- Just because you bought a Gimbal, doesn't mean you're
gonna get good footage. In this video, I wanna
show you the difference between pro Gimbal moves
and beginner Gimbal moves, and how much better your footage will be, So, I'm out here in beautiful Dana Point and we're gonna go shoot
some pretty footage of the landscape here. And at the end of this video, I'm gonna cut a little
sequence out of both the beginner footage and the pro footage, so you can really see the difference. This area was discovered
by that man back there, the guy that's a big statue, and so I wanna grab some different shots that just show off the landscape and really show the beautiful area. So let's start by just
going over to the statue and grabbing a shot of Mr. Dana. (upbeat music)
Number one, use foreground elements. It's always great to grab
some establishing shots that set up something
unique about the location. This statue is perfect. Now, the beginner's gonna
walk right up to the statue and keep his camera at eye level. He does a circle around the
statue to create some movement, because, well, he has a Gimbal. With a subject like this, it makes sense to do a move
where you're spinning around and keeping the statue centered. And his final shot, you
know, it looks okay. Now the pro looks around
in his environment and finds some options to give
the statue more character. Foregrounding elements
gives a shot more depth. This is where you put
something between the lens and the subject. For this, the pro tries a few ways. The first was the same orbit style shot, but keeping the camera lower to the ground and foregrounding some bushes
at the bottom of the frame. Now, the second option was to
get a little bit further away and use some trees in the foreground. These shots definitely have
more of a cinematic quality. Number two. Use body rotation. Now the beginner wants
to grab a nice wide shot of Dana point, so he decides to pan from
the ocean over to the point. Gimbals have a joystick, so using that, you can get a nice moving
shot to show the scene. The only issue is that the beginner really
doesn't pay attention to the speed of his motion,
and using a joystick, the shot will sometimes just end abruptly, especially when your settings
aren't set up properly. Now the pro sees the same shot and uses body rotation instead. So keeping his Gimbal in Tilt Lock mode, all he has to do is
pivot and rotate his body from the left to the right and try to feather in
the motion in and out, so that it starts and ends smoothly. Now, this is much easier to do when you're doing a big body rotation versus trying to use the joystick to get the same type of look. Number three. Intention. All right, here comes the beginner and he wants to get a shot walking through this cool staircase
that goes down to the beach. The problem is, he walks right through and films the motion from start all the way down to the water. And what he's trying to
do is get a cool POV shot that feels like you're
walking through the scene. Fortunately, the final shot
doesn't look that good. Now the pro looks at the same situation and breaks it down into
a few intentional shots. Instead of trying to make one motion, he understands that in the edit, you can cut a few of these together and simulate that same feeling, as if you're moving through the space. So first he gets a smooth
shot walking forward into the staircase, and then second, he grabs
a shot where he comes around the corner and reveals the beach at the bottom of the stairs. And when they're cut together, it's a much smoother sequence. Number four. Don't always walk. Now that we're on the beach, it's the perfect time to
get a shot of the shoreline. The beginner wants to start high and work his way down to the water. He's gonna walk through the rocks, just stepping through
all the uneven surfaces, and he's not gonna be
able to pay attention to how smooth the shot is. The final result kind of
bumps all over the place. Now, the pro looks at the situation and decides to not take any steps. Instead, he uses his body weight and shifts from left to right. Now, with the Gimbal in the Lock mode, he can push the Gimbal from the far left all the way to the far right, and you get a long, straight
cinematic Gimbal move. Number five. Change your lens. Now that we've walked down the
beach a little bit further, we find that there's this
interesting rock at the point. So the beginner wants to get
a JIB shot, going low to high. So he puts the camera
down low by the rocks and then raises it up above his head. Now, unfortunately,
throughout this entire day, the beginner has just been
using the same wide lens for every shot. And then on top of that, he's using autofocus for everything. And so the rocks in the
foreground are gonna be in focus, and then it bounces to the background, where the interesting rock is. Overall, the shot doesn't look that good. Now the pro looks at the same situation and decides to change his lens. He uses a 35mm versus a 16mm. And then he does the
same JIB like movement, but instead of using autofocus, he puts it into manual and focuses on the rock in the background. Now, when he does this, the foreground elements stay out of focus as he does this JIB shot, and it has a much more
professional quality. Number six. Change perspective. Now check this out. We found a seagull, when
we were down at the beach. So it'd be great to grab
some shots of the wildlife, to show something a little bit different. So the beginner finds a good
spot as close as he can, and with his wide lens,
that he doesn't change, he tries to do a movement with his body, to give you some sort of
rotation around the seagull, because we have a Gimbal,
we wanna show movement. Now, overall, the shot
just seems pretty boring. The pro sees the same situation and decides to change his angle
and change his perspective. He gets down super low to try and get eye level with the bird, and then he's using his longer lens, the 35mm, and with the
focus locked on a seagull, he comes out from behind a rock to show some more movement
with the foregrounded elements. And this shot looks much better. Shot number seven. Get
outta your comfort zone. Now for the next shot, the beginner wants to grab a
shot walking along the beach, as the waves come crashing in. So if he gets as close
as he can to the water and walks along the beach, try
not to get hit by the waves, the end result is okay, but when he gets back
to look on his computer, he also noticed that there
were some people walking out in the distance and it
doesn't look that good. Now the pro, on the other hand, decides to take off his shoes
and actually get in the water. We're looking for unique perspectives and we want to get cinematic shots. So, sometimes that means
thinking outside the box. So he walks trying to get the
camera just above the water, to just show these waves crashing as he moves towards the rocks. And then on top of this, he pays attention to his background, to make sure that there's no
people walking in the distance, that will ruin the shot. Overall, this shot has a
much more cinematic quality, because it's thought out,
the perspective has changed, and he takes a little bit of a risk and gets himself into the water. Sometimes you just have
to think outside the box, and you might get a little
dirty getting the perfect shot. Okay, I have one more major tip for you, but first let's watch this
sequence back to back, the beginner and the pro, and just look how different they are. (bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music continues) (bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music) (bright orchestral music continues) Now, the beginner is not bad, it still looks good and
it shows off the area. It just has some bumps and doesn't have that cinematic quality. Whereas the pro level, it just
feels much more like a movie. It's more thought out and there's a lot more variation when it comes to angles and the
way that we shot this video. Now, the last tip that I want to give you
is all around story, because shooting pretty shots, in a pretty location like this, is great, but when you use a Gimbal, it's not just for shooting pretty shots. Now, if you're selling stock
footage, yeah, it's great. and you could sell those
shots as stock footage, but more importantly, a
Gimbal is a great tool to be able to help tell your story, for the videos that you're creating. When I'm out filming my videos, I usually bring a Gimbal along with me, to get those cinematic smooth shots. But I'm not only gonna use a Gimbal, I also use a drone, I'll
sometimes use hand-held, and Gimbals definitely add
a level of professionalism to the videos that you're creating. But ultimately you have to
think about what is the purpose of the shot that you're
shooting in the first place. So, when you're telling a story,
you need to think through, "is this shot important to the story? Or are you just grabbing
extra footage that's pretty, because you have a Gimbal, and you just want to shoot
some shots that are pretty?" So, recently I was up in Alaska and I had my Gimbal along with me, but I didn't use it the entire shoot. I only used it for certain segments where I knew a super smooth
Gimbal shot would enhance what it is that I was filming. So for example, I was out with a mountain man in
the middle of Alaska, and I wanted to get
some hero shots of him. And so I used my Gimbal to do an orbit around him as he stood there, with this epic view behind him. And it just helps set
him up as a character who thrives in this intense setting. Ultimately, when you get into the edit and you have like a ton of shots, and none of them actually fit the story that you're trying to tell, well, then it's just a
waste of time going out and shooting those shots. So if you're filming a video
that has more of a story, the first thing you need
to think through is, well, "What's the story and how can my Gimbal, that can get these cinematic smooth shots, help enhance that story even further?" Now next, make sure you check
out this video right here, it goes through a bunch
of different Gimbal moves that you can use when you're out filming and crafting your stories.
