Looking Down On Competition: Why a Crane Makes Us Better

Blog by Melaroo - Video
Written by Ted Hawkes   
Monday, 12 July 2010 00:00
"This is probably the single greatest investment this company has ever made, including all the people who work here," said Ike, as he chopped up beautiful, sweeping shots of golf courses and lazy rivers at the JW Marriot Hill Country Resort in San Antonio. Now, realistically, we need the people who work here just to man the crane, so I can't entirely agree with Ike's assertion. But I do love that crane.

When you watch a Hollywood (or Bollywood) movie nowadays, you can tell it's a big budget production just by looking at it. Even if it stars J Lo and the acting is no better than high school theater, it has a Hollywood look. In corporate video, this look is hugely coveted because it's the standard; it's what people are used to seeing every day, and anything that falls short looks cheap by comparison. But alas, most corporate videos do fall short, even if the crew are using HD cameras and robust sound capture systems. video_crane

Naturally, if you're going to stand out as a quality company, you want to match the Hollywood quality. There are a few factors that give video a professional quality, and most of them get overlooked. Some of them compensate for a whole host of evils!

Lighting, set design, framing, camera settings; these are all factors that can make or break a shot. But nothing compares to the fluid movement provided by a crane, dolly or steadicam for making a scene look compelling. When foreground objects, subjects and background all interact in a sweeping perspective shift, the video gains a singular quality that the amateurs can't mimick. As simple as it sounds, a perfecty mundane scene shot well with a crane becomes a work of art.

In addition to motion, a video crane offers points of view that handhelds and tripod mounts can't. A variety of shots, from closeups to overheads to tracking shots give visual interest and continuity to a story and set the video apart from the millions of home movies that get uploaded to YouTube every day. It's more mobile and quicker to set up than a dolly, and if the suject is traveling a short distance, a crane is perfectly adequate for a dolly shot. Even for static, closeup footage, a hand-operated crane gives a fluid, yet organic movement to the scene that puts viewers at ease. Our crane is as crucial to the quality of our video as our HD camera is!

Our crane is light enough to break down and carry around an event, but still reaches to a height of twelve feet. It's completely controlled from the ground, so we aren't limited in the types of shot or transitions we can capture. And we love using it on shoots because it makes the footage look fantastic! It's as useful for events as it is for staged productions, and is a hugely cost-effective tool in making your video stand twelve feet above the rest! Find out about getting a crane on set


Ted Hawkes
Written on Monday, 12 July 2010 00:00 by Ted Hawkes

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