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Over the last couple of years shooting Real Estate video I have found my movements whether it be on the gimbal, drone or slider have got slower and slower. To achieve this look when shooting with the handheld gimbal the 2 main things I am doing are,

  1. Shooting in a higher frame rate such as 50p (60p for you North Americans) so that I can use a 50% slow motion effect when editing the footage.
  2. Doing very slow movements when shooting and sometimes only moving my arms and hips with the gimbal (not my feet) to get this very slow movement.

3 Reasons to Slow down your Gimbal movements when Shooting

  1. Flexibility – When editing a 2 second shot once slowed down 50% it becomes a 4 second shot you can use and trim to the desired length. Alternatively you can still use the shot at a normal pace and not slow it down at all. You can also edit the pace when cutting the shots either slow or fast to determine the feel to your edits (see examples below).
  2. The Look – I prefer the slower movements as it gives the viewer more time to take in the detail within the shot and can give a more cinematic or dramatic feel to the shots.
  3. Shot Selection – When doing such a short and slow movement it forces you to really think about what you are going to shoot, well it cover what you are trying to focus your viewers attention on? Maybe you need to break the scene up into 3 seperate smaller shots or moves? It can sometimes be a challenge to our grey matter but will most often improve our shooting technique.

Same Shots with 2 different edits!

As an example I recently did the job below for a Realtor client and apart from the drone shots was shot entirely on the handheld gimbal at 50fps.

Version 1 -The first edit was the job I delivered to my client.

Version 2 – And this second edit I did for a pacey Instagram version and the only changes I made was obviously the sound track and the length of the shots but everything else was the same in terms of using the slow gimbal moves.

Conclusion

What I am hoping to demonstrate with these videos is that even thou I am making very slow movements you still have the flexibility to use the footage to vary the pace or feel of your edit which you can obviously do with the music and pace of your cutting.

Those are my thoughts on using the gimbal and as always would love to hear your comments below whether you like or dislike the style.