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virgin-burner

how to make good tandemvideos!?

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i tried a search but couldnt find anything..

so, what is it that makes you a good videoguy for tandems!?

what kind of setups do you fly, what lenses, cameras, jumpsuits, what angles do you prefer? how's your storybook?

tell me about your experiences, what was most valuable to learn, which skills to master etc...

thanks already for your feedback! :)
“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

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Just ask yourself... Would you pay $100 for THIS video?

That is what you're asking the customer to do SIGHT UNSEEN. In most cases, this customer has never seen your work or anything. They are trusting you to do a good job and give them a quality product.

Personally, I try to do my very best on each and everyone and hopefully, doing better than the last time out.

Your flying needs to be top notch to "get" the shot. Your editing skills also need to be good for a presentable final product. I've seen good flyers ruin a good video by throwing together edits where the music skips and stutters or they accidentally hit pause in the middle of a video for a few seconds or whatever and then they just finalized anyway.

Also, it should flow... you need to be able to visually tell a story as well. Remember... you are writing, filming and producing a video about this person's experience. The video is going to be about 10 minutes long and you are expecting them to pay $100 for it. IT BETTER BE GOOD!

If you are unwilling to put your best effort into all of these areas... then you have no business being a Tandem Videographer... in my opinion.

Gary "Superfletch" Fletcher
D-26145; USPA Coach, IAD/I, AFF/I
Videographer/Photographer

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Practice! I am always amazed at the people I see who think they can just buy a camera helmet and start filming tandems or 4 way or anything else. I have and am currently seeing it! It doesn't matter how many skydives you have. Doing good camera work is a skill that needs to be developed. I don't care how much money you spend on equipment your not going to be able to get good video if you haven't taken the time to develop the skills you need to fly correctly around formations or a tandem or whatever your filming!
www.lukeevens.com
http://beachbodycoach.com/lguard8

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1) Flying experience. Be able to put yourself exactly where you want to be.

2) Experience with your equipment. You should be able to look at a scene and know exactly what your lens is getting.

3) Teaching experience. Being an instructor of any sort is very very good background experience for filming students,

4) Ability to film to a storyboard. Know length of clips, transitions needed and cues for the editor.

Notice that "really good equipment" is not in that list. You are much better off with a standard def tape based camera and a modified point and shoot if you take the extra money and master the above.

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All great replies to this topic. Here's my addition. I've been involved in various video productions for a number of years, skydiving being one of them. I always imagine myself sitting with my customers while sharing their video (that I just produced) with their family and friends and not wanting to hear "can we get to the good part" or "fast-forward this, it's boring". What I DO want to hear is "That was awesome, can we watch it again?" I shoot enough so they understand what is going on but not so much that they get bored. If you have an editor work with them to make both your lives easier. The one thing that stuck with me after going to a video production seminar years ago was this..."anyone can have an editing suite full of the latest and greatest equipment, but regardless of the equipment, knowing how to use it is the important part." On the skydiving side the bottom line is, if you're not there, your not going to get the shot. PRACTICE!!! Before you charge $100 for a video, make sure your video is worth $100. Remember this, the video you're making is not for you, it's for your customer. Good luck.

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I'm constantly surprised at the number of people that throw a camera on their helmet at 100/200 jumps and start shooting tandems at smaller DZ's. Once in a while they look good, but I believe that because they're going straight into "work" mode, they don't really learn the art aesthetic that makes for a more interesting view. For some, it's all about how bad-ass they can freefly around a drogue. [:/]

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These are all very good points...I wish more people would read and take into consideration the necessary skills pointed out in this thread. As Superfletch said, being able to sit and watch the video with the customer without being ashamed that they paid $100 for it is a good way of knowing if you're doing a good job.

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For some, it's all about how bad-ass they can freefly around a drogue. [:/]



This my pet peeve when it comes to tandem videos. I've seen so many where the video guy looks like he is having fun, but the video of the student ends up sucking. Its all about getting the students face and using the natural lighting to your advantage.

Also, it's important to act somewhat professionally around the student and during the interviews. Even though you've run through the same routine hundreds of times try to make it seem like you are interested and excited about the whole thing.

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Just to pile on to the other thoughts, remember that the freefall is less than half of the video. It's certainly the star of the video, but it's surrounded by other footage, and that needs to be just as good as the freefall. In fact, the non-freefall footage should be your strong point in the beginning because it's way easier to control the situation in the plane and in the LZ than in freefall. If you really think about what you're doing, you should be able to put your non-freefall thoughts down on film within a couple tries. Shooting your best in freefall might take a little longer to achieve.

Speaking of thinking about what you're doing, always go into everything (freefall, the plane, the LZ) with a plan, try your best to follow the plan, then honestly debrief yourself after the jump as to how you did. How close did you get to your original thought? In the areas where you didn't meet your expectations, was it your fault, or did the situation change making your plan less likely to work? If it was the latter, how well did you do adapting to the changes presented to you? Could you have reacted better, and if so, how?

The debrief is key, and doing it right after the jump is too. You need the reality of it fresh in your mind, how it looked in real life, and then you see how that translates to film. There are things that work, and things that don't, and if you don't check the footage while the reality is fresh in your mind, you lose the ability to see how to translated to film. By doing this, you'll develop the 'eye' to see things the way your cameras do, and you'll begin to gravitate toward those shots naturally.

A good rule of thumb is that every shot you take (as in video) needs to have a beginning, middle and end (besides freefall, that's just hit record and let it run). There should be some specific action your fliming, and before you hit record, you should know what you want, and how you want it to look. Things might not go the way you planned, so you may have to roll with the changes, but at least you have a starting point to work with, and some purpose every time you hit record.

As other have stated, be professional on camera. Be that way all the time to some extent, but even the coolest, most laid-back customers does want to hear you say, 'Shit yeah!' on their video. Coming up with a routine is a good idea, because then you can work on your delivery and reactions each and every time. You'll get better at presenting the questions and guiding the interview, and better at acting like you're just as excited as they are (almost). Remember, you want to have a begining, middle and end to the interview, so have a plan, and try to stay with it.

One last thing I'll add, the other suggested that you want to be able to sit with your customers and watch the video, and feel good about charging them $100 for it. I agree that you should feel like your work is worthwhile, but what you really want to do is make sure that you feel good about sitting with your fellow video guys and watching your work.

John Q Public will be pleased and impressed with a pretty big range of quality because they have little to no frame of reference from which to judge. None the less, you act like a profressional give them the best you can, even if you're vastly exceeding their expectations. If the other guys on the video crew approve of your work, or better yet admire your work, then you really have something. Just keep trying to do better every jump, and try harder than everyone else, and you'll win in the end.

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The best tandem videographer for me is the one that no one knows is even there (unless you think about it :)

No arms & legs in the video frame in free fall, no camera helmet pan from the student in the plane over to your sorry face with your tongue sticking out, no talking on the ground which hammers up at 300% the sound because YOU are right on top of the camera where the student is 6 feet away.

If you have a really good TM, he is the one that is interacting with the student and doing all the jokes/talking. There were so many times there were the usual "stupid" things that go on at the DZ around the fire pit and even the regulars talk about the 4 guys that were doing the thing on the video ..... then I remind them how the video came into being...... OH YEA, YOU WERE THERE TOO :)

The video is all about the student. It is their day.

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Norman Kent created a video some time ago that covers the basics of good freefall video creation, including tandem.
I remember seeing a bit of it on Youtube.
Let me look...
Ah.. here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHQZh5dhTvs

Also, somebody should make a list of what NOT to do when creating tandem videos.
Two of my biggest turnoffs are,
1. Using fisheye lens -- Tandem video is an aerial portrait. Would any reputable portrait photographer use fisheye lens for portraits?
2. Body parts in the video -- What is the deal with videographer's nose, goggles, hands or feet in the video? The camera needs to be mounted correctly and/or get rid of fisheye (see #1 above).

Bill
http://www.dslrforvideo.com

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all very good suggestions so far, thanks! :)
one thing; i agree that if you watch fisheye-videos all day long it gets annoying fast. but for someone that is likely to have ONE video skydiving, the fisheye-effect adds sort of a nice "twang" to it? i was also under the impression that if you zoom in a little, the effect is greatly reduced!?

edited to add: while you have to be closer to get a good shot, you also have sort of a larger "margin of error" for that, meaning, the tandem does not have to be right in the center and you still have most/all of them in the frame. especially if you choose NOT to jump ringsights etc...

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

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all very good suggestions so far, thanks! :)
one thing; i agree that if you watch fisheye-videos all day long it gets annoying fast. but for someone that is likely to have ONE video skydiving, the fisheye-effect adds sort of a nice "twang" to it? i was also under the impression that if you zoom in a little, the effect is greatly reduced!?

edited to add: while you have to be closer to get a good shot, you also have sort of a larger "margin of error" for that, meaning, the tandem does not have to be right in the center and you still have most/all of them in the frame. especially if you choose NOT to jump ringsights etc...




I hate the fisheye effect. I wouldn't want my video distorted. "What's wrong with your video? It looks weird." As for giving you a margin of error not keeping the student in the center of the shot and not using a ring sight, if you jump for pay you have to be able to keep the student in the center...period. Also gotta use a sight. No one pays you to guess.

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Okay, I bit my tongue reading this thread for a while. Time to rant...

The video is about the student (who paid for the video).

Videographer's body parts in the video look amateurish. And that whole "grab my foot" thing isn't about the student (who paid for the video), it is about the selfish, in-denial videographer (who didn't pay for the video). The videographer doesn't belong in the video except as a narrator/reporter. The whole, "turn the camera to yourself so you can talk to it" is also about the videographer, not the student (who paid for the video).

The video is about the student (who paid for the video).

The student is the star and the TI is the supporting actor/actress. The videographer's role is behind the lens capturing the action, not drawing attention to him/herself by doing dances with drogues, interacting with the TI, putting feet/arms/hands in the frame, getting on the wrong side of the lens, etc.

The video is about the student (who paid for the video).

And extreme fisheyes look silly (it's like adding too much reverb to every song you play). If you think you need "forgiving," what you really need is to learn how to fly and shoot well before you shoot tandems for hire.

The video is about the student (who paid for the video). Did I mention that?

Rant over!

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>but for someone that is likely to have ONE video skydiving, the fisheye-
>effect adds sort of a nice "twang" to it?

Someone who only has one skydiving video wants a clear, easy to recognize, non-distracting video of their skydive, one where it's easy to see their face, their instructor, the sky etc. Save the "twang" for freefly videos.

>you also have sort of a larger "margin of error" for that, meaning, the
>tandem does not have to be right in the center and you still have most/all
>of them in the frame. especially if you choose NOT to jump ringsights etc.

If you want to capture poorly framed video without a ringsight (which you don't absolutely need for good video anyway, although it helps) freefly video is probably a better thing to be shooting. Tandems pay a lot of money for a video - they deserve better than off-centered crappy video.

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>but for someone that is likely to have ONE video skydiving, the fisheye-
>effect adds sort of a nice "twang" to it?

Someone who only has one skydiving video wants a clear, easy to recognize, non-distracting video of their skydive, one where it's easy to see their face, their instructor, the sky etc. Save the "twang" for freefly videos.

>you also have sort of a larger "margin of error" for that, meaning, the
>tandem does not have to be right in the center and you still have most/all
>of them in the frame. especially if you choose NOT to jump ringsights etc.

If you want to capture poorly framed video without a ringsight (which you don't absolutely need for good video anyway, although it helps) freefly video is probably a better thing to be shooting. Tandems pay a lot of money for a video - they deserve better than off-centered crappy video.



+ 1

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Okay, I bit my tongue reading this thread for a while. Time to rant...

The video is about the student (who paid for the video).

Videographer's body parts in the video look amateurish. And that whole "grab my foot" thing isn't about the student (who paid for the video), it is about the selfish, in-denial videographer (who didn't pay for the video). The videographer doesn't belong in the video except as a narrator/reporter. The whole, "turn the camera to yourself so you can talk to it" is also about the videographer, not the student (who paid for the video).

The video is about the student (who paid for the video).

The student is the star and the TI is the supporting actor/actress. The videographer's role is behind the lens capturing the action, not drawing attention to him/herself by doing dances with drogues, interacting with the TI, putting feet/arms/hands in the frame, getting on the wrong side of the lens, etc.

The video is about the student (who paid for the video).

And extreme fisheyes look silly (it's like adding too much reverb to every song you play). If you think you need "forgiving," what you really need is to learn how to fly and shoot well before you shoot tandems for hire.

The video is about the student (who paid for the video). Did I mention that?

Rant over!



Well said. Not to beat a dead horse, but the video is ALL about the student. So many tandem videographers forget that in their quests for glory.

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while you have to be closer to get a good shot, you also have sort of a larger "margin of error" for that, meaning, the tandem does not have to be right in the center and you still have most/all of them in the frame. especially if you choose NOT to jump ringsights etc...



A fisheye lens isn't a crutch to help make your videos better, it's a tool for you to use once you have developed the skill to implement it.

Does it capture more in the frame? Yes it does, but it does so at the expense of detail. What I mean by that is that you have to be GLUED to the tandem in order to keep the studetns face recognizable. Even though you can see them clearly in the plane and in the door, which establishes that it's really them, a big part of the video is their genuine reaction to the event, in order to get that you need to be close enough to distinguish the reaction on the students face. A fisheye lens is terrible for this in that if you back off even slightly, you lose that level of detail.

Even then, using a lens much wider than a .42x is going to distort the video to the point that it looks 'odd' To you it looks 'different' and adds soemthing, but that's because you've seen 1000's of skydiving videos, and like the unique perspective. As mentioned before, this is for the student and their friends and family, who are new to skydiving videos, and will appriciate a more 'true to life' perspective.

On that subject, NONE of the .3, or .25 single element lenses are good choices for tandems. It's too wide, and most of them are not zoom-through lenses (in that they will not focus through the lens when you zoom in too much). They work great for hand-cam, where the camera is never more than 2 feet away from the student (including in the plane and on landing), but for outside video they are not the way to go. Look for a traditional wide angle lens, on the order of a .45x or .5x with mulitple elements so you can still use your zoom. Remember that the non-freefall parts of the video make up more than half of the footage, so having the zoom to use as a tool will help you produce better non-freefall footage.

As a side benefit, if you intend to go with the 'standard' still set-up, the Canon Rebel XT-whatever with the kit 18-55 lens (which is a great camera and lens, affordable, lightweight, and sharp enough for your first 1000 camera jumps), a .45x or .5x winde angle will match up nicely with the kit lens set on 18mm.

As mentioned by others, a ring site, or other frame reference are required, not optional. You don't have to jump a full ringsite if you're worried about the snag hazzard, a box drawn on your goggles will work. You have to make sure that the fit of your helmet and goggles are tight and consistant in that you put them on the same way every time, and you need to make sure that your placement of the box is dead-on. Use tape to make the box at first, and move it around until you think you have it lined up. Then, put on the helmet, and record yourself looking at various objects at different distances from 3ft to 100ft away. As you do thise, verbally call out what you're looking at, then watch the video and see if when you say 'green car', the green car is really in the middle. Once you have that done, remove the helmet and googles, and put them back on several times, filming objects each time to ensure that you can replicate the placement of the helmet and googles each time. Like others have said, you're not getting paid to guess.

A final point, for this post, is that if you'll be editing your own video, or have nay influence over the editing, for the love of god let the freefall play all the way from exit to opening, in real speed, the first time through. I hate, hate, hate to sit through a gear up and ride to altitude, waiting for the jump itself, only to have it chopped up with slow-mo, and the worst of all, backwards video going back into the plane. The video is about the student making the jump, so let's that as realisticly as possible, and that's real speed, all the way through.

If you want to do a 'disco edit', with slo-mo, stutter shots, and reverse video, that's your choice, but just stick it at the end of the presentation, not in the middle.

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IMHO. I think everything in moderation.

While I don't spend a lot of time focusing on myself, I do ( from time to time ) turn the camera 180 for a brief introduction. I think it makes the video more personal. I do this for handcam and outside video.

I will as well briefly video manifest, pilot (if available) and or packers. I think it gives the viewer a feel for the good vibe we have going on.

I have seen body parts done tastefully as well. It creates depth and orientation. It should never take away from the student.

Taste, feel, moderation.
Overkill is under rated.

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It seems that some of the suggestions are more 'complex', but here's a couple of basic, more fundamental ideas.

First, pay attention to the light. Keep it at your back, and that includes non-freefall footage. You can't move around too much in the plane, but you can wait until the plane turns if the sun is shining right in your eyes through the windshield or a window. On the ground, position yourself just like freefall, with the sun at your back to properly light your subject.

You'll find that people will tend to turn to face you if get close to them and then move. So if they're facing the wrong way with regards to the sun, get in front of them, make eye contact, and then step around to the correctlty lit side. Nine times out of ten they'll just follow you around and face the way you want them to.

Another guy mentioned you should never speak, even a post-jump interview because the audio is distorted due to the camera guy being closer to the mike. I think a post-jump interview is a big part of the video, but one thing you can do is pull the zoom all the way back so you can get close to the customer. Hold the camera helmet out at arms length, and keep it an equal distance from the customer. This way the mic will pick you up equally, and you can use a regluar voice to ask the questions.

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