BackGround
This page is about the personal work I have done as a small interest and led me into loving videography. What started off as a hobby, spread past the original intention of just capturing videos for eboarding. This grew into always wanting to improve the quality of the work that led to other avenues
The Board
We all have our entry points, for me it was with a small action camera I bought after purchasing the Slick Revolution Flex EBoard. Wanting to take part with the online community, I purchased some cheap action cameras and started filming. The image quality was terrible but the riding was immense. This was the catalyst which pushed me to capture more.
Taking it Further
Always happy with the learning process but never content with what the footage, I needed to improve the quality of the image, I moved on from using the action camera to my Samsung S9 phone with the app Filmic Pro, to which I also purchased Zhiyun Smooth 4 gimbal. This is where it the enthusiasm really started to grow and the craving to know more continued. Since using the phone, low light was a big issue for the phone and it was here where I started learning a lot more about shaping light and how it use it to improve the image quality.
Using the gimbal was also a progressive step, if not the driver for really creating better content. I was really pleased with the smoothness of the footage I was getting and whilst the image quality from the phone is far from stella, I was still really happy with what could be achieved.
Getting thirsty
There is where I started to focus on the wrong areas and the money I was investing should have gone into my first DSLR. At the time I was happy with the footage the camera was taking and caught the gear bug. I was looking at mobile lenses from the company Moment, which are excellent btw and I still use them. I got into camera sliders, especially the motorised avenue. The thought of getting repeatable shots where of great interest, still is today, I spend way too much time thinking how best to automate movements so that I can concentrate on creativity and ensure the shot can be captured in a fluid way.
MORE ACTION
Not one to leave boarding behind, I was still big into the sport. Capturing new moments with the skills I learnt, getting better took considerable time and effort. This was difficult, filming yourself and making the footage look dynamic and engaging is a hard process to undertake. Regardless of the learning curve this was an excellent time and even though the process can be long, I was happy.
Next on my list was a drone, I bought the DJI Spark as this was in my price range. Very capable little drone and has helped capture moments that would have not been possible by conventional means.
BRoll
Wanting to get more cinematic, a term I don’t like using but the idea was to improve the look, colour grading, incorporating transitions I started using Davinci Resolve 15, this was a big learning curve but the time spent learning the application has paid off. Still using the mobile phone, it was around this time I was starting to want more from the image. There was only so far you can push the colours without sacrificing the quality. I was slowly getting frustrated by the low light capabilities and having to work around when the best time to shoot was. I was craving more flexibility.
Taking the leap
This all leads me to where I am right now. I have started to seriously invest in myself. I’ve put my money in the Lumix G7 camera, Edelkrone motion control system, sliders and lighting, starting this website and trying to get as much content in place to show to prospective customers the quality of my work and seeing what the future holds.