Crazy bike skills and interesting filming tips on the Lumia 1020/920/925

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Pitched as a somewhat brief interview with film maker Hadrien Picard, an article at Nokia Conversations also introduces us to a number of videos, several of them behind the scenes and all embedded below: there's inspiration here for any budding film maker packing a Nokia Lumia PureView-branded device, especially the 1020. Watch out for the one in French, in particular, with some great tips and tricks.

From the article text:

Our first call for questions went out at the end of last month and we had an overwhelming response. The man you were interviewing was Nokia Lumia 1020 film maker extraordinaire, Hadrien Picard. Hadrien has been a key member of the PureView Series of short films created by a group of talented film makers, with the help of Nokia France. Hadrien recently came back from Iceland, where he filmed an amazing short movie about Icelandic BMXer Anton Arnarson. The film really is stunningly beautiful and not only goes to show the amazing skills of Hadrien and Anton, but the capabilities of the Nokia Lumia 1020 as well. To see for yourself check out the video below with the settings at 1080HD. And once you’ve done that scroll down to see your questions to Hadrien answered.

@VPerriello Hadrien, how do you handle vibration?

There is already a damn good optical stabilizator that does a really nice job. It all depends about your set up. If you only have your Lumia with you try to hold it steady, walk slowly, even with breathing a little bit lower and slower. You can also hold the phone against a wall or a curb. If you like gear, you can put it on a tripod, a slider, a steady cam or even on a crane !

If you watch the behind the scenes of some of my videos and others from the NokiaPureviews series you can see what I mean.

@shahidul How well does it perform in low light conditions?

It performs pretty good ! I really like the flash that you can use for filming too. It’s really powerful ! If you are really into low light photo/video, the Nokia Lumia 925 is even better.

@Cranelake10 Is there anything you did with the 1020 you couldn’t do with a movie camera?

I’ve always liked the saying “the best camera is the one you have with you”. The Lumia 1020 fits in your pocket and is able to shoot some really nice images, both photo and video. It also enables you to shoot some stuff you’d never have been able to shoot without it.

@cheekyplan Stability of shot on #Lumia1020 any handy tips & what have you found to be the best editing app?

Like I’ve said, if you have nothing like a tripod with you, it’s really just a matter of common sense. Film horizontally, don’t move/pan too fast and don’t shake. Be calm and try and think about your shots. I personally edit on Adobe Premiere. No need to convert to another format, so it can save you tons of time!

Some good points here already. I like that last paragraph in particular - most people pan or move FAR too fast when filming. As a rule of thumb, pan about three times slower than you think you ought to - the watching audience (later) don't have the same visual and mechanical clues that your eyes do when filming.

I was especially struck with the way Hadrien uses artificial aids when filming - tripods, dollies and stabilisation rigs. Yes, the Lumia 1020 has OIS built-in, but it's only designed to compensate for limited degrees of shake - for any serious stabilisation (i.e. action shots) you'll need to think laterally, as seen in the videos below.

The videos

In the first, we see Hadrien's own short film about the stunt bike rider Anton Arnarson, all shot on PureView-branded Lumias (we're told):

Secondly, there's a behind the scenes look at the 1020 and filming a different stunt bike rider in France:

And most interestingly, there's a tips and tutorial video - in French, so brush up on your linguistic skills - showing ways of shooting better (and artier) video on the Lumia 1020/925/920:

Some great tips in here, backing up what I said earlier about considering supplementing the Lumia 1020's OIS with extra stabilisation equipment if needed. Plus I loved the improvised floating transparent aperture system, made from a strip of plastic and some tape to keep it in place, demoed on the Lumia 920...!

Source / Credit: Nokia Conversations