Filming a car video: Five essential items to consider

Want to be a YouTuber or presenter? Maybe you want make the best car videos ever known? A Tribe Called Cars is here to fill you in on the equipment that can help when filming a car video, as part of the first in a series of tutorials from motoring journalist and YouTuber Ben Griffin.

Once upon a time the head of content at YouTube told me that there are two types of ‘successful’ video.

The first is the high-budget, well polished content that looks professional. The grading of the footage, the lack of jerky movement, clever camera angles, high-resolution slow-mo, tight scripting – think Top Gear wannabe stuff. And, erm, Top Gear.

The other is the often low-budget, filmed on-the-fly, low resolution, jerky and imperfection-heavy video, the quality of which does little to hinder its popularity. Not quite ‘potato cam’ stuff, as the Internet would call it, but close enough to deeply offend perfectionists.

Obviously there will be videos in both camps that fail to get big hits for one or many reasons, but it is typically the videos that sit somewhere in this video no-man’s land that get fewer viewers, which in turn means slower growth. Not good if you want to grow your subscriber count fast.

Because most new smartphone cameras are capable of decent video, going the second route is viable. Not only does it keep life simple and cheap, it will also make you focus more on the task at hand, as opposed to the equipment.

There are, however, a few modest additions you can add to your photography equipment arsenal (here’s mine) may help your videos move into ‘professional’ territory. It will take money, effort and practice, but perhaps not as much as you might think.

1) Filming A Car Video: The Tripod

If you are walking then some motion is to be expected in your footage. But walking around and filming different elements of a car can look awful despite even if your smartphone or camera has image stabilisation.

The remedy is a good-old fashioned tripod. This can be anything from a compact offering that is easy to carry and costs very little to a carbon fibre-legged beast that could withstand a nuclear explosion. What matters most is that you always have it on you and that it is stable.

Many YouTubers such as Parker of VehicleVirgins and Paul of Supercars of London use a Joby Gorrillapod that is large enough to hold a DSLR camera. In doing so, they can mount their camera on virtually any surface. There is also the added bonus that the handle is long enough to keep their face at a reasonable distance when filming pieces to camera.

There are also various compact tripods that will do a similar job for filming a car video minus the wrap-around mounting trick a Joby gives you. A benefit of this is a tiltable head, height adjustment, improved stability and, in some cases, a spirit level to help ensure you avoid filming at a wonky angle (although this matters little if you plan to crop your footage in post production).

A larger tripod gives you the ability to shoot at a higher vantage point, which will be better for those shots when you are standing up next to a car, but filming a car at a lower typically looks nicer. My rule of thumb (but like all rules, it can be broken) is that you film at eye level and the eyes of a car are the headlights. Some prefer wing mirror height.

If your budget is more substantial, a dedicated video tripod will allow you to pan and tilt your camera for slicker shots that will help maintain interest and add that cinematic look. It is possible to buy a video tripod head separately and attach it to an existing tripod, though the price may not work out that different in doing so.

One particularly useful feature for a tripod is a hook between the legs. Sometimes in windy or uneven conditions, using your bag or something heavy as a weight can ensure stability, especially if you are doing any panning. This will help ensure your footage is smooth and less in need of any post production stabilisation.

Legs that are easily adjustable, meanwhile, are useful if you want to correct the slope of a hill, for instance, but then a ball-head can do this, too. I find adjusting leg height is more hassle and time-consuming, but it is no real hardship.

Bottom line: Tripods really can improve the look of your videos and they are really useful for photography. Buy the best you can afford. If you can stretch the budget, a dedicated video tripod makes most sense as it can do everything. But then if you are the type to lose things or need to travel light, maybe keep it cheap and small.

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