Conveying speed

[Simon Meesters]

Hello everyone,

I'm shooting a commercial for a bicycle courier company next week. We want to convey the speed and ease with which the couriers move through the city through a moving and dynamic cinematography style.

There will be a gimbal on a quad to follow the couriers around, some drone shots, a camera rigged to the bike and some handheld static footage following the deliverers around.

It is my first time shooting something that is so 'action-packed' and I was wondering if you have some advice on best conveying (/exaggerating) the speed with which the couriers drive around. Any tips on wider vs longer lenses, shutter speeds, etc?

Thanks so much in advance! 

[Robert Hart]

The GoPros may do this on their own. They are fixed lens cameras with a wide view. Wide view fixed lens cameras or wide-angle lenses on conventional cameras accentuate the speed of objects moving towards or away or if agile POV the riders, their motion moving forward or departing when viewing directly ahead or rearwards. The lens choice for your other agile cameras should desirably be wide view as well. My personal preference would be also to include some pan follows of the travelling subjects viewed from the side of their movement. To accentuate the motion and to blur rolling shutter artifacts with shallow depth of field, the lens should desirably be a telephoto lens with ND filters to enable the lens aperture to be selected to lower f/T numbers enabling that shallower depth of field.  Shutter speed is perhaps a question of personal style. With high shutter speeds, motion will be stuttery. That will be fine when there is a  lot of motion happening within an agile shot as it will clarify the apparent image by reducing motion blur. My personal preference of a locked off wide-angle view of the small-in-the-view cyclists racing through the frame from one side to the other, across something like a plaza or street crossroad would be to select a normal shutter speed so that motion blur reduces the apparent stutter of the standard frame rate. Your overhead drone views may eliminate and need for this shot but my personal preference would be to take the trouble. Please heed the better advice of others who respond. There are far more accomplished practitioners than I who comment here.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Robert Hart
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