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ChurchMag / Creativity / Low Budget Ways To Create High Budget Video Effects

Low Budget Ways To Create High Budget Video Effects

Low Budget Ways To Create High Budget Video Effects

September 15, 2020
by Chris Wilson

There are few churches with the budget, gear and on staff expertise to match a Hollywood film production (although in many ways our phones produce better videos than the cameras some of your favorite childhood films were made on). But even small churches with inexperienced staff can create great high-budget video effects that make your church videos stand out. All it takes is a little creativity as KarenXCheng shows.

KarenXCheng

Karen X is a creator on Instagram who shows people how to create interesting effects with their videos. Every month she posts a new challenges in her column for Adobe magazine and shares how she creates them. She recently started sharing some low-budget ways to create high-budget video effects from classic Hollywood films.

Have a look.

Low-budget Bubble Bullet Time

View this post on Instagram

Follow @karenxcheng for more video ideas  🎥The original Matrix shot required 120 cameras. Here’s my low budget version with 1 camera! I shot this with the @insta360 ONE R, it’s a 360 camera and they have a “bullettime” feature that automatically stabilizes & edits this for you. However, I edited this one manually so I could adjust the FOV.  Credit to @nicovuignier who pioneered this idea back in 2016, he did this while skiing and made a custom aerodynamic rig for his camera. Since then the effect has become really popular with the @insta360 because it self-stabilizes and they have a setting that auto edits it for you.  I got the idea for the “bullet machine" when I saw a kid blowing bubbles in the park. Got plenty of weird stares when I was shooting this, but I’m used to that by now 😂  Director: @karenxcheng Camera: @insta360 ONE R Edited: with @insta360 ONE R + @adobevideo After Effects for speed ramping Music: “Sunny Days” by @stanleygurvich (pretty good for a stock track, huh? I got it from @artlist.io)  #filmmaking #vfx #matrix #wachowski #insta360 #insta360oner #keanureeves #lowbudgetfilmmaking #movies #cinematography #behindthescenes 

A post shared by Karen X (@karenxcheng) on Sep 8, 2020 at 8:23am PDT

Budget Dolly Zoom

View this post on Instagram

Part 2, playing with my toy truck 🚌 Sharing part 3 tomorrow!  🎥This effect has many names – Hitchcock zoom, dolly zoom, vertigo effect. It was first made by Alfred Hitchcock in 'Vertigo' and has since appeared in a bunch of movies. I've always been mesmerized by it! It’s done by moving the camera away from the subject, at the same time as zooming in, all while keeping the subject the same size. Here I’m digitally zooming it in.  Works with any camera, even your phone. I recommend using the 4K setting if you have it because you’ll need the highest resolution you can get if you’re going to be digitally zooming in the footage afterwards. I posted a longer tutorial on my IG on April 28th which shows the editing flow.  Director: @karenxcheng Edited: with @adobevideo Premiere Pro to do the digital zooming Music: from @artlist.io “Mayhem” by Ian Post and "Alpha Theme" by Kyle Preston  #filmmaking #behindthescenes #hitchcock #dollyzoom #zolly #horror #insta360oner #cinematography #cameratrick 

A post shared by Karen X (@karenxcheng) on Sep 8, 2020 at 5:06pm PDT

Cheap Vertigo effect

View this post on Instagram

New camera accessory: 🎣Sharing part 4 this afternoon: The Shining Twins  🎥This effect is inspired by Hitchcock’s 1958 film, Vertigo. Since then this stairwell shot has been done by many directors, like recently on Mr. Robot. Thanks to @basilassi91 for letting me use his high budget behind-the-scenes footage!  👉Why is the camera rotating, but the final shot stabilized? It’s because I’m using a 360 camera (@insta360 ONE R) that automatically gyro stabilizes, even when the camera is spinning. For a video demo of the stabilization, check out my IG post from May 20th.  Director: @karenxcheng Camera: @insta360 ONE R Music: from @artlist.io “Kingdom Come” by @theevsmusic  #filmmaking #vertigo #hitchcock #behindthescenes #insta360 #insta360oner #cinematography #cameratrick #stairs

A post shared by Karen X (@karenxcheng) on Sep 9, 2020 at 8:24am PDT

Low-budget The Shinning twins (for Snapchat)

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No photoshop knowledge needed, just use Snapchat’s sticker tool👯‍♀️ Sharing part 5 next: Harry Potter!  Director: @karenxcheng #shotoniPhone and edited with Snapchat Music: from @artlist.io "Alpha Theme" by Kyle Preston  #clone #cloneeffect #theshining #stanleykubrick #vfx #lowbudgetfilmmaking 

A post shared by Karen X (@karenxcheng) on Sep 9, 2020 at 1:18pm PDT

Low-budget Harry Potter Invisibility cloak with Zoom

View this post on Instagram

Follow @karenxcheng for more video ideas  Here's how to do it on your next Zoom call: 1. Take a picture of your room with your webcam (without you in it) 2. Use @zoom virtual background and set the virtual background to the picture of your room. Make sure you keep your computer webcam in the exact same position. 3. Toggle on the "I have a green screen" and then set it to the color of your blanket. A green blanket works best, but any distinct bright color blanket should work. 4. Disappear yourself!  Note: depending on the lighting, you might notice some artifacts along the very edges of your blanket. This is hard to avoid in a live Zoom meeting call, as it’s a limitation of the live green screen feature. In this video example, I made the edges disappear at the very end by editing and merging it with the virtual background image using Premiere  #harrypotter #invisibilitycloak #zoomhacks #filmmaking #cameratrick #zoom 

A post shared by Karen X (@karenxcheng) on Sep 10, 2020 at 8:39am PDT

How you could use these high-budget video effects?

I can easily imagine an announcement video using the dolly zoom effect to show the realization that there are only X days left to go before an event. Or the Vertigo effect to highlight a sermon illustration about strange events.

Some of Karen’s monthly challenges could be great inspiration to make your own social media content stand out.

Make the most of what you have

Karen creativity shows just how fantastic the tools we already have are as well as how constraints can help our creativity. We might wish we had more staff and gear but we can still make an impression with the phones we have in our pockets.

With a little thought and experimentation, you can create high-budget video effects even with the gear you already have.

What About You?

Feeling inspired? What’s the one (or two) idea(s) you think you’ll try or start with?

Chris Wilson

Senior Staff writer, holder of the keys to the newsletter and writer of app reviews

I'm a Copywriter and content marketer based in Krakow, Poland. I enjoy sketchnoting in my free time and have some free sketchnote courses if you want to start.

Category: Creative, Creativity Tagged: production, video, video effects

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  1. Blessing Mpofu says

    September 15, 2020

    These are insane. So cool. 🤯

    Reply

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