Tips for filming a parkour video

You really need to establish that there is a route to be taken.

Honestly, it just looks like a bunch of backflips at random places. Especially as places we've seen show up at random spots later on. Very good athletics, no doubt... but not really accomplishing much.

Every narrative film has a journey & a destination. How can you portray that?

How about some appropriate dynamic framing?

Zensteve is right, story is incredibly important! Even in a parkour video. The purpose of filmmaking is to manipulate the audience, so find a way to do that.

Also, if you see yourself becoming a professional filmmaker, you can't use copyrighted music without permission. It sounds crazy, but once you reach a certain level, you have to literally call the artists. I'm sure plenty would love for you to show off their music.

However, I wanna talk about something else. I've been on a codec kick for a couple weeks now, and I noticed this:





Sorry about the low resolution, but even so I think you can see these bizarre artifacts. It looks like he's got three legs!

I can think of a few explanations for this, but I think the most likely is your slowing-down or speeding-up of the video in post. When the computer needs a frame that doesn't exist, sometimes it will interpolate (or guess, really) what the next logical frame would be. I think these examples show why interpolation can be dangerous. Computers can guess wrong. In the future, when you use fast or slow motion, you should try to get it in-camera. If you can't do that, then you should try to find a program that will do it in a way you can control and monitor.

Another possibility is that these artifacts emerged as a product of several encoding generations.

If you filmed this on an older camera, they might be deinterlacing artifacts.

Anyway, a couple more suggestions:

Don't film in 24p mode, use 60p if you can, with a fast shutter speed. 24p definitely can't handle sports.

By the way (and it pains me to say this because I think it's overused) you should color grade the shit out of your videos. It looks pretty cool, it's fashionable, and people love it.

To be honest it's not that interesting. He does a twit flip, and jumps, that's about it. Looks like a kid who learned a couple moves and repeats them over and over. If you were watching skating videos, would you watch if the skater did an ollie and then a railslide over and over, with some slow-mo in between?

Maybe he has more moves, but that's one thing you need. Variety, and a quick pace. The right music, some narration.

Hope this helps.

One of the guys completed this Parkour video a couple months back for their University course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMz5JO-wDhc

Thanks for all the tips everyone!
@SuperAmazing, I was really new to this at first so I actually filmed it all on my 550d at 720FPS and 1000 FPS Shutter speed, that's why everything is stuttered and all the artifacts, I didn't understand frame rates at the time, but this time around when I don't want slow motion I'll leave it at 60fps 120 fps for shutter speed. What would you recommended for a shutter speed to have a smooth crispy slow motion?

Also I'm still learning about grading, I finally purchased Magic Bullet Looks but the effect is so strong so I need to learn how to tone it down a little because it just crushes my blacks and throws a tint on the video from what I know so far.

@Ernest Worthing, could you explain to me what dynamic framing is or give examples?

@ZenSteve, yes I agree with you 100%, this video was just thought of and went out and shot, our next one will be planned, pre-produced and all that.

If you don't want slow motion, shoot at 1920x1080 24fps, 1/50 shutter speed. Even if you don't want to release in 1080, the 24fps gives it a much more filmic (as is mostly desired in the US) look and you can shrink or crop it in post down to 1280x720.

Parkour can be some fun stuff to shoot. I'm working with a team later this year using them as actors in a chase scene. It's going to be a blast.

PaulGriffith said:

If you don't want slow motion, shoot at 1920x1080 24fps, 1/50 shutter speed. Even if you don't want to release in 1080, the 24fps gives it a much more filmic (as is mostly desired in the US) look and you can shrink or crop it in post down to 1280x720.

Parkour can be some fun stuff to shoot. I'm working with a team later this year using them as actors in a chase scene. It's going to be a blast.

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For something with fast movement why would he want a judder-y filmic look? I agree with his choice to go with 60fps.

Words that come to mind when thinking of parkour: poetry, elegance, inventive, risky, dynamic, wild, exciting, breathtaking, ballet... get my drift?

Consider stepping up your visual palette by thinking and planning your shots accordingly. Approach the subject matter with a filmmaker's eye and you can make something special. I'd enjoy watching a parkour art film.

Here is something lyrical that I really like. Might not be what you're going for, but take a peek.

http://vimeo.com/13557939

* any news on embedding vimeo vids?

Are there any parkour videos out there where someone is wearing a GoPro camera? or maybe have a few of them wearing cameras and get them to follow one another closely. You'd have to slow it down quite a bit but it could capture some interesting shots. Just a thought.

SinEater said:

For something with fast movement why would he want a judder-y filmic look? I agree with his choice to go with 60fps.

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Motion blur is pretty plus the 24fps footage will look right next to 60fps slowed down. You can't do smooth slowmo with a DSLR when you output 60fps.

I guess it depends on what the goal of the video is. If it's a true demo that the runner is using to land a gig or something, then I'd go with a more informative video look. If you're jut trying to look cool, I'd go 24fps.

DannySC said:

@Ernest Worthing, could you explain to me what dynamic framing is or give examples?

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Well, it's parkour right? So how about enunciating his actions/moves with interesting angles and wide shots to distort and exaggerate perspective.
For eg, right off the top of my head, i may use dutch tilt from a low angle against the brick wall as we see him jump against it. Cut to a high angle from above and behind the brick wall as he completes the maneuver to climb it.

Basically, get creative and get us to feel the parkour. Make it more personal. Get closer to him. Show the dangers he faces. Get us involved instead of just being distant observers.

Oh I understand what your saying, I will try to get more closer with him in the next video, maybe even follow him on certain jumps if possible =D

Yeah, 24 frames a second would probably work, although I suspect that there might be too much motion blur. Experiment time!