I use GorillaPods or a Giottos MTL 9361B tripod with a Manfrotto 701HDV fluid head with a dolly.
At Es Paradis Ibiza, I used a GorillaPod with zip ties to fix 1 camera in position. I also have a monopod to double up as a boom for microphone work but usually to get higher and different angles, but it is manually held. I took a collapsible selfie-stick to Eden this year to do a similar job to get some high angles of the crowd. My camera was too heavy though and kept tilting over and shooting nothing …!
I’ve never tried webcams but I choose from, depending on the situation:
Panasonic GH3
Panasonic GH2
Panasonic GF3
Sony RX100
My mobile phone (!)
The first 2 Panasonics are “proper” film-making cameras (indeed, Top Gear uses them too) and the cheapest with great quality. GH2s are quite cheap second hand nowadays but so good. The same lenses work on all 3 Panasonics, and also the Olympus Micro 4/3 range. There are many adapters to use Canon, Nikon and older lenses. As these are mirrorless cameras, the camera can be smaller and almost every lens can be focussed properly on the sensor with the right adapter.
I use mostly a Samyang f3.5 7.5mm fisheye lens (manual), Panasonic f1.8 20mm, Panasonic f2.5 14mm. As I film in club environments and can’t adjust things manually, the 2 auto focus lenses are useful, if not always delivering the best picture all of the time. If I could find someone who could film properly, I’d also use my other lenses like a Nokton Voigtlander f0.95 25mm, perfect for focus pulls, bokeh etc.
In your case if it’s a set up at home, I’d try a wide-angle lens or a fish-eye lens and 1 regular lens, then you can cut from each angle from time to time to stop it getting boring to watch – 1 angle for 60 minutes is quite boring. I don’t know your cameras but maybe you can use GorillaPods – they fit standard camera mounting holes, and you can wrap them around posts and so on. Stability will depend on the weight of the cameras. You could also look for mounts with suction cups to put on the ceiling or the wall, don’t scrimp o quality, as you don’t want them falling off ad breaking your camera! I think a lot of Go Pros come with a kit of mounts, it may be worth looking at them for some ideas and look for similar ones for your cameras.
If the set up is at home, remember lighting can make a world of difference! Lighting is a huge subject so I won’t go into it much, but you can have an amazing looking video with the right lighting, whatever the quality of the camera. Use diffusers/gels to tone down harsh lighting unless that’s what you are going for etc. There are great websites to google to learn about lighting 🙂
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