Recoding a commercial video at home

Coronavirus shut us all home for a while. However, this does not stop us from having fun with cameras, even in a state of emergency. I soon came across an interesting Instagram account – The Garage Learning. It shows many creative ideas for video capture. I liked one a lot because it can be easily recreated at home. That’s what I’m talking about.

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Shot on iPhone Our new @thegaragelearning beginner level online courses will show you how to do really cool things with your iPhone, some fishing line, and some Creativity. This shot is also lit only via our make your own LED light kits coming soon #thegaragelearning #elearning #visualengineering #artmeetscience #comingsoon #bts #behindthescenes #tabletop #motioncontrol #moco #norobots with @garageriley doing the camera move and shot design #shotoniphone

A post shared by The Garage Learning (@thegaragelearning) on Feb 17, 2020 at 12:58pm PST

Reproducing this technique is extremely easy and requires the following things:

• 3 cans of carbonated drink
• Board
• 3 nails
• End / Cord
• tape
• 3-4 screw
• Camera / you could use your phone

Where to start from

We put the 3 cans in one line, measuring that they are at the exact center of the board so that there is room for movement in both directions. The last can at the back must be empty and properly nailed to allow it to rotate around its axis

We thread a thread on the back of the first two cans. The thread should go behind the nails hammered into the left and right ends of the board. In this way, we can pull the thread and pull the puppies back.

We use the 4 screws to wind them in the bottom of the empty can. Then we wrap the thread around them. That way, when the thread is pulled, the can rotates.

Here’s what our backstage looked like to us

What needs to happen is, as your assistant pulls the thread, you shoot with the camera as you zoom in slowly. If you do not have a helper, you can tie the threads to the camera so that as you pull it forward, the tassels will move.

For smoother forward movement, I use the RatRig V-SLIDER MINI 35 rail.

This is what our first attempts look like. As you can see, you should try to pull the thread faster for better effect.

Of course, it is quite unpleasant to remove the threads from the frame. To do this, use Adobe After Effects, and more specifically CC Wire removal effect. You just click the two dots around the thread and follow as they exit the frame.

Here is the final result

I hope you found it interesting.

P.S. This article is not sponsored by Coca-Cola 🙂