How to pack for filming adventure videos
When you know you going to be out doing adventure activities all day, it’s so important to pack light. Naturally you want to capture a variety of shots and angles and this means you are going to carry more than one camera, various accessories & spare batteries.
‘To pack light, you need to know exactly what you need.’
We recently spent the day with Venture South & Travelstart to both go and have an epic adventure experience, but also to see how compact we could back our gear while still maintaining a high production quality. In a tiny little back pack we kept a DJI Osmo, a single GoPro on a home made clamp & a foldable Mavic Drone. We knew we could leave the DSLR & other GoPros behind as they use up carry space & require time consuming setup. These tiny setbacks would make enjoying ourselves on this adventure impossible, as we would have to stop enjoying ourselves to keep looking for and setting up shots. Living in the moment is very important to us. But how can you know what to bring?
What gear is for what?
The trick is to know what gear is best to use for which shot. You need to film with purpose. Rather get a few desired shots, than try & document your entire day.
You will not only forget to live in the moment, but also end up with an editing nightmare. I’m going to give you our breakdown for each camera and what we deemed its purpose to be.
Yes that is the ‘full production’ kit .
So many possibilities with a GoPro
GoPro Attached Static Shots
The purpose of this camera setup is really just to get interesting shots. Trying to find unique angles that make the viewer wonder how you got that shot. We simply attached the GoPro to the bike with a home-made clamp. This easy-to-apply clamp can be fitted onto various spots on the bike throughout the day. You usually only need very little footage from each angle, so don’t leave your GoPro rolling for ages, a few seconds will do.
The other way to use this setup is to clamp the GoPro to the trailer or a piece of driftwood on the beach so you can get cool ‘set-up’ or ‘drive-by’ shots.
The Setup
The Drive-By
DJI Osmo - Handheld for people shots
The DJI Osmo is an affordable gimbal that keep the shots very stable when you are moving. There are various models that won’t break the bank. Some can even fit your mobile phone, but that’s for another article. The only time we get the DJI Osmo out is to either talk to someone or follow someone.
People
DJI Mavic - Wide Scenery Shots
Yes we use a drone. But we only used the drone for 5 minutes. The only reason we needed the drone was to get a great angle on the scenery.
Technically we could have used the DJI Osmo (or a DSLR) to cover some nice wide shots, but if you have a drone, well then hey, you going to use it.
Get it all in!
The Lesson
The lesson here is that if you want to make your life easier you need to be conscious of the purpose & ability of your gear. You want to maximize your pleasure while still capturing a cool video right? Well, the filming process to ‘capture the memory‘ is very different to ‘capturing a commercial‘, but the result doesn’t have to be. We could have made a cool video using just an iPhone too, but then we would have changed the shots we were planning to get.
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