Go Pro Analysing (Part 1)

As I've looked into both advertisements on Television and looked at film trailers and discussed and analysed them i wanted to look at some less professional or videos which aren't made by professional companies, just to see how video can be explored through shots, mise-en-scene and the movement from the camera and how it can affect the overall appearance, good or worse. So i pretty much wanted to look for some videos, that are less professional when it comes to people making them and analyse them, and what better place to go than YouTube.

The other day last week our when our teacher Andrew was talking to use about this brief, he was talking about some good ways to look for video and analyse them, like from film scenes that he told us about and any film scenes that we like too, which I'll come to do shortly, but someone from our group suggested a YouTube channel called Go Pro, which i hadn't heard of so i decided to check out.

After looking at the channel and finding out more about their channel, they make a bunch of different types of filmed videos which are a couple on seconds to minutes long which involve things like surfing videos, skiing videos and videos which are set in all kinds of different environments and some of the video filming they do with their camera is outstanding, proving that just ordinary people can film video with anything and it can look good, as long as its been edited, good selection of engaging and mind blowing shots and the music fits with the atmosphere that's trying to be portrayed. So i will definitely take it on board when i come to film my short video, but it will be slightly more challenging because of the time limit and minimum amount of edits we have to do which is 30 edits within a 15-20 second time limit, but I'm up for the challenge.

Looking at Go Pro's channel, they have a website and i decided to look at what type of film camera they use for recording all these film clips and the camera they use is a  Hero 3+ camera and below is a selection of the different types they sell. The fact it says ''smaller,light,mightier still'' emphasises the quality of the camera, as it can film jaw dropping quality but also be a small camera for on the go purposes, which is almost an encouraging piece of equipment ad it seems it would be designed for people who like to film things in perfect quality. The cheapest edition of the three has wi-fi access, records in 1080p with 30 frames and has 5MP which seems very impressive for this small little camera.

Link to site: http://gopro.com/
Link to page: http://gopro.com/cameras

So after looking at the type of camera Go Pro use let's get stuck into one of their videos, and after browsing through a couple, one stuck out for me which was their video which played automatically when you'd go on their channel on their channel looked amazing and had a collage of great video, so i'll be firstly analysing this video which is:

GoPro: HERO3+ Black Edition: Smaller, lighter, mightier still.

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wbvpOIIBQA

Because there is a lot of content in this video, let's pick it apart and separate them into individual analysing segments so it makes it easier to talk about specific shots or parts of the video  rather than the video on a whole as it has a lot of content and will look more confusing and tiring and this way separating them will make it more organised and understandable when i want to discuss and specific part of the video.

Also something to note, i will NOT be talking about everything part of the video, i'll talk about some parts of the video i really liked and talk about the reasons about why the parts of the video stood out for me as well as analysing those parts of video through different techniques.

Introduction to video:

Shot 1: 0:04-0:12

Within this first shot it starts within a cold environment and uses a wide long shot of them along with the camera movement of tracking which moves forward. This helps to give a sense of environment with this type of shot and makes it jaw dropping with the amazing beauty of the environment, the use of tracking gives a sense of unveiling adventure and of the environment its set it.

The way its looks through appearance makes this look like its been filmed by a film company or something , and it almost makes it hard to believe such a small camera can capture such perfect quality and convey the beauty of this environment.

Shot 2: 0:13-0:16

The second shot is of people hiking up the mountain in this cold area, and shows this by using a wide long shot to help emphasise the environment they are in, giving the shot more of an admirable shot with the mountains and sky in the background. The camera movement in this shot is a pan from right to left and gives a sense of progression and adventure with the people hiking up the mountain as the shot pans.

Shot 3: 0:17-0:22

The 3rd shot of the introduction of the video is from a slightly high angel of a couple of people cycling at the side of the staircase at the side of the shot. This shot is more to do with the view, along with a lot of these shots, which is why the cyclists are at the side of the shot mostly likely, and so the view would be the main focal point and this shot type helps to do this very well.

There is a tracking shot along this shot and helps to give more of a view of the high angled view of the environment and beautiful view, and the sunset and the side of the shot helps to bring light into the shot and more of a warm feeling to the shot.

Shot 4: 0:22-0:25

This shot is in a different environment and is set in a mountain, rock atmosphere which is conveyed by the colour of the environment as well as the rock climber. The shot pans from left to right and unveils the rock climber and gives a sense of adventure with the rock climber and adds depth to the shot with just the background and then panning to a rock climber close up in the shot. This shot is another wide long shot and is shot to present the outstanding environment as well as the rock climber. The colour from the environment gives a warm feeling to the shot would probably make us think of the grand canyon or Australia as its a very hot place and looks like Australia.

Shot 5: 0:26-0:39

This shot above is slightly different from the ones we've seen so far in this video and its firstly a mid shot of someone putting on their gloves, to get ready to ride their motorcycle, and also the background is cloudy. In the previous shots we've seen great beauty from the wide shots of the environment, despite this in this shot when we can see the background we see clouds and a bland background, which might have been done to create more focus on the man's hands and putting on his gloves to ride his bike.

The shot doesn't give away the mans face, which gives a sense of mystery but is mostly doesn't to make the gloves the main focus, as if its preparing us for him to ride his motorbike, as the shot slowly pans to the left unveiling his ride.

Shot 6: 0:30-0:34

Within the 6th shot of the video it starts off with a low angled shot of the mans motor bike, starting up and him riding it, using a tracking shot as well,  and then the camera tilts upwards behind the man riding his bike as he gets further away from the camera, and ends up still being a slightly low angled shot along with turning into a mid long shot.

This type of movement in this shot creates dynamic to the video and maintains the interest with the shot feeling more speedy and faster paced with the motorbike riding away, and creates a feeling to this shot as if the person riding his bike is on a journey of some kind.

Shot 7: 0:34-0:36

After the previous shot the clips become more paced, as if the riding away motorcycle started the pace and began to build it up. This shot above is only 2 seconds long and is of some African children holding and looking at the camera. This gives a sense of innocence along with travel, as we see different environments and places. This shot is at a lightly low angle of the child holding the camera and is a mid close up shot of the children. This breaks the 4th wall as it has people looking directly at the camera, and makes the video more informal to a degree but also explore's different environments and types of people also, making the world more of one amazing thing.

Shot 8: 0:36-0:38

This is a mid shot of a man with a snowboard, looking like he's soon going to snowboard down the hill, also he is holding the camera. The shot pans slightly more around him, we can tell from the colour of the background of the environment and  their clothing that they are in a cold environment and that they are going to snowboard down the hill judging by their use of the snowboard they are holding.

Shot 9: 0:38- 0:40

This next shot is someone walking in a forest and is done by using a tracking shot, and the person shown on camera is in the left to centre of the shot making them the focal point and the shot also looks like a  POV shot of the person filming which makes it feel like we're there following her and filming.

Shot 10: 0:40-0:42

This shot judging by the colour is set underwater with someone in the centre of the shot, looking directly ahead, which also breaks the 4th wall and almost makes it feel like at times we are there because of this. The shot is at slightly high angle of the man scuba diving and is a mid shot as well with the camera tracking from in front of the person scuba diving. It also adds another type of activity from this video, almost like all these clips are a journey of some kind in themselves and this video compiles all of it together and showing what type of activities are adventurous and show of the camera in an amazing light. 

Shot 11: 0:43-0:45

This shot is a little boy holding a surfing board, looking happy, from this we can tell the child is looking forward to something, and since he's holding the surfing board we can imagine he's excited because he's going to go surfing. Because some of the shots show people it makes it convey that anyone can have fun doing all sorts of different activities young, or older, and its never too late and this video compiles all of this together making this video a large mini amount of different adventures and beauty within different environments.

The shot itself is a mid shot of the boy, and is also tracking backwards as the child is walking forward in front of the camera, this also emphasises the whole idea he's excited to go somewhere (surfing). Judging by the environment its around the seaside and is in a tropical environment, with the palm trees in the background.

Shot 12: 0:45-0:47

This is the final shot within this type of introduction to the video and from this point has a lot of more scattered adventures and up to this point it has built up to this point for those scenes. 

In this shot it is a mid closeup shot from behind a bird, and this shot is perfectly centered in them middle, with the head blocking the sun which I'd guess was purposely done to create a slightly more central feel. 

This shot is slightly odd, but very effective and works well with the environment and of the bird in front of the camera, and the bird even moves its head in timing up the music which makes this shot more interesting.

So these are the shots from the introduction of the video, and looking at these shots they all work really well for different reasons, and give some stunning, mind blowing visuals, and it just proves that this camera that they use is amazing and the different environments, wide angled shots of mountains etc help to enhance this fact.