Tips for slow motion filming. — Diane Griffin Ceramics

What’s NOT cool about slow motion filming?. Who doesn’t love those bits in films where they slow it all down to show the details of the action? The recent Sherlock Holmes movies did this brilliantly and in Peaky Blinders, remember those fabulous Shelby family walks down the street that demonstrate they mean serious business? All dramatic & atmospheric with steely stares & flapping coats. I’ve also spent large amounts of time in the past watching The Slow-mo Guys on Youtube who are just brilliant at blowing stuff up or pushing something until it breaks whilst filming it in slow motion.

Those of you who follow me on social media will be well aware that I am partial to a bit of slow motion filming myself. I’m very much the amateur though and learning as I go, but happy to share with you how I’m getting there. I like to film my making process in the studio which when slowed down, allows us to focus on the details of what is happening. Finding joy in the small things along the way.

Tripod & App

I do all the filming on my Iphone and I would recommend getting a Gorilla grip tripod as they are very flexible for awkward camera angles. I often have to bend the legs to grip onto the back of a chair or a shelf in the studio to get the right angle or height to capture what I’m doing. You may also need addition lighting for slow motion filming because the frame rate is much higher. I mostly film at 240 frames per second (FPS) with playback at 25FPS. For the filming I use an app called Filmic Pro which allows me to choose the frame rate (speed) of the film and I think I get a better quality result. You also get to fix the focus and white balance etc so a lot more control than the regular Slo-mo option on your Iphone.

Editing.

Once the film is shot, I load it into PremierPro for editing. This is a great tool for making a more professional looking video as you can cut it to the length you want, add sound and overlay logos etc. You can also add more than one audio for example - on my throwing video, I added a heartbeat, and breathing and music to try to create the full throwing experience of the clay, wheel and body working in a rhythm together, I can’t be the only one that has to remember to breath while pulling up, surely?

Again, I am definitely no expert and still very much learning but am having a lot of fun doing so! My little films are really just to capture snippets of my studio life for social media. I share my videos on Instagram on a Sunday for #slomosunday so each one is no more than 1 minute as that is all the platform allows - which suits me fine!

If you want to check out my other little films then go to my YouTube channel - some are better than others, but I’m improving, enjoying learning and it’s just for fun.

Let me know what you think - maybe you have some questions or suggestions of what you’d like to see me film in the studio next? Use the comments bit below or DM me on Instagram.