40
Rush back down the aisle after the ceremony,
ahead of bride and groom as the well-wishers
lean out to see them sweep by.
Move along the receiving line, shoot 360 circles
around the groom and the bride’s mother dancing
at the reception, use your optional “Obie” light to
bring up couples on the floor. The possibilities
are limitless.
DOCUMENTARIES
Merlin is the ultimate documentary tool. It
is uninhibiting and unobtrusive. Add its
unparalleled mobility and tripod-like pauses,
and you have a potent, versatile
way to record or persuade or
to simply witness processes
and events that would leave
traditional methods of
production far behind. The
Merlin can represent the “eyes”
of a distant CEO in the hands
of a trusty local manager, and
will perhaps soon be to “desktop
video” what the Macintosh was
to desktop publishing!
REAL ESTATE VIDEOS
The difficulties of making good real estate videos
cannot be overstated. Don’t just grab your
Merlin and race through a house. If you want
to sell your house, or help a friend sell a house,
here are some tips:
Plan and rehearse your shots in advance and
play them back to see what needs changing.
Slow down. Imagine that your traveling shots
are being done on a slowly moving camera dolly.
Stop already! Don’t neglect still shots.
Connect the rooms in the viewers mind, to
show them the layout.
Turn on the lights, let the camera auto-color-
balance, but pre-set manual focus for at least
ten feet.
Practice extensively; shoot several houses
and examine your playbacks before attempting
this professionally.
Plan moves that can elegantly reveal the floor
plan and layout.
Pan slowly, without touching the guide,
turning yourself along with the Merlin, for ultra
smooth, 360˚ views of rooms—and also try
moving slowly around the perimeter to enhance
the effect.
Boom during slow pans to allow coverage of
high and low room details without needing to
tilt, thus preserving the maximum isolation of
the camera.
Turn on house lights, even in daylight.
Select manual iris for your camera, if
available, set it to preserve interior exposures
despite “hot” windows, Select manual focus
and set it to a hyperfocal distance of about
10’ if your camcorder’s auto-focus tends to
wander. Rehearse and playback with auto-color
balance, or try a manual color-balance in half
tungsten/half daylight. This will yield a “film”
look with the outdoors appearing bluish and the
interior lighting not excessively warm.
FEATURE FILMS
Famous director/camera auteurs are embracing
DV and HDV formats for their ‘personal’
features because of the total control, the
intimacy, the spectacular low-light possibilities,
the affordability of the ‘raw stock’, and the
almost invisible nature of the gear – and the
Merlin is poised to be their one indispensable
tool!
Technique
The Moving Camera
Those conceptually interested in the Moving Camera can
read further at:
http://www.garrettcam.com/movingcamera.shtml
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