What camera lens should I get for this project of shooting animals close up?

[Ryan Elder]

Oh ok. The rental store doesn't have that long of lens available for the shoot dates.. i can ask the client for an extension on those shots.

The 18-135 won't be long enough but maybe there is something else out there...

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

I recently read in a third-party review that the 18-135 nano USM also has electronic focus compensation through the zoom range - effectively, it’s corrected to parfocal! That wasn’t from Canon - Chris, can you confirm?

That's news to me, although I have to admit it makes sense. Thanks for the tip about this. I'll see what I can find out.

[Paul R Johnson]

My experience of wildlife stuff stems back to Anglia TV's survival series years and years ago - but my colleagues who still do it live a solitary life - shooting days worth of video and leaving the cameras running for extended times to catch the important shots. Will the client be making sure the animals appear at exactly the right moment? Will they actually be there? Very odd? Nature shoots are rarely short term, and they're impossible to plan, content wise - animals are the worst actors. That frog will suddenly bellow it's chest out and go "ribbit' - and you won't be able to predict when. I cannot imagine a 15 minute limit being useful whatsoever - more like an hour or two!

I assume at least the footage will be mute, and somebody else is compiling the audio?

I've still got my Vinten head and legs from that period, and they cost a lot of money for something that doesn't move when it's supposed to be steady. Wildlife often means fixed focal length lenses - so the requirement to stay in focus is much less important - but I currently have no lenses, and that includes the ones with 2X extenders , that are much use for wildlife.

Confused on hiring kit. I have no hire companies within 100 miles - and I just call up my favourites and the items appear next day courier? surely this happens in your country.

[Ryan Elder]

I could try the courier then, thanks!

Yes, i know i would shoot a lot more than 15 minutes, but what i meant is, i won't have to record more than 15 at a time. If nothing interesting is happening i can just stop recording and then turn it back on, so i wont run over 15 minutes at a time, is what i meant.

I was going to get the audio as well but is that a problem?

[Josh Bass]

I think they mean you never know WHEN the interesting thing you were waiting for 3 hours to happen will happen..it could be just as you stop and restart recording. You won't know until it's happening and you're blowing it.

[Brian Drysdale]

They used to shoot the natural history programs on 16mm film, with a limit of 10 mins per mag, so 15 mins is manageable, it's the battery changes on DSLR cameras that can take the time. Just be ready to shoot at any moment.

[Rainer Listing]

Which animals? Where? How close? What time of day? What weather? I think there could be a big difference shooting snow leopards for NatGeo and wombats for YouTube. If you've got daylight and YouTube you might be just as well off with a $200 50X small sensor camcorder. (Disclaimer: I do have a wombat on YouTube, won't bore you with the link).

[Ryan Elder]

They want different kinds of birds, squirrels and deer so far. The deer I think will be the toughest to find. And yes I'll be try to ready to hit record at any moment, when changing batteries, and when the camera needs a recording break every 15 minutes.

What kind of style should I do for this corporate video?

I am doing a corporate video that is a wildlife documentary corporate video, for the wildlife society where I live.

It has interviews with people in and a narrator, but also shots of animals and landscapes. Normally these videos are done in 16:9, but I was thinking of making this one in 2.39:1 perhaps.

Or is that not a good idea, and corporate video customers prefer something around 16:9, even if they don't realize it?

For the interviews, usually these types of interviews are just a medium close up of people speaking done from a diagonal angle on them, with a wide lens, but what if I were to do the interviews from a more frontal perspective medium close up with a long lens making it more intimate and feeling tight, for the wildlife subject matter... Or do you think this is maybe too weird, and that the traditional diagonal angle, is more relaxed, and relaxed interviews is what the viewers want for corporate videos?

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

Normally these videos are done in 16:9, but I was thinking of making this one in 2.39:1 perhaps.

Sorry, but "perhaps" is not a good enough reason to break an established pattern.

Your client doesn't seem to think that 16:9 is broken. Therefore, you should not try to fix it.

If you do, you'll be known as the guy they hired that one time "who gave us something that had black bars above and below," instead of filling the screen as they expected.

Think about it. This piece is going to be viewed on a smartphone, a laptop, or an HDTV... so why on earth would you want to letter-box it?

Shoot in 16:9 and fill the screen. Make the client happy.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay, I thought quite a few people like the wide scope look though, especially for landscape scenery videos, but if it's not a good idea, I won't do it :).

[Josh Bass]

Ok, Ryan, buddy. Now we’re in a different realm where these decisions/choices are concerned

Whereas on your own film you can do whatever you want, when doing client work it’s all about what THEY want.

Yes of course youre a creative, an artist, blah blah blah but when working for someone else it’s all about THEIR wants/desires/needs/requirements

Sometimes they literally do not know what they want, and you have to show them examples and give them options. They might have no idea what 16:9 or 2.39:1 is. They just know “the way it looks on tv”/the way we’ve done it before”/etc. You can always present options of your alternative ideas if you can find an example somewhere but definitely dont just do something different without checking in with them at every step. They may not know what they want but they will know what they DON’T want when they see it.

There’s also the sticky issue that sometimes clients have objectively bad ideas. You will have to learn to know when this is happening and either say “well this is on them” or push back and try to show them better alternatives and WHY those alternatives are better. What can really help is sussing out WHY they are so hot for the bad idea, i.e what are they specifically trying to accomplish, and try to figure out what might be a better way that will still make them happy. This comes with experience and many people (me included) still struggle with it. The problem with simply doing what they want in these cases where it’s objectively terrible and taking their money (not in this case, I know you said it was volunteer) is that even though you followed their orders they might still end up hating it or their audience hates it etc. and you get blamed and arent rehired. Even though all you did was exactly what they wanted!

The above paragraph is a huge tangent and what’s relevant here is that youre basically doing freelance client work and its a job and how it should look is ultimately up to them. Just ask them if they want what youre doing to be consistent with the older stuff, or if they want something different and do what they say. This is their project, not yours. Not like your movie.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

...if it's not a good idea, I won't do it :).

It's not a good idea. Don't do it.

I have three resources that you might want to look through for some ideas and guidance.

The first is a Vimeo channel for DV Info Net's wildlife filmmaking contest (the Under Water / Over Land Challenge, which is hosted on our forum at https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/uwol-challenge/). There are a couple hundred short-form pieces on this channel that were created by your fellow forum members. Please check out as many of them as you can:

https://vimeo.com/user8310268

Next, we have a dedicated forum for the topic of wildlife filmmaking which should be of help to you. In fact, I'll be moving this discussion to that forum since that's where it really belongs. I'll leave a re-direct so you can find it.

https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/under-water-over-land/

Finally, here's a 30-min. broadcast series about the Texas Dept. of Parks and Wildlife which is produced very well. Pick any episode to watch for some inspiration:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TexasParksWildlife/videos

Hope this helps,

[Josh Bass]

I still think some resources about how to do deal with clients, specifically in this field, are in order.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay thanks, I will research it.

The clients probably have no reason to need a surround sound mix, and stereo is probably fine, or better?

[Brian Drysdale]

Don't get too fancy with corporate videos, chances are they're going to be viewed on an old laptop, not in a home theatre. You don't seem to be thinking about your audience and where they'll be viewing the video. It's primary purpose is to present the client's products/services in a manner that doesn't have their customers switching off the video. Good ones are entertaining and informative, bad ones are dull and tell you nothing or even worse, are annoying.

Commercials (especially high end ones) you can go to town on, but you still need to meet the brief from the clients. That means you can't shoot 2.39 unless it's cleared by the creatives at the ad agency and they will have discussed it with their client.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that shooting 2.39 is automatically cinematic, that's just the same as thinking shooting on 35mm film has the same effect. There's more to it than that.