The setting sun, winds blowing through your hair (yes it blows through my hair as well, and I wasn't born with dreads), the sounds of leaves rustling in that wind. The sound of that one bird that you have grown to get irritated at. The tension of loosing the way back as darkness falls, or worse I fall (trust me I have, wet stone and downhill forest roads are not a joke, but its good to have a girlfriend who is stronger than you, physically). The promise of an evening under the stars with stories to share, music to play and reminiscing the beauty of the world we saw that day. These are some things that comes to mind whenever I think of my trips around the country.
Shooting documentaries and travel videos is something that has been very close to my heart. Its something that comes to a lot of us naturally I guess.
We all love to travel and visit beautiful places by the sea, on a mountain, inside the forest or simply the world around us. I made my first travel film about a decade ago, about 3 dumb kids going on a visit to the beach together. I had just got my first camera (Nikon D5000 with 18-55 kit lens) as a Puja gift, and shot whatever I felt like. I had no idea how to edit, so I put all the footage I liked one after another on Windows Moviemaker, and put the song Time by Pink Floyd and let it play out for the whole length of it. It was a long 7 minute video, but somehow all my friends enjoyed watching it. Time passed by, life came along and I was running around taking photos of people and things to make a living. In those travels, whenever I had a chance I ran around took photos of the places I visited. I made photo essays of my travels to the forests and hills and seas. Somewhere in the middle I shifted from stills to video, traveled the country shooting different people doing different things, birds flying, trees swinging, animals pooping, and the sun setting against the lens (oh god I know) and learnt how to edit and make better travel videos.
TIME OF SHOOT
This is probably the most important aspect of shooting nature. Landscapes, and the world in general looks the best when the sun is coming up or going down. The color of the sun, the angle of the light and the atmosphere kick in as your gaffer and grips to give you the most cinematic time of shooting nature. Having said that there are times when to portray extreme harshness you need to shoot during midday sun..NO....NOOOOOO You do not f#@#$%^ shoot during the midday sun. You are not making a Western film with cowboys. Get up in the morning to shoot. Shoot till the sun starts to get harsh, then go back to your resort, hotel room, tent, tree, hole and wait till its starting to go down again. Here a few things I have noticed with timings on certain locations.
If you are planning to shoot at a beach, make sure you check which side of the coast you are in. If you are on the East coast you will get a sunrise from the sea and a sunset on the land and vice versa.
Along with that knowledge its crucial to know the tide timings of the beach you are in.
In the mountains, the sun can be hidden behind a hill even after it has risen so make sure you recce and know where the sun is coming out from if you want to utilize the sun very early on.
Also in the mountains, it can get dark very quickly as similar to the sunrise it might get hidden behind a hill much before the said sunset time of the area.
There is a really good afterglow from the mountains that you get even after the normal sunset time, as you are at a much higher altitude. It can give you some really fascinating results.
Inside the forests, contrary to my tip of not shooting during midday, sometimes that is the only time when you will get beautiful shafts of light coming in through the thick canopy.
If you are planning on shooting animals, the best time is super early in the morning. Its cool and generally less people so chances of spotting are more. Although you will find a lot of wildlife near water bodies during the afternoon during hot summer days, the most I have seen animals are really early in the morning.
If you can maintain your shooting times and shoot during these times, your results will come out really good looking. But in the real world we have lot of challenges and problems that might not let you shoot in the perfect circumstances. Its up to you to figure out the best course of action that time. Try to keep subjects backlit with the sun , find small shades to shoot in, wait for a cloud, or shoot indoor stuff make the most of it.
EMBRACE THE CHALLENGE
The wallpapers and photos that we see on our screens or share on social media look very serene and wonderful, but there is a lot of hard work and challenges that go behind making that.
Its difficult to wake up at 5 Am when you are inside your warm blanket in the cold of the mountains, but you have to kick yourself out of bed and trek to your spot if you want that fantastic morning light with the sun rays coming out through the mist.
To get the best shots from a forest, you have to go through it first. You need to take your gear and start walking. Carry some water and some food and definitely someone that knows the way around.
To get the best views of mountains, you have to trek to the spots that give you the best view. Which includes both uphill and downhill treks.
Mountains generally have a wet weather, and the paths leading up to most places are rocky. Your trekking boots or the footwear you have might be more dangerous than helpful on these rocks.
Sometimes, even after planning you will not get your shot. Don't get disappointed, we are shooting in nature and barely have things in our control, try it again and again and if it still fails, move along and make the most of what you have.
While shooting the Mists of Sonada, me and Roshni had found this place which was about 5 kms uphill trek through the woods into a clearing, where we could see the entire town, and the entire valley below with the sun setting right behind that. I really wanted to end the video with that shot during a sunset. We had stayed for 5 days there, and for 3 of those days, every afternoon post lunch we would trek to that spot, with our gear. It was a difficult climb and everyday it would be full of mist and cloud and nothing would be visible. It was raining on and off for all those days we stayed there. On the 3rd day, we decided we are not getting that shot, so I took a shot of the clouds itself and by the time we packed it had started raining. It was just me and her in a secluded spot and our only way back was through the woods with just the phone lights to see. The way down was hell, could not step into anything without slipping and falling. We held each other, opened our shoes knowing the risks. And very carefully 1 step at a time we came back, this experience was one of the most romantic times I have had with her, and it has built a bond between us that no dates or words can build. Eventually, we never got good sunrise or sunsets in that entire trip, so we used the rain and clouds instead and named it the 'Mists of Sonada'.
To make something good, you have to face the challenges that come with it.
Even if it is a video about your last summer vacation. If you want to make a film that makes the audience feel the serenity of the place, you have to wake up in the morning, walk that distance, carry your gear and be prepared to get to shoot nothing at all.
EQUIPMENT
When you are at the location, woken up in time and made the trek to the top of the hill the next thing you are gonna need is your equipment.
When travelling, keep in mind that you have to carry that gear yourself. Assemble it, shoot with it and pack it back again. Hence the lighter and the setup the more you can travel with it.
Use lighter lenses, there are a lot of light lenses that you can use for your travel films. You can find a lot of cheap old lenses online that are really small and lightweight and have excellent image quality.
Carry a variable ND and a Polarizer filter. Polarizers are particularly useful for shooting nature since it gets of a lot of random reflections that are scattered around your frame. Study about these filters if you don't know about them as they will be really useful for you while filming.
If you are travelling via flight, remember to follow up on what you can carry and the restrictions from the airline. V mount batteries need to be carried with you on the cabin and also need to be of certain voltage. You cant carry the bigger V mount on flights usually. Try and carry lighter tripods and lighter heads to meet the weight requirements.
A slider is a really good piece of equipment to carry for your travel videos. A slider with a head also works as kind of a tripod, so you can get away without carrying a tripod or a monopod. It also helps to have a bit of movement to your montage shots instead of just static shots.
If you have a camera that can shoot slow motion or at higher frame rates that's a bonus. Slow motion looks really great for travel montages and impactful shots. It slows down a moment and gives it more importance. It also helps if you don't have any other option than going handheld by reducing the shake and movements.
But don't shoot everything in slow motion, it gets stale. Mix it up. And do remember to keep a track of what FPS you are shooting in. That's a big thing a lot of people generally forget to check. You have in your head that you are shooting 60 fps and you go home and find our you shot 24 fps. (Not a good feeling.)
Aerial Photography is a huge boon for any travel or documentary work. If you have a drone or can get hold of a friends it will add a lot to your video. Since its a big topic ill make a separate section for it.
Aerial Photography or Drones
Having a camera that can go up in the air and give you a full view of your surroundings was a dream for filmmakers before. But now with the ease of getting a drone it has become almost an essential for any travel or nature related work.
Learn about your Drone extensively. Test it, learn to get a feel of it. Learn about every option in the menu. Learn about aviation basics. Learn about windspeed, flying with the wind against the wind and how it affects movement and battery life. Learn about signal interference and what causes them. Learn about flying the aircraft safely and efficiently before thinking of getting the best shot.
Don't go balls out with your drone, understand that its a piece of equipment and you spent a lot of money buying it. If you friend comes and tells you that he saw his friend fly his Mavic 3 kms away to a remote island, tell him to move away and maintain social distancing. He or his friend is not going to buy you a new drone if your current one goes into the sea.
Having said that, if you have an understanding of your drone and you know how far you can push it, go ahead and make things happen.
Flying the drone as high as you can and getting a shot isn't always the best option for an aerial shot. Sometimes the best shots come from flying it just a bit above the tree line, or the water body. Get creative with your shots.
Get a set of ND filters for your drone, or at least a Polarizer. This will make your footage look so much richer.
Make sure you shoot during the right times of the day. As most of the drones out there shoot 8 bit imagery and in general are as good as an expensive phone camera. It is important to get things right on the recorded footage itself. Avoiding the sun while shooting against it is a good idea as it just does not have the dynamic range to hold up against it directly. Only do it if you plan to replace the sky in post.
Another thing to keep in mind is when you are exposing, make sure you expose for the thing you want to focus on. For example if you are shooting a river at sunset with trees on both sides covering it and you want the details of the water, expose at a level you can get the details of the water. As when you are flying in a beautiful sunset, you are mostly seeing the top of the trees that are catching the light and its easy to fall into a trap of thinking its well exposed. The amount of light reaching the top of the trees and the surface of the water will be vastly different. So always keep in mind what you want to expose for.
When flying a drone close to water surfaces, remember a they have sensors that get confused by the reflective surface of the water which can cause it to dip or rise unexpectedly.
Try to get a hard case backpack for your drone, if you have a bigger drone, when you travel with it. Its easier to carry and it stays safe.
Be careful while filming animals with drones, it can cause a lot of distress for them. Refrain from trying those shots of trying to fly through flocks of birds. You risk injuring one badly and also causing damage to your drone. A lot of the aerial filming you see of animals are done with longer lenses on drones as well.
Know the places where you are shooting with your drone, understand restrictions and respect them.
Try not to shoot log footage with 8 bit systems, really doesn't do much other than give you a flat color profile. Go for a cinelike profile or a middle ground between baked in colors and log. Don't depend on heavy grading with consumer drone footage.
Very fast forward movements will get you blades on your footage for some models of drones, keep an eye out for that.
Don't try to be a hero with your drone. Be careful, respect rules and shoot responsibly.
CREW
Sometimes when you are making docus or travel films, crew can mean your girlfriend, your brother, your friend or just you. Whatever the case, its important to have a crew no matter how small that might be. Even you and one other person can go a long way. And its also important to have a crew that understands and loves nature. There is nothing like doing a project with 3 of your friends who love hanging out in the forest with you.
The ideas you bounce off each other, the help that you get from each other and the satisfaction of having like minded people around you when you are working in nature is priceless.
This is especially important when you are doing a bigger project. Nature films are not always travel films or solo blogs. Sometimes bigger projects come up from those solo films you made and then you will need to provide a certain level of quality that requires you having a basic crew.
For a decent sized project, where you have to travel around a bit and shoot you should have these people in crew for an efficient travel friendly production.
A Director
A Producer
A DP/Cinematographer or 2 depending on the kind of project
A First AC
A Sound Engineer
A Key Grip
Having said that, me and Roshni are always making travel films while on a vacation together. A crew is important, but their love for nature is more important otherwise its very difficult to convince a person to wake up at 4 am in a cold winter morning and go take a shot of a leaf which according to him can be taken at 10 AM as well.
PATIENCE and INTIMACY
When you are making films in nature, you are at the Mercy of mother earth. No matter what you plan or how talented you are, its ultimately up to the weather on what you can shoot and what you cannot. Not just that, if the elephant wants to show you his ass, or the bird wont come out from behind the branch there is nothing you can really do about it. Except wait. And as you learn to keep quite, observe nature and wait patiently, you will be rewarded. The elephant will turn and pose for you, the bird will come out in all its glory and that butterfly will come and sit exactly at your f 1.4 shot, provided you wait for it. This I can say for sure as it has happened to me time and again and its always the same.
They don't know who you are, until you give them time. Show them you don't mean harm. You respect the nature around you, and it will respect you back.
The same works for humans as well. If you want to shoot a villager, a tribal or any human for that matter. Its important to establish a connection with them first. Spend time with them without any camera or gear, get to know them even if for 10 minutes. It works like a charm.
Its important to absorb nature when you are shooting in it. Spend time to see things that you like, lay down on open meadows and look at the sky, sit next to a river and just spend time doing nothing but looking at it and around.
CONCLUSION
In all these years since I got my first camera to shooting weddings, music performances to shooting big scale movies with big stars, there is one thing that hasn't changed that is my love for shooting nature. I would still give up everything to go shoot (with a camera) that tree as the sun sets and that irritating bird is still making that irritating noise nonstop.
Its important to remember one thing as a travel filmmaker, we have the power to capture moments and make them last forever. In our travels we have met animals that we have bonded with and never saw them again, places that don't exist anymore or people who we will never see again.
Those moments remain only in our films, we can make things immortal and timeless through our work.
So connect with what you shoot, fall in love with the things around you and sometimes just put down the camera and watch the moment as it happens.
But try to shoot most of it.
#NaturePhotography #NatureFilmmaking #Cinematography #DJIPhantom #DronePhotography #AerialPhotography #LandscapePhotography #NatureDocumentary #TravelFilms #TravelDocumentary #KolkataFilmmaker #Kolkatacinematographer #Nature #Environment #WorldEnvironmentDay #BlackmagicCamera #SonyA7s #IncredibleIndia #TravelIndia #TravellinginIndia #Traveller #Wanderlust #India #Assam #Kuresong #TamilNadu #Trekking #Hikking #Adventure #travelgram #travelblog #travelblogger #sunset
댓글