It’s that time of the year where students finish the grueling, sometimes sleepless nights of studying for what would appear to be endless tests and countless questions. But assuredly enough, all the learning and filling the mind up with knowledge brings forward the new generation of professionals and brilliant souls.
The FEEND Media team were lucky enough to film the Pacific States University’s 2016 Graduation at Wilshire United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, CA. We used a three camera setup to fully cover the ceremony, celebration, and luncheon with all the faculty and new grads.
Jerel focused mainly on a wider shot to capture the entire setting of the graduation. For events like this or similar, we do this as sort of a “safety” shot just in case the more focused, closer shots don’t quite exactly fit our edits. When there are times that something is happening, such as when the graduates walk from their seats to the stage to receive their degree, the wide shot is able to seize the moment from start to finish. Without a wide shot, there isn’t a sense of establishment of location.
Our second and third cameras were held by Jaybee and Kevin and their duties were to try and capture the emotions of the audience and get better looks at the graduates. Kevin and I were definitely more mobile than Jerel because our camera setups involved using a monopod and and the DJI Ronin. They really come in handy because not only do they help provide the stability we need for our smooth shots, but they’re really portable for whichever position and tight area we need to be at.
With Kevin and Jaybee, they had to keep moving around constantly since the new grads were also moving around. A lot of times, they had to trade setups because they would both see different spots where they would need each other’s camera. Kevin and his monopod allowed for a lot of stable close-ups and Jaybee and the Ronin let him speed walk through the crowds of people while still getting smooth, stable videos.
It sounds like simple camera work, but there are a lot of events that are happening at the same time that require us to physically move around and shoot. It’s actually a lot of fun, and the grads, parents, relatives and friends all get really into our filming and show a lot of excitement! The whole shooting process is pretty straight forward. The only tricky parts are to be at the right place at the right time.
Thankfully, not only do we have our three camera setup, but we also have our favorite little DJI Phantom 3 drone to launch into the sky for those sweet aerial shots. They really bring out a certain “wow” factor to our videos and we can’t not shoot with the drone. If you’ve ever flown one, you’d know how awesome they can be and how dynamic of a video tool they are. Kevin took full advantage of our drone and was able to get a sky-high shot of the church we were at and a great jib-style shot of all the faculty and graduates together.
Highlight video below! Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for reading!
Pacific States University Graduation (Highlight Video) from FEEND media on Vimeo.
Highlight video of the 2016 PSUCA Graduation at United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, CA.