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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Long lens allows me to stay back far enough from the action at Punisher 4x4 Racing, but still get the great shots.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Four GoPros mounted to the #22 car at KOH 2017 during qualifying.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Buttons allowing starting and stoping recording, as well as tilting the angle on the Karma Grip.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Custom built shoulder rig for DSLR, including eyepiece and boom mic.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
GoPro Hero4 Black and small adjustable tripod.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Karma Grip Gimbal for fantastic smooth shots.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
DSLR photo taken at Trail Hero 2016.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Getting up close and personal while shooting Loren Healy at the Ultra4 Stampede.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
GoPro mounted with Gimbal on the Pathmaker.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
My Gimbal mount location wasn't great for rolling the Pathmaker. Gimbal and GoPro down!
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Shooting some qualifying at KOH 2017 with the helicopter overhead.
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Brady Melville
Shooting Better Off-road Video
Shooting the Island Cup 2015 with my home-built shoulder mounted DSLR rig.
Story & photos by Brady Melville of Pathmaker Productions
The off-roading industry and the video industry have both changed and grown since I started my career in off-road nearly twenty years ago behind the lens of a crappy old Mini-DV tape video camera. We now live in the world of GoPro sports cameras, YouTube, and Live Streaming directly from your cell phone, so it has never been easier for the average person to get out wheeling and take some fantastic video or photos with very little high-tech equipment. The quality of footage from a cell phone is not the same as an Action Cam, and definitely a far cry from an HD Mini-Cam or DSLR, but everything has its place and you don’t need to worry about breaking the bank to get out there and shoot video. At the end of the day, content is king so catching the coolest off-road clip ever on your potato phone is better than not filming it at all.
Before we get to gear, I’ll go over some basic filming and shooting tips that are going to make your videos look better regardless of what camera you use. The most important thing to remember when shooting off-roading is that the camera’s perspective isn’t the same as what you see in person. You have to shoot from a location that gives the rig and obstacle perspective. Shooting downhill at someone coming up will result in a video that looks like someone driving along a flat road. If you can safely stand off to the side or below the rig while staying low to the ground, shooting upwards, your video will do a much better job of showing how steep and large the obstacle really is.
When shooting with your phone, remember to hold it “sideways” to get rid of the black bars in your video. I am constantly reminding people to turn their phone sideways, just make sure you turn it before you start filming. The last thing I want to touch on when filming is your own safety. I’ve seen a lot of people standing in crazy places trying to catch “The Shot” without any thought of what could happen if something goes wrong. (Here’s a short video of me in close to get the shot but having an escape route: "The Shot" - Ultra4 Racing Stampede - https://youtu.be/QLgaVscIdME. Never stand downhill from a vehicle without a tree to duck behind or an escape route planned out. If you’re going to film, look behind yourself to see if there are any trip hazards and plan where to go if the rig starts coming in your direction. If there are trees, stand behind the large ones and hold your camera out the side. I often see people standing in front of trees and it’s easy to get squished if things go wrong.
As a full-time photographer I always have lots of special gear but you don’t necessarily need it. If you’re just out for a short journey or something unexpected happens then the cell phone can’t be beat. Everyone carries one and you should get close to the action to fill the screen. Hold your phone sideways unless you’re shooting and broadcasting a live video, which you can do via Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, as long as you have 4G service and a good data plan since it can add up fast with live video.
The next step up would be an action camera like a GoPro. I currently run four of them and they’re fantastic for mounting in a variety locations on vehicles, including underneath or on the suspension. Action cams have a wide field of view so they’re great for those up close shots to capture all the action. With tons of great HD and UltraHD filming options you can get some very high quality video from a small package and my usual go-to settings on the GoPro are 2.7k at 60fps. The larger than 1080p recording allows me to zoom in on the video without giving up quality, which is important because the GoPro’s real weakness is long distance shots. I shoot in 60fps because it is much smoother for the fast action in off-roading, but expect your file sizes to be very large if you use these settings. Being so small the action cams were never great handheld until powered gimbals hit the market. I run two different ones, a made-in-China version and GoPro Karma Grip, which smooths out the shakiness and creates gorgeous, smooth cinematic shots. With the ability to add extension handles to get your camera closer to the action as well as external microphones, this is now my go-to way of filming most rock crawling and trail wheeling videos. They’re small enough to toss in my bag and easy to carry while climbing in and out of rigs or scrambling up the rocks. GoPro’s are a more user-friendly option than using a full DSLR shoulder rig that requires breaking down between each shot.
Next step up is a small Mini-Cam or dedicated video camera. With overall decent video formats, built in sound, and some optical and digital zoom, they are a great option for filming off-roading but not something I carry in my bag as I either shoot with action cams or my full DSLR rig.
For go-fast racing or an event where I have to film further away from the rigs (like at King of the Hammers) I typically use my DSLR camera on a custom-built shoulder rig. I fabbed up the rig from $8 worth of Home Depot parts and various things laying around my shop including an old Nissan Harmonic Balancer as a counterweight and a small heim joint as a cheap gimbal. My DSLR does double duty as my photography rig and for shooting video. I run a Canon 6D Full Frame body with various lenses I select depending on location, which allow me to zoom right in and take fantastic video of the action. I built the shoulder rig to reduce video shakiness, (which gets worse the further you zoom in) and because it’s difficult to move around with a tripod. It does help stabilize the shot, but is heavy and awkward on the rocks, so I’ve been using the action cameras more and saving my DSLR for strictly shooting photos.
Editing software and learning how to use it could fill another article, and while I use Adobe Premiere Pro for all my video, you can get fantastic results out of the free software from GoPro or iMovie, and as they all use the same “liner style editing” they are all very similar to use. The most important thing with all of this is just get out there and shoot, post and repeat.
Brady Melville of Pathmaker Productions made a fantasy a reality by leaving corporate construction to pursue a career as offroad photographer and videographer. Share in his adventures offroad at www.pathmakerproductions.com and www.youtube.com/pathmakerproductions for a front row seat on his next journey.
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