So this past weekend, I attended AM2 to relax. Relax ? Yeah, I don't actually have a booth or artist alley table so in a way, this was my vacation con ! I had a chance to catch up with friends and hang out for a bit. This time around, I decided I wanted to try to do one of those CMV (Cosplay Music Video). I originally had the idea at Ikkicon in Austin but I found it very cumbersome. I attempted it again at Anime Los Angeles, but gave it pretty quickly as soon as my battery died. I'm just so used to using my little Canon G9 point & shoot !
My thoughts on my first try after the jump.
First of all, I used a Glidecam HD-2000, one of the many camera stabilizers on the market today. Reason I selected this ? My friend had one and I could borrow it ^^. The camera body is a Canon T2i with a rented Canon 16-35mm. I also had an extra Canon battery, a tripod head plate which I jury-rigged to the Glidecam plate with bolts I bought at Home Dept - yes, that is why I have the pliers. In order to change the battery, I had to loose the bolt with the plier, take the camera body off the tripod head plate so I can open the bottom of the camera to remove the batter. Ghetto but it works.
First of all, my right arm got a work out. Believe me, after 10 minutes, it gets heavy - the Glidecam and the camera body but I adjusted pretty quickly. What I had to learn was to pull off motion with one hand supporting the camera body, the other hand gliding. I admit, this is my first real attempt at this, I made plenty of mistakes.
So I would continue to do this at other cons ?
Probably not.
Itis time consuming and there's much you have to take account. Instead of getting a pose and adjusting the cosplayer for the lens, you now have to now add motion. Some people aren't used to this or can't duplicate the same move time after time. Plus you don't wanna tired them out. I think the most I have them do the same motion is about three times.
Plus, I'm usually in artist alley or dealer hall with my book for most of the day. The interview videos work better as I usually am chatting with cosplayers who come by. That's why I stop doing the photo booth last year - it was tough enough to do photo shoots, sell a book, talk to people, do an interview - I wore myself out so much.
I'm sure if I keep practicing with the stabilizer, I'll get better, but I admit, I prefer stills over motions. It was really fun to make this video. I had to think on my feet and come up with ideas. At first I wanted to do the more serious cosplay shots - like the ones I see in other videos but I soon realized, I'm really just a goofy guy who likes to laugh and do silly things so the video turned out to be more of hijinks and people making faces at the camera. It's kinda like my usual con video but without the interviews.
Thank you to everyone who was kind enough to participate in this and putting up with me trying to figure out stuff on the fly ! I'm sorry I couldn't include everyone :(
I'll be back in 2 weeks at Anime Expo in artist alley. Still awaiting a map to where I'll be so I can tell ya.
Oh, this isn't the first time I used the Glidecam. In my Anime Los Angeles video, it is actually two cameras - the Canon T2i on the Glidecam and hand-held Canon G9 with footage mixed together. If you watch closely, you can tell it apart - besides Canon T2i shoots in better quality.
