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10 tips for filming miniatures to make them look larger than life to the camera

Miniatures have been a part of filmmaking pretty much since filmmaking began. They’re typically used when building a full-sized set or prop would be impractical or just flat out impossible. Sometimes they’re used to create forced perspective shots to make a miniature look like it’s part of the real world or to be able to blow something up that they couldn’t blow up in real life or to create something that could just never really exist in the real world.

Whatever your reasons for using them, they’re a lot of fun and can be very effective when done right. But how do you do them right? Well, you can start by watching this video from Steve Ramsden where he goes over his top 10 filmmaking tips for filming miniatures to make them look (and act) like they’re a part of the full-sized real world.

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Edelkrone’s JibONE v2 brings improved connectivity and new features for a better user workflow

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Edelkrone has announced its successor to the Edelkrone JibONE, announced in 2020. No, it’s not the JibTWO, it’s the JibONE V2. It offers all of the features of the original. In fact, according to the specs, it’s pretty much identical. It’s the same size, the same weight, has the same mounting options, same load capacity, same camera travel, same speeds, same power inputs and power consumption, same everything.

But it does have some new features, too. It comes with better wireless connectivity with a longer range, improved power management with auto power-off, an information screen with instant feedback for the user to see what it’s doing and can be fully wired when you’re shooting somewhere with a lot of interference. And right now, there’s a $300 launch discount that makes it cheaper than the original.

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These video editing mistakes are probably what’s stalling your YouTube channel growth

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No matter how experienced we might get with editing video, it’s easy to get complacent, especially if you’re creating video content regularly for platforms like YouTube and other social media. We start to get sloppy, make mistakes, and our videos suddenly aren’t as popular as they once were. And for those just starting out, you might still be trying to figure out how you can get your videos seen and shared in the first place.

Well, Matti Haapoja is here to help. In this video, he walks us through five of the biggest mistakes that you can make when video editing, particularly for social media. I have to admit, I’m guilty of making a few of these mistakes myself and they can creep up on you without you even realising you’re doing it.

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Rode enters the headphone market with the new NTH-100 closed back over-ear professional cans

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Rode has finally entered the headphone market with the announcement of its new Rode NTH-100 closed-back over-ear headphones. Rode says that they offer “exceptional sonic performance and superior comfort” with custom-matched 40mm drivers to deliver an “incredibly accurate” frequency response with “ultra-low distortion”.

Rode says that the new NTH-100 headphones are designed for professionals and are equally at home uhh… at home, in the studio or in the field whether it’s for music production, podcasting and live streaming, location recording or video editing with a natural sound “akin to open-backs” but with the advantages of closed-back headphones to block out external noise and minimising spill.

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I started shooting with gaffer tape on my LCD to force myself to think differently

I’m sure over the last few years all of us photographers have heard the word CINEMATIC so much that in the end, it lost all meaning. Is every photo with crushed backs and a cyan-orange color grade cinematic? I’d say NO! So today I’ll try to explore what are the factors that add up for an image to be cinematic and what can make or break the cinematic vibe of a shot.

It all started while I was watching a video from Grainydays on YouTube where Jason was using a panoramic camera, the Fujifilm TX-1. A vintage camera that creates panoramic images by exposing 2 shots on film at the same time to get an image that has an aspect ratio of 65×25. The entire concept caught my interest, but since I don’t have ~$6000 lying around to spend on a vintage camera and I don’t shoot film either, I went the DIY route and taped 2 strips of gaffers tape to the LCD of my camera and took it out for a test.

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Nanlite launches its new PavoBulb 10C high CRI RGBWW LED light for practical light replacement on set

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Nanlite has released their new PavoBulb 10C. It’s an RGBWW colour-mixing LED light designed to replace practical bulbs on-set when you need to get a little more control over how they look to camera. With the plethora of dodgy cheap consumer CCFL and LED bulbs on the market these days that people often use in their homes and businesses, these will be a welcome tool in the arsenal of filmmakers.

It is essentially Nanlite’s answer to the Aputure Accent B7C, released in September 2020, but for the Nanlite ecosystem, offering remote control through the NanLink app and a variety of other methods. It offers a CRI of 95, a TLCI of 97, over 36,000 colours with 15 customisable preset modes and a slew of other features.

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Five video editing tips in five minutes to work smarter, faster and tell a better story

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For anybody who edits video, it’s a process that constantly changes and evolves. We’re always learning new things, new and better (sometimes worse) ways to do things than we did before. There are always new techniques to experiment with to see if they fit our style, our workflow and the videos we’re trying to create. But it can be a slow and inefficient process sometimes.

But in this video, Mark Bone gives us five great tips to not only work a little smarter and faster but to also help us tell better stories with our edits. And while he touches on some topics that have been covered before, like shortcut keys, Mark takes things a step further to tell you which shortcut keys specifically are the most advantageous to learn and remember while you’re editing to speed up your workflow.

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Can a $500 lens possibly perform as well as a $26,000 lens? Let’s find out

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Seems like a perfectly idiotic question right? I mean, how could a $500 lens possibly be as good as a $26,000 lens? And who drops that kind of money on a lens anyway? Filmmakers, that’s who! This interesting video from Film Riot compares a $500 35mm Rokinon lens with a 32mm Arri Zeiss Master Prime lens that costs mega-bucks.

The video compares various shots taken in a studio setting and outside, and although it’s not done scientifically, the results are certainly interesting. So how do they stack up against each other?

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Why filmmakers love lamps – should you use one in your next video?

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This is a rather interesting observation that I’ve never picked up on before but I’ll sure be on the lookout for in the future. Have you ever noticed how many lamps appear in movies? Sometimes even in particularly awkward or unusual places? Filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick Tomasso certainly noticed after recently rewatching Eyes Wide Shut. He then studied other movies and noticed they were everywhere.

They’ve been around in cinema for years and it doesn’t look like they’re going away any time soon. But why? Sure, lamps exist in the real world, but not usually to the extent that they appear in certain films and certainly not in all of the places that they pop up in movies, either, as Patrick illustrates.

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10 epic and cinematic drone moves you need to learn for filming yourself

Filming yourself with a drone has always been challenging, although it is getting a little easier with the automated flight modes available now, even on entry-level drones like the DJI Mini 2 and Autel Evo Nano (first impressions here). But if you want to break out of the automated flight modes and shoot something that’s a little more creative, interesting and that helps you to tell your story, what can you do?

Well, in this video, Irish drone and smartphone filmmaker Mattheww Brennan has posted his 10 top drone moves for filming yourself and making the footage look pretty awesome. Some of these moves are quite simple to do but others will require some learning and experimentation to really pull them off well.

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