Here is a quick list of things you can do with the GoPro from my experience:
– Wear it on your head (Useful for sports)
– Strap it to your chest (A different view from POV)
– Use it as CCTV in your short film (Be sure to add black/white effect with added grain)
– Drop it in the ocean and film sea creatures (Don’t forget the waterproof body)
– Stick it inside or outside of your car (No need for a tripod or bulky rigs)
– Get some kickass aerial shots with a drone
For the hawkeye, film lovers out there you will notice that the shot from behind the truck from the beloved “True Detective” is shot using a GoPro and since watching it, that specific shot has stuck with me, I also read that the broken taillight was actually an accident but the makers liked the look of it and decided to keep it (this is just a theory). But the way if you haven’t watched True Detective yet, what have you been doing with your life, seriously Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are incredible. Aside from Woody Harrelson’s who’s only other good role for is in Zombieland “Where’s my twinkie!”, notice how immersing the shot of the chained gate is. POV (Point of view) shots such as these can really captivate an audience making them feel more involved in your story.
Let’s talk specs
I have the GoPro Hero 4 Silver which can shoot at 4k! “4K!” I hear you say, yes it can shoot at a resolution of 3840×2160 however it will only do 15FPS (Frames per second), which would look terrible if you’re shooting a film in HD and the shutter speed is Max:1/fps Min:1/8192.
A quick side note, if you need to brush up on shutter speeds along with frame rates and what it all means, here is a great link where you will be able to learn about it and also what is conventionally used for a film shoot. http://nofilmschool.com/2015/09/how-shutter-speeds-frame-rates-change-look-feel-of-film.
But the camera does shoot 1080p at 60FPS which means your image will look incredible and you can slow it down in post production to get those intense slow-mo moments. It’s better to shoot at a higher frame rate if you are looking to do slow motion as it will look less jumpy and the camera does actually record at 120FPS but you can only shoot at 720p.
Wide vs Narrow
A great tool I found early on when using the GoPro is that you can shoot video in two modes, admittedly the image quality isn’t the best because of the poor lighting we used:
Wide (For perspective shots that make the world look somewhat rounder)
Narrow (Conventional film look)
Just to let you know this is actually my first camera ever apart from the one on my phone.. I should be ashamed I know but previously I have created a few short films and learnt bits and bobs about camera shots and film production in general and I will learn much more. I will talk more about film production in future posts.