Watch this gimbal starter guide to get you shooting cinematic video quickly

Gimbals can be wonderful filmmaking tools, and they’re ideal for adding interesting movement to your shot with the minimum of fuss. But they’re not always easy to get to grips with instantly. To get the best out of them, you need to practice and experiment. If you’re very new, though, just searching on YouTube for gimbal tutorials can get overwhelming. Many of them cover advanced techniques without really showing you the basics.

In this video, Jason Vong goes through some gimbal basics to get you shooting cinematic footage as quickly as possible. And he not only talks about the techniques he uses but also his lens choice to get the most impact.

Gimbals aren’t the only tools out there upon which you’ll want to place your camera. For still shots you have tripods and for moving shots you have sliders and jibs. And while a gimbal can’t completely replace any of them, it can provide somewhat of a substitute in a pinch. And if you’re travelling with your kit or just packing ultra light for a local shoot, then it might be your only choice.

Jason guides us through the basics with the Zhiyun Weebill LAB, and his guide follows a natural progression, starting with simple tracking sequences to create establishing shots of a location to simulating camera sliders and jibs. And these techniques apply to all gimbals, not just the Weebill LAB.

So, if you’ve been thinking about getting a gimbal, or you’ve just recently got one, and you’re not entirely sure where to start with it, this video should help to get you up and running.

[via Fstoppers]