tips to film rc action

[mr fog]

Has anyone got any tips on how to film rc cars. I do see a lot of youtube clips where the camera is in one place and the car just drives round it, but looking for more than that. Any tips or web site would be great.

Mr fog

[XV Pilot]

I am no expert, but I have managed some nice shots with the camera soft-mounted to a second RC which acts as a chase car, and I have also shot some reasonable footage by following the car on foot with the camera on the end of a stick.

[TWINSET]

This might help; http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=103626&id=31924

[Terz1]

What a simple but effective device that is to shoot some footage. Like someone mentioned in the link it would be great if it could be attached to your controller to totally free up your hands. Or attached to a box or cage your controller can sit in. Brilliant idea which is definately on my to do list.

[XV Pilot]

If you use a pistol-style controller and have big enough hands, it is quite easy to drive one-handed by steering with your thumb, leaving the other hand free to hold the camera stick.

[ChrisRx718]

I need to get a go pro. I take footage on my mobile phone and watching it back on screen it looks great, but when you blow it up on a screen it looks out of focus or pixelated!

[Sayer]

If you use a pistol-style controller and have big enough hands, it is quite easy to drive one-handed by steering with your thumb, leaving the other hand free to hold the camera stick.

Lol no its not! Have you seen my videos?

[mongoose1983]

TCer bdamit explained a while ago how to make good road action photos, perhaps with this you can get some idea to make a film?

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=118615&sid=39963

[TWINSET]

If you use a pistol-style controller and have big enough hands, it is quite easy to drive one-handed by steering with your thumb, leaving the other hand free to hold the camera stick.

Lol no its not! Have you seen my videos?

Yes it is

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=126493&sid=169

[mr fog]

Do you all think that we should have a dedicated site in this forum for tips on making good films?????

Thanks all it good to chat. Will be putting some of the tips to use very soon.

mr fog

[mr fog]

Twinset very cool. Love the rubbish bags on the side, very british lol. Very good film love the look and the low angles. Great

Mr fog

[yogi-bear]

This is a great topic.

I like to use a long camera stick with a go pro on the end. With other people are driving, I run along side to get good close up and continuous footage.

Another trick is to take the same shot over and over again from different angles and then edit it for one scene. Its a lot of work, but can be rewarding if you plan out distances and angles etc Google Headquake rc video, he does it simply and to good effect.

I'm starting to play around with onboard cameras. You can really cheap transmitters and receivers from Hong Kong.

Also sometimes you don't need a lot of footage, but the ability to slow it down. Cars turning/sliding etc in slow-mo can be really good.

[mr fog]

so yogi what type of camera do you use, i have a copy of a gopro (cheep for surfing) but what about film editing. Any idea's about that

Mr fog

[yogi-bear]

so yogi what type of camera do you use, i have a copy of a gopro (cheep for surfing) but what about film editing. Any idea's about that

Mr fog

I started out with a cheap camera I got online. I think it was only around $20. It was handy to strap in or on cars. Footage from that would be the first couple of videos in my showroom, but the camera is very susceptible to interference. It as least was a cheap way to start out.

When I could afford it I switched to a go pro hero 3, which I'm mainly using now. My last two videos though, I think I had the wrong settings and the video wasn't that good. It seems jittery. I also used an iPhone 6 plus for the slow-mo parts.

I'd like to get some more cameras, but not go pros, too dear for me. Plus, once I've mastered my quadcopter, I'd like to add in aerial footage.

[mr fog]

cool what about editing the film

fog

[yogi-bear]

cool what about editing the film

fog

I've mainly been using iMovie (I'm mac based) as its pretty easy to use and free (although I do have access to adobe's premier, but it is more complicated). I pretty sure Microsoft have their own version.

[Mad Ax]

Shooting at a faster frame rate can help get much more realistic videos. It's been a long time since I looked into cameras, but if you can shoot at twice the frame rate, the film will play back at half the speed without any jittering from dropped frames (which you get if you put a regular film into slow-mo).

Our 1:10 scale cars interact with the environment at a much faster rate than 1:1 scale cars, so recording at high speed makes things look much more realistic. Cars no longer bounce around like maniacs over bumps but ride and jump from them like those stunt movies from the 70s. Gravel and water doesn't spray so fast you can barely see it, it flies smoothly through the air carrying the weight and momentum we expect.

Selfie sticks can be used to get up close and personal, but remember there's usually a minimum focal distance on most cameras, get too close and your subject will be fuzzy. Also, small and fast-moving objects are very hard for a camera to auto-focus on so a lens with an infinity focus might get better shots - again, provided you don't get the camera too close. If you've got enough adjustability in your camera/lens then you can experiment with different focus and aperture settings to get the best results.

And remember, if you're shooting at double speed then you only have half as much time to get light onto the sensor, so that will have an impact if you're shooting in low-light.

That might help you decide if you happen to be looking for a new camera

[mr crispy]

All good advice. I film most of my stuff on an iPhone so it can be pretty hot & miss. Can anyone recommend a good editing app to peice the clips together easily?

[Terz1]

This is a great topic.

I like to use a long camera stick with a go pro on the end. With other people are driving, I run along side to get good close up and continuous footage.

Another trick is to take the same shot over and over again from different angles and then edit it for one scene. Its a lot of work, but can be rewarding if you plan out distances and angles etc Google Headquake rc video, he does it simply and to good effect.

I'm starting to play around with onboard cameras. You can really cheap transmitters and receivers from Hong Kong.

Also sometimes you don't need a lot of footage, but the ability to slow it down. Cars turning/sliding etc in slow-mo can be really good.

Great advice about filming the same shot a few times from different angles. I'm going to have to try this.

Shooting at a faster frame rate can help get much more realistic videos. It's been a long time since I looked into cameras, but if you can shoot at twice the frame rate, the film will play back at half the speed without any jittering from dropped frames (which you get if you put a regular film into slow-mo).

Our 1:10 scale cars interact with the environment at a much faster rate than 1:1 scale cars, so recording at high speed makes things look much more realistic. Cars no longer bounce around like maniacs over bumps but ride and jump from them like those stunt movies from the 70s. Gravel and water doesn't spray so fast you can barely see it, it flies smoothly through the air carrying the weight and momentum we expect.

Selfie sticks can be used to get up close and personal, but remember there's usually a minimum focal distance on most cameras, get too close and your subject will be fuzzy. Also, small and fast-moving objects are very hard for a camera to auto-focus on so a lens with an infinity focus might get better shots - again, provided you don't get the camera too close. If you've got enough adjustability in your camera/lens then you can experiment with different focus and aperture settings to get the best results.

And remember, if you're shooting at double speed then you only have half as much time to get light onto the sensor, so that will have an impact if you're shooting in low-light.

That might help you decide if you happen to be looking for a new camera

I love the slow mo vids people do. I'll have to get a camera that does high speed recording.

All good advice. I film most of my stuff on an iPhone so it can be pretty hot & miss. Can anyone recommend a good editing app to peice the clips together easily?

I'm really, really new to all this and use a galaxy note 3 to shoot footage with a £2 tripod attachment . I don't know if it's available for ios but I downloaded a really easy to use editing app called Kinemaster on google play. It felt very instinctive to use and for my first attempt at shooting footage, trimmimg, adding music and various text I was really pleased.

To echo what has been said before. Is there a camera similar to the go-pro (chinese copy even) which can shoot the high speed footage needed for decent slow-mo footage which is fairly inexpensive? Also I'd love to know recommendations for cheap or free editing software on the pc. If Kinemaster is on pc I'll definately download that.

This is a brilliant thread with some great advice. It would be good to have this or a similar one stickied with lots of advice for people wanting to shoot some rc footage. The more people doing this the better. I love watching what everyone's done.

[whahooo]

When i find the Time I´ll try to mount the camera on a stick and chase the model with a skateboard to get an even and smooth chase Speed.

The only Problem ist that i only have offroaders, but you also could use a bicycle for the chasing.

[Terz1]

When i find the Time I´ll try to mount the camera on a stick and chase the model with a skateboard to get an even and smooth chase Speed.

The only Problem ist that i only have offroaders, but you also could use a bicycle for the chasing.

I'd love to see this. If you can do all that it's amazing! I don't think I'd have the coordination to control a remote controlled car and at the same time skate board behind it while simultaneously filming all the action. I'd end up doing a hard left with my skate board instead of the car and face planting into the concrete . Then again it'd be a good youtube fail video or something for you've been framed, not for me though . Doing all that off road takes it to a whole new level.

[mr fog]

wohoo were cooking now. There is so much to know and more on the wayi think.

Well done everyone. i think that this could be its own forum with all the info and tips and tricks

Mr fog

[yogi-bear]

Chasing a car by yourself is quite the challenge!

As for windows based movie editing, one option is Windows movie maker, which appears to be free now:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/get-movie-maker-download

although I have never used it.

There is also Adobe Premier, which you get with their cloud subscription ( that costs me $44/month). A good program, but a steep learning curve.

As for cheap cameras, I've been tempted to get one from either dx.com or bang good.com. They seem to review well and cost around 1/4 of the price. Although they probably aren't quite as good.

cheers everyone, there have been some good tips so far.

[whahooo]

I'd love to see this. If you can do all that it's amazing! I don't think I'd have the coordination to control a remote controlled car and at the same time skate board behind it while simultaneously filming all the action. I'd end up doing a hard left with my skate board instead of the car and face planting into the concrete . Then again it'd be a good youtube fail video or something for you've been framed, not for me though . Doing all that off road takes it to a whole new level.

Sorry, i didn`mention that im not capable of multi tasking (i have dyslexia level 8 or something like that, so dont`even know where left or right is or where my foot is while i do something with my hands...).

I would someone other let drive the car and i would try to get good pictures of it in motion.

When we are done i give all the material to someone who is capable of editing or try it by myself.

Do you guys know what i would love to see?

A Re-Re promotional video of the rereleases in good quality!

There is a Frog Video out there with the original promo sound, if you would get all teh shots right (recreate them as good as possible) and make a shot for shot recreation of the old promo and keep the original sound (or get a nice voice, someone like Vincent Price, to recreate the original cheesy promo text).

Edit:

Is Matteomeier a member of TC, he could give some serious tipps for filming.

[mr fog]

hi all

Well its been some time,

any new tip or tricks or even a here is a way to film your cars with diagrams????

mr fog