High frame-rate cameras designed specifically for playing back images in slow motion, like the Phantom Flex camera featured below, can cost upwards of $150,000

So what’s a budding young cinematographer to do?

As it turns out, there are some neat ways to create the effect of slow motion footage in post production. Twixtor, a third party software pluggin for Adobe After Effects and Final Cut Pro, is one option; however, if you have a camera that shoots even 60 frames per second, you’ll be able to do a fair bit using included Final Cut Studio applications such as Motion and Cinema Tools.

As part of our on-going guide to DSLR cinematography, I’ll be making a couple of video tutorials on some of these techniques sometime in the coming weeks.

For now though, here’s a video I did last year with my friend Flavius (a true athlete) from the University of Waterloo’s parkour club. All of the slow motion effects demonstrated in this experimental video were made using footage from the Canon T2i, a DSLR camera retailing at about $600 (a far cry from $150,000).

Stay tuned!

Part 6 considers shutter speed and frames per second; how they differ, how they relate, and how to use them to get the amount of motion blur/sharpness you’re looking for.

Be sure to also check out:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Lens Assembly
Part 3: On/off & Recording in Movie Mode
Part 4: Focal Length & Prime VS Zoom>
Part 5: Perspective

Part 5 looks at perspective, and demonstrates how it can be used to get different shots without moving your subject or background.

Be sure to also check out:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Lens Assembly
Part 3: On/off & Recording in Movie Mode
Part 4: Focal Length & Prime VS Zoom>

Our latest edition is a 27″ iMac running with an Intel 3.4GHz Quad-Core i7 processor, a 256GB internal solid state drive, a second internal 2TB serial ATA drive, 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 video memory, 16 GB of random access memory, and a second cinema display unit.

Best of all, we’ve set up a Pegasus 12TB R6 RAID System with a Thunderbolt connection.

So far everything runs like a dream!

Part 4 explains focal length as well as the differences between prime and zoom lenses.

Also check out:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Lens Assembly
Part 3: On/off & Recording in Movie Mode

We produced 2 sets of aerial flyovers (one low, one high) for the entire 18 hole golf course (check out Seguin Valley’s YouTube Channel to see them). The idea was to give people viewing Seguin Valley’s website a chance to preview each hole on the course.

We also made a brief promo video, which can be seen in Our Work section of reap-media.com.

Here’s a quick little behind-the-scenes segment from our day at Seguin Valley Golf:

This segment covers basic functions like power and movie recording with the Canon T2i.

Also check out:

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Lens Assembly

Together, we took an ultra-low budget (guitarist Kevin Suess paid 1$ for a garbage basket which he then transformed into a head made of leaves) and made a music video for their song “Go Home & Dream”.

The video won the People’s Choice Award for Best Music Video at last year’s Local Focus 4 Film Festival in Kitchener, Ontario.

Many thanks are owed to Matt Paterson, for being the Man behind the leaves (a role that often required running full-speed down neighbourhood streets without being able to see) as well as to the rest of Trap Tiger – Ryan Dugal, Andre Furlong, and Ceilidh Shipley.

But a special thanks is owed to Kevin Suess for approaching us with a unique and insightful idea, and then letting us share in its realization.

As the band get’s ready to record their latest album since “Twisted Shapes” talks are already underway as to what sort of collaboration we can bang out next!

For more info on Trap Tiger visit:

www.traptiger.com
www.myspace.com/traptiger
www.youtube.com/traptiger
www.last.fm/music/Trap+Tiger

Update: It’s also worth mentioning (and giving proper thanks to) Buckley from youtube account: dolt009 for making his Australian homage to Go Home & Dream!

Here’s a promo from last year’s So You Think You Can Dance Waterloo competition.

Featuring UW’s very own: Bomber-Man