what technique for a dance video?

Jeffrey Reynoso · January 16, 2016

I want to direct a short dance video for youtube. i want to have an cinematic camera technique like make the camara move back and forth while the women dances? any ideas I'm new to this. and is using my iphone 6s a good ideas?

Bill DiPietra · January 16, 2016

There really need to be some kinds of limits placed on the democratization of film-making, simply for quality control purposes. In my opinion, an iPhone should not be used as any kind of recording medium. You should at least be using some kind of DSLR.

What kind of video will this be? What kind of look do you want? Do you have access to lights?...

Brian Drysdale · January 16, 2016

Phones gave variable frame rates, so can gave problems when editing with many NLEs.

Jon Kline · January 18, 2016

Use lights and a tripod. And maybe take a few workshops or classes, or lower your expectations a bit, before shooting your first video project.

Vital Butinar · September 3, 2017

I'm a complete beginner in filming and all that goes with it.

But at university I had a course of cinematography and filming that I loved and ever since I can remember I wanted to make movies.

Well I became a semi-professional dancer in the last 10 years and when I was in a dance video I remembered how much I wanted to be in film businesses so with my girlfriend we decide to film a dance video of us to learn everything we could about the production process.

So we did everything and got a nice dance video out of it and because of the video we got to make 8 more for various other dancers we knew and I must say I learned a lot.

Anyway my advice to you is don't use an iphone or any kind of small camera but use a DSLR at least because you can do much more with it (unfortunately you're still limited in some areas) but the image will be much better. Make a shot plan in advance before filming and decide what exactly you're going to shoot before getting to your locations. I even went and scouted the locations in advance and decided what and how I'd do everything. Figure out what to do with lighting and or use onsite lighting decide how to use it and do it constantly because otherwise you shots won't match with each other.

Also don't forget to prepare your audio in advance. What I did was I added some beeps to the beginning and end of the audio for the video that I used when filming on locations and it made aligning for editing much easier (even though software can align audio well this was much more reliable).

But the most useful advice I can give you and this really depends on the type of dance and theme of the song is to plan your shots according to the choreography. Get the artist to give you a recording of the rehearsal of the choreography so you can prepare and look at the performance as a first person watching the show and then make notes of what you noticed the most (I usually notice either facial expressions and interesting dance styling movements because shows are meant to do that) then when you know what's interesting decide how to shoot the close ups of those elements because they are the once that are going to give your video the dot on top of the i. You have to remember it's that first person experience that makes a show great to watch but if shoot only a wide angle it's like watching a dance show from 400 feet and it loses it's charm and the close up shots of expressions and things like that is what brings a similar experience to the viewer compared to a live watcher.

Also if it's a group or even if it's just a pare of dancers you can fake some movements or adjust positions to get a better shot from a different angle but this also depends on how are the performers able to adapt and adjust to your directing.

Basically with the wide shots the more coverage you get the better off you because you have more options in editing and the close ups are what make it look really nice.

As far as editing goes and again it depends on the style its similar to I guess it reminded me of action films where they cut on action and then you just go by feeling in some places what you want the person watching to see whether you show them something a little before it happens or after depends on the pacing. I think of stuff like this like editing a conversation it has to stay interesting. Sometimes you let the viewer be surprised by close up and sometimes you lead them in with the wide shot.

Anyway that's about as much as I can give you in general I hope it helps and that you're able to make an awesome video (hope you show it when it's done) and have great fun making it. I know I did on all of mine. :)

Best regards