To Track Or To Pan The Shot

Video Production Oakville – The Captain’s Blog

To Track Or To Pan The Shot

Hello everyone … it’s John Secondi here with a little bit about tracking and panning your shots.

Tracking Shots

Most commonly found in high end video production or Hollywood feature films, tracking shots are used when the camera moves along with the object in the frame. Generally speaking, the camera is mounted on a some type of dolly placed on rails – similar to a temporary railroad track. The camera is moved along the track by the crew in harmony with the object being followed in the frame. This type of shot usually runs lateral to or alongside the subject to hide the dolly tracks. In some cases, the dolly tracks are replaced by a crane that can move both laterally and vertically however you best get out your cheque book if you plan on using one of these bad boys … they can be rented as well but in most cases you should expect very high costs.

There are other types of tracking shots that can be accomplished using vehicles ( very common in Hollywood features ) whereby the camera rig is attached to a car or truck and follows alongside the object in the frame. These days, a very common method of capturing these shots is done using small camera drones pre-programmed with GPS to auto follow all the action. We will be featuring more about drones in video production in an upcoming blog.

Panning Shots

This type of shot is much more common in video production environments where the budget is limited. The camera is almost always static ( on a tripod ) and the operator pans left to right or right to left to keep the object centred in the frame. To add some extra drama to these shots, many camera operators will not centre the subject but keep them to the left or right of the frame or even have them come in and out of the frame depending on each additional need. You can have heaps of fun with this type of composition.

Whatever method you use, we suggest you mix it up scene to scene to keep it as fresh as possible.

When you need a helping hand with your video production and editing here in Oakville, give Groovy Concepts a call. We have the experience to do it right.

We. Are. Video Production. Oakville.

#groovyconcepts #videoproductionoakville