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This episode is basic filmmaker is sponsored by
Camera noises!
Shutter speed is like this. Okay just watch.
Okay. Let's run this whole thing backwards.
We'll start with what you need and work our way down
to why it's that way. For a more cinematic film look,
set the frames per second to 24, or for my European friends, 25.
Now set the shutter speed to twice that or the closest value available on your camera.
For 24 or 25 frames per second the shutter speed
would be set the twice that - 48 or 50, or the closest you have on your camera.
Right now I'm shooting at 24 frames per second and the closest shutter speed number
that is twice that for my camera
is 50. So how do you set that? On the camera shown here,
I go into the menu, and I set the frames per second to 24.
Now I rotate the dial at the top. As I do the
number in the bottom left-hand corner changes. That's the shutter speed.
Other cameras give you other options. Just set the shutter speed it twice that
of the frames per second you're shooting at
or as close to that as you can.
OK. So why is 24 frames per second and a shutter speed of twice that the magic number?
Honestly it's because everyone practically since the beginning of the film,
has been watching movies on the big screen,
that were filmed at 24 frames per second with a shutter speed of forty-eight.
Everyone is used to that. When you do something
different it doesn't look like a Hollywood film,
it looks different than what is expected, and there's no other reason.
Peter Jackson of The Hobbit movie fame decided to try something. He shot his movie at 24 frames per second
and a shutter speed up 48, and also shot it at 48 frames per second with a shutter of speed 96.
and released both. The 24 frames per second movie was enjoyed by most
the 48 frames per second movie wasn't liked - it was too different.
Basically it wasn't what other people are used to seeing
when watching a movie. Now does that mean you've never use any other frames per
second or shutter speed setting?
Absolutely not. There's a lot of confusion on frames per second and shutter speed.
So I'm going to clear this up for you, so you know what to use and when, and for that,
we need a short history lesson.
Now in order to understand anglo-saxon England,
we must go back many many years.
A time ago someone had a bright idea.
If you take a single picture, then without moving the camera
have the subject move slightly, then take another picture,
and have the subject move slightly again, and take another picture,
and you kept doing this over and over and over, you could show the pictures back to back,
one after the other, and would end up with the illusion of a moving picture.
And thus, the moving picture, or motion picture was born.
A lot of different film formats and cameras were developed to make this happen,
but eventually the 24 frames per second format won out,
and is generally what has been seen in films for almost eighty years.
The reason for 24 frames per second was both a cost and visual decision which
I'll get to in a moment.
Up until recently everything was shot on actual film
and many filmmakers still use it. Much like the original idea of taking a picture,
followed by taking take another picture, to give the illusion of motion,
actual film was loaded into a movie camera
and when you start recording, the camera takes a picture on the film,
advances to the next frame of film, takes another picture,
and so on. This picture taking and advancing to the next frame occurs 24 times
every second, hence 24 frames per second. And the reason why 24 frames per second
was settled on, was because it was the perfect number frames you could shoot at
without losing the visual quality of what was being filmed.
If you shot at, say, twelve frames per second
the film would look jerky and not have fluid motion.
If you shot at, say, 48 frames per second
there would be no motion blur on things moving fast,
and you would double the amount of film and the cost of processing.
And as Peter Jackson proved, you lose what your eye expects to see which is,
motion that is blurred. If you hold your hand up in front of you
and you move your hand really fast you'll see motion blur.
If you didn't see motion blur your brain would wonder what was wrong.
The same for film. So for both cost and visual reasons,
24 frames per second was the sweet spot and became the standard for the film industry.
Which is why we've been watching films at 24 frames per second for a very long time.
And is what we expect to see now when we watch a movie.
So what about shutter speed? A photography film camera does the following:
You press a button to take a shot. The shutter opens for a set amount of time,
the image is burned on the film and then the shutter closes.
That's for a single picture. For movie camera's,
here's what has to happen: You start recording.
The shutter opens for a set amount of time, the image is burned on the first frame of the film.
And then the shutter closes. Now the camera automatically advances the film
to the next frame. The shutter opens again,
burns the next image onto that frame, the shutter
closes, and the camera advances the film to the next
frame. So this shutter is working hard,
opening, letting the image be burned onto a single frame of film,
closing, so the camera has time to move to the next frame and
doing this over and over and over and over. If there was no shutter
the camera would be open the whole time and would just be a blurry
mess, while the film is being advanced to the next frame,
still burning the image of what the camera sees onto the film.
The shutter closes to give the camera enough time to advance to the next frame
so the frame just shot isn't ruined.
On older film cameras, the shutter is a disk in constant rotation.
When the shutter is open, light passes through and exposes the film.
When the solid part of the disk rotates in front of the the film
nothing gets exposed, giving the camera a chance to advance the film
to the next frame. if the shutter didn't do this the image would get blurred
when advanced. You may have heard of this referred to using a 180-degree shooting angle.
Don't confuse this with the 180 degree rule
which is how a camera is placed when shooting, and completely different.
A shooting angle of 180 degrees simply refers
to the shutter moving 180 degrees so the camera can advance the film
and moving 180 degrees to expose the next frame.
It's really no concern in this year of 2013
where most that you have camcorders, cameras, or DSLRs.
And in fact, your camera isn't opening and closing the shutter
to allow the film to be advanced to the next frame.
First, your camera probably doesn't use film.
Second, when you hit record the shutter on your camera opens up
and is open until you stop recording, or,
you may not even have a shutter such as in a camcorder.
But we still use this terminology of shutter speed.
Now if you have a camera and you're shooting photos
rather than video you definitely have a shutter.
and the *** definitely opens and closes. So don't confuse what happens
when you shoot photos
versus video. And if you are shooting photos
you'll notice that a high shutter speed number takes up quicker picture,
and a low shutter speed number takes a slower picture.
If I take a photo of running water, and I set the shutter speed to a high number,
like 400, I see great detail in all the water drops.
That shutter is opening and closing really, really fast.
Ir I can set it to a low number and get a creamy look.
The shutter is open a lot longer and the running water is recorded
with more of a blur. The difference is how much
motion blur you get. When you are shooting photography
using preset shooting modes, that's one of the things your camera does for you.
For example, you flip the dial sports mode,
the camera sets the shutter speed very high so you can capture the detail in fast-moving
objects. Just remember: the lower the shutter number
the slower the shutter opens and closes, the more blur.
The higher the number, the faster the shutter opens and closes
And you get last blur.
Now, the same is true for video. If you shoot at 24 frames per second
and set your shutter speed twice, or as close as you can,
you'll be shooting with the amount of motion blur people expect to see in a
film. If you wanna more television show type look
set the camera to 30 frames per second and the shutter speed to twice that.
That's the general rule.
So, can you shoot at some other frame rate or shutter speed?
Absolutely! The question simply becomes: what are you filming
and what look do you want. So you need or want a more
crisp look - less motion blur?
If your subject is moving really fast you might want that for particular shot.
So set the shutter speed to a higher number.
Or maybe you want slow-motion. If you shoot at 30 frames per second
and then slow your footage down by half, what you've done is you've made your footage
fifteen frames per second and it will look choppy.
Which is why you shoot slow-motion footage at,
say, 60 frames per second. If you slow that down by half
it ends up being 30 frames per second and it won't look choppy.
But the way you get that cinematic look like Hollywood movies
is you shoot at 24 frames per second and set your shutter speed to twice that. 0:10:366.370,0:10:39.870 Does that mean your footage will be awesome?
Not really. There's the shot itself, the quality of the lenses,
the lighting, the story, the set design, editing, color correction and grading, and
many other factors to take into account
to get that film look. But the first place you would start is
by setting your frames per second and shutter speed
to match what is used in films and what people expect to see.
I hope you'll go out and practice different frame rates
and shutter speeds. Let me know how you do.
I hope that helps, and thanks for watching!
(Laughing) That's a wrap!
Shutter speed is like this. (Laugh), I forget to raise my other hand.
Let's practice.