Despite my numerous attempts to find employment touring the world as a MotoGP camera operator for Dorna  … until recently, the closest I had been to motor sport videos was strapping my GoPro camera to my helmet and taking a motorcycle ride into Brisbane.

But my luck finally changed when Colin Oddy from Motorcycle Innovation contacted me with regards to filming (documentary style) the building, modification and testing of a custom hub-centre steering system for motorcycles.

More recently, I was contracted to shoot a series of promo videos for SACHS Shock Absorbers featuring V8 Supercar champion, Craig Lowndes (see below).

Triangular Steering & Suspension Video Project

Motorcycle Innovation Pty Ltd has secured exclusive IP rights to exploit a new design of hub-centre steering system for motorcycles. This delivers better performance, improved safety, lower weight and a lower cost of manufacture compared to existing designs, and overcomes all of the shortcomings of conventional telescopic front fork designs.

Over the last couple of months I have immensely enjoyed my time with Colin and Ray as I have filmed 4 days worth of consultation, modifications and testing of their prototype motorcycle at the Holden Driving Centre at Norwell.

1976 Australian Unlimited Road Racing Champion and current MotoGP technician, Warren Willing, shared his knowledge and expertise with Colin and Ray as he measured up the bike and ran various setup simulations on his computer.

It was particularly interesting to watch and listen as Warren and Ray discussed the performance of the triangular steering system. It was a great meeting of the minds as Warren was coming from years of technical knowledge and experience and Ray brought unbridled imagination and innovative ideas – not to mention a very convincing design which in practice was bringing real performance results.

For this project I have used a variety of cameras including my Panasonic AF102 and GH3 cameras and of course a GoPro 3. Both Panasonic cameras have slow motion capability which has come in very handy at times whilst filming on track. The latest GoPro 3 is simply superb and I’m very impressed with the 240 fps achieved in WVGA!

Warren Willing & Ray Van Steenwyk discuss the triangulated steering and suspension system.

Warren Willing & Ray Vansteen discuss the triangulated steering and suspension system.

Test riding Suzuki GSXR 750 at Holden Driving Centre for data analysis.

SACHS Shock Absorber Promo Videos

Recently I was invited to shoot several promotional videos for SACHS Shock Absorbers featuring their new Ambassador, V8 Supercar champion Craig Lowndes.

The project involved recording a number of pieces to camera with Craig at Triple Eight Race Engineering’s HQ in Brisbane.

It was fantastic to get a glimpse behind the scenes and a real pleasure working with Craig in front of the camera.

I filmed a variety of scenes in the workshop, followed by some outdoor shots with Craig standing by the massive transport trucks as well as some in-car footage.

For this shoot I took along my trusty trio of cameras i.e. Panasonic AF102 & GH3 plus my GoPro 3.

These last few months have been most inspiring and it’s fantastic to collaborate with folks who are following their dreams and being successful in their chosen professions.

Sachs Ambassador video featuring Craig Lowndes.

Craig Lowndes 888 HQ Brisbane Red Bull

It was awesome to meet and work with Craig Lowndes.

Scott has shot and edited some cool off-road racing videos like this one, and is about to get himself a Panasonic AF-102.

Scott has a bunch of questions about the AF-102, but one that stuck with me was in relation to the shaky footage, or judders that appears when he panned his camera.

This ‘judder’ or image flicker is inherent when shooting progressive video because the eye can resolve quicker than 25fps. This means our eyes will register the ‘judder’ when a camera pans quickly.

To shoot great progressive video, you need to take this into consideration and perhaps adjust your shooting style.

For example, one solution is to control the speed of the pan and consider the 7 second rule. That rules says an object in frame takes 7 seconds to go from one edge to the other when panning. Certainly this is not fool proof but it will provide you with a starting point from which you can determine what works best for you.

The judder effect may also be slightly reduced with the electronic shutter set to twice the frame rate i.e. 25fps – 1/50th shutter, 30p – 1/60th shutter).

Another way to decrease the judder is the follow and track your talent/target mid screen and move with them .. they remain in shot (and judder free) whilst the background moves behind them.

As much as I am not a fan of interlaced footage, it is probably best used if you’re shooting fast motion and need to pan your camera quickly.

So today, just for fun I shot some video with my 6 month old daughter. I wanted to see if I experienced any judder effects whilst using my Panasonic AF-102 on a Konova slider.

My settings were 1080 25p with 1/50 shutter. I kept my pans slow and steady and also used a Dedo LED light just to bring up my girl’s beautiful skintones.

Even though this camera can be hard to operate at times, I’m still very happy with it. Even more so now that I have a decent lens kit.

Late in 2012 I was contacted by Stuart Guest-Smith (CEO and Co-Founder of Simplecue) and asked to film and produce a 90 second video showcasing Simplecue - a smartphone app which gives you everything you need to create, plan and run your group fitness classes.

This was to be a same day shoot and edit as the deadline for their video submission was less than 48 hours away.

Stuart and his team had put together a script and so when I had arrived and setup the cameras, we began shooting the interviews.

After the interviews were done I setup for some b-roll or cutaway footage which consisted primarily of the guys working on PC’s and of course some grabs of the smartphone application itself.

A little bit of stop motion for good measure was also included to show just how much space DVDs and CDs can take up.

Then it was back to the editing suite where I cut the fat so to speak (well, this is a fitness app!) and removed all the um’s and ah’s leaving just the good stuff i.e. strong key messages and relevant visuals.

This project was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to working with Stuart a lot more in 2013.

Oh and yes, their submission got rave reviews and Simplecue continues to grow in leaps and bounds!

Representing some of Australia’s biggest aircraft, these guys took off from Amberley Air Force base west of Brisbane about 9.15am and just a few minutes later they cruised over Brisbane’s South Bank at a height of only 300m.

Globemasters are heavy lifters with a carrying capacity of up to 70 tonnes and will be used to aid our military, humanitarian and peacekeeping missions.

Just 15 minutes later they flew over the beaches of the Gold Coast at below the height of the city’s loftiest building, the Q1, which reaches 322m in the air. Did anyone get any photos or videos of that!? Feel free to post links in the comments below.

Reasons why promo videos like this are ideal:

1. With durations between 30-40 seconds, your message will be delivered quickly and your audience retention will average 80%-100%
2. Videos are personal and genuine when you deliver the message yourself. You speak directly with your customers.
3. When uploaded and hosted at websites such as YouTube and Vimeo, your videos can be watched anytime of the day on computers, laptops, tablets and mobile devices.
4. Just perfect for sharing on your Facebook and Twitter.

This was a same day edit. I’m doing a lot of these lately. They are relatively easy to produce and are a lot of fun.

All you need is a script and suitable location for filming. What makes a location suitable? Well firstly, it needs to be relatively quiet. Interestingly enough, in this video, Claudia preferred to leave a radio on in the background but you won’t hear it because we used a lapel mic and in the final edit, there is a musical soundtrack placed under her narrative.

I helped Claudia with the script whilst on location. We shot this in 3 parts and the motion graphics which appear in the middle of the video were an after-thought whilst I was editing. Rather than watching Claudia speak the whole video, the motion graphics really help to deliver and reinforce her message.

If you would like to discuss your promo video requirements, please contact me here.

If you would like to see more of my real estate videos, please visit Brisbane Real Estate Video.

I was playing around on my pool table the other day when I wondered what it would be like to see the pool table from the balls perspective.

Pool cue-cam style. So I grabbed by GoPro camera and strapped it to my pool cue.

I liked what I saw, so I continued to place the camera at various points on the table as I randomly hit some balls around.

Here is the result, just for fun!