to the viewer. I call it a “reporter style” shot because they’re working similar to a reporter in a broadcast news story - they’re sharing the details of what happened and the main elements of the story. If you look at the video I shared last week, that was a perfect example of something that could have been this style of video. If I had captured him on camera giving the exact same script, I would have shot it this way. In fact, we even played around with that idea briefly, but decided to change things in the edit. These shots are often either waist or midchest up to the top of the head, and the person is looking directly into the camera. You want to make sure the camera is close to eye level, and their eyes are meeting with the lens. Otherwise, it will feel off to the viewer and will cause them to not connect with your message.
For an off camera interview, I’ll have the person typically positioned looking about 30-45 degrees to the main camera, and looking just off camera. The idea is that they’re being interviewed by someone off camera, communicating their story to that person. These are usually people who are more so impacted by the story as opposed to the “spokesperson” for the organization. Looking again at the video from last week, this would have been someone who had received the furniture and supplies.
For each of these, you want to make sure the person is in an environment where they’re lit well, with controlled sound, and no major visual distractions. I’m sure I sound like a broken record at this point, but I covered quite a bit of this in my “How to film a talking head” video. Check it out for more specific details, and how you can film something like this with no extra lights!
There are so many other details I could go into for each of these things, but I’m not trying to create a Youtube video rivaling the length of the extended editions of Lord of the Rings. I eventually hope to dig deeper into those details, but for now I hope this gives you some information to help to improve the stories you’re already telling! Don’t forget to enter into this week’s video by liking the video, subscribing to the channel, and then commenting below an answer to the question. I loved the response to last week’s question so much that we’re going to ask it again - comment below what your “biggest takeaway was from this video.”
Last week is our last week of September is for Storytelling, but the fun won’t stop there! As you tell your stories, remember, it’s not the gear that matters, it’s the story!
