Photo © Richard Ellis
 

Warning to Gear Manufacturers

Posted March 06, 2017
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This is a video by our friend Bob Krist, a long time professional photographer for National Geographic and a graduate of one of our 4-day intensive video bootcamps. You'll recognize the name if you have looked at our Travel VJ Course. Bob is a VJ who follows our method very well and has had great success turning it into a career that takes him all over the world. He knows that it doesn't really matter what gear you use, as long as the image looks good, there is a good character and there's a good story told well, people will flock to your video.

We now live in a world where everyone with a smartphone (and that's a lot of people) have a broadcast quality camera in their pockets. With this capability, more personal, intimate and ultimately compelling stories can be told without the need to have an expensive kit. The most important thing here is storytelling.

Think of a video that you shared on Facebook or emailed to a friend. Did your message tell your friend how great the picture resolution was or did you say they had to check this story out? Chances are you were more focused on the content than whether it was shot in 1080p or 4k...

As Bob points out though, he "couldn’t have shot this film without a camera that had long telephoto lens capability and the option for smooth slow motion," but he’s quick to point out that the unit he used is considered be an amateur bridge camera and costs under $1000. The day is quickly coming though, with detachable lenses and higher frame rates, that a smartphone will have the capability to shoot just like this.

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