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After watching a few videos on here, I have noticed that so many videos repeat the same mistakes and all have room for huge improvement. I've decided to write a short guide to help anyone wanting to make a bf2 video.
I happen to have a few years in the industry, I'm 16 now but made my first commercial production when I was 13. Anyway, I hope my age doesn't reflect your opinions on my knowledge and what's written below.
Planning
To make a succesful video, it ussually helps if you plan it before hand. Know exactly what you want to get out of the video, but more importantly, makesure you know atleast roughly what the end result will look like.
If you're creating a story based movie, this is ofcourse even more important. If you have a rough storyboard but no details on the in between, then whats going to happen is, you'll find your story will be inconsistant.
Also, before you start to create a movie, makesure you are well prepared and have everything set properly. You don't want to do all these hard stunts and find out the server wasn't recording demos or your demo quality was low or something like that. Makesure you do a test run first to makesure everything is setup properly.
Also, this applies to all types of movies. Before you make the movie, ask yourself, would I want to watch this movie. If people asked answered that question honestly, we should have 50% less videos on these forums and much better videos with the other 50%.
Quality over Quantity
It seems some people think if they make a long movie, it will automatically be considered a good one. If you think that, then you're totally wrong. Who wants to spend more time watching a boring movie when they could be spending less time watching a more entertaining and satisfying movie.
Quality content is a must, even if you are a uber editor, fancy **** want cover up crappy content. Also, makesure your movie has a unique touch to it, people don't want to watch something that they think they've already seen.
Also, if you make a shorter movie rather than a longer one, you can then distribute a higher resolution movie.
Show Less, Not More
I use to love an australian comedian called carl barren, I use to only see him rarely on a few shows a month. When he released a DVD, I couldn't help but hire it out. After watching that DVD, I got totally sick of him. Thats a perfect example of why you should show less and not more.
I see stunt movies which pause on every stunt or show a thousand different angles. Thats almost like watching a movie sitting on the left side of the cinema, then watching the same movie sitting on the other side.
You may say, yeah but thats different, which it is, but in many ways its the same. The movie is going to be alot more boring the second time even though your now sitting on the other side of the cinema.
So, maybe choose two of the best angles and play them at no less than 50% of their normal speed. Also, its good to keep the audience asking "How did he do that" or "what just happened then becuase that looked sweet".
Music Music Music
Every BF2 movie to date has music (as far as I know). Not that this is a bad thing becuase its actually a good thing, but you need the right music/sound in the right places with the right mood.
Choosing any old song isn't going to do justice in most cases, especially if you are making a storyline movie where music needs to tell the audience the mood of a scene. Another thing, if you've done the planning correctly, you should know what your aim is with the movie you're planning to make, so you should have a fairly good idea of what type of music you will need.
Look at the BF2 intro music, watch it a few times and listen to how the moods of the music change and how well it is blended in with the editing. Although most of you dont have the resources to get your very own soundtrack made up, this is still a really good example.
So, I suggest you select the music you want before you even start recording the demo within bf2. This way you can match your scenes with your music much better and will give the overall movie a much more intergrated feel if done correctly.
Camera Flexiblity (withing BF2)
Sadly, bf2 lacks camera feature, there is no zoom, no smooth panning and not even adjustable freecam speeds. Curruntly, the camera features are really abd in bf2 like you all know. This is a big problem, but there are ways you can improve all this during the editing process and during the capturing process. I'll focus on the capturing process in this chapter
When you're recording your camera movements, you want to be able to adjust freecam speeds and smooth out pans. Here's how to give you a little more flexibility with both of those things.
The only way you can adjust freecam speeds (that I know of) is by adjusting playback speeds. If you want to chase a jet in freecam, at normal speed you will find freecam isn't fast enough to keep up, well, make playback speed 50% and you'll be able to keep up just fine. Then, when you watch the cerma back at normal speed, the camera will be going twice as fast and will be keeping up with the jet.
Now, what if you want to slow down speeds, well, do the opposite. Make playback speed 200% or whatever and then your camera will roughly travel at the same speed infantry travel. Then when you playback your recorded camera at normal speed, it will appear as if the camera is moving alot slower.
To smooth out panning, do the exact same thing, increase playback speed while recording your camera movements, then when you play it back at normal speed, the panning will have a much smoother feel to it.
Camera Flexiblity (during editing)
Now, if you've done everything you can within bf2 to steady your shots and adjust your speeds, then you'll prolly find its not enough. Well, plenty more can be done during the editing process.
Its a good thing to always capture your footage at the highest possible resolution. Then you have so much more flexibility while editing. You can now zoom, steady shots, create shaky cam effects and do small digital pans.
Most you would use programs downloaded from torrents. The most commonly used would be premiere pro. Although downloading from torrents isn't the right thing to do, there isn't really any harm being done in this case as you are not making videos commercially.
So, I recommend premiere pro combined with after effects. With these two programs you can make a very professional production, its all up to you.
Cinematics
The final touches to a movie can make a huge difference to its look and feel. Effects (both presets and custom) can make a final production look really good if used in the right circumstances.
It's important not to make your effects look corny. With lightning effects, I dont think there is a why you can make them not look corny, so your best not using effects like that.
The effects I'm referring to are effects like motion blurr, shaky cam (say when a bomb explodes), Colour correction (to make it look more realistic), Grain (more realistic again). But, it is inredibly important to use them correctly or else they can make your production look even worse. Used corretly however and it can make your production look 200% better.
Another way to make your video look different to bf2 ingame is to edit your video in widescreen. This is really good as it takes what people ussually see (when playing bf2) and gives them something they only see on tv and in the cinema. It can work a real treat.
Compression and Distribution
When you complete your video, your going to have to export it for distribution over the net (or wherever). It's important to always save a high quality version first, most of you should be already doing this, but for those who dont, makesure you do.
Ok, first lets focus on compression. In most cases (especially if yours is a quality video) the audience will be happy to download a larger file for better quality. No one wants to watch something where they can barely make out what they're looking at.
Compression basically comes down to resolution with bitrate. Its always better to make the bitrate higher than the resolution than the opposite (to an extent). So, your best having an artifact free 320x240 video than a 50% artifact 640x480 video. Although the video files may use the same bitrate, the 320x240 will still look better at the same size as the 640x480. Multiple versions of a compressed video can be good as the audience can then decide what file size and quality they want to download.I'm not going to go into compression much, I just wanted to mention those few things asthey're left out in nearly all video compression guides.
Ok, now, you have your compressed video(s), where do you upload them. Well, ofcourse there are your ussual places such as putfile and youtube. But, Unless you want to **** your audience off with long waiting times, slow download speeds and required registration, those free file hosts aren't a very good option. Your best bet is getting your own shared host (servage.net are very good with heaps of bandwidth). You'll be surprised how cheap shared hosting is these days.
If you don't have the money for a webhost, then look for someone who can host your file for you. Many people dont mind hosting files on there servers or on their shared hosting accounts. I myself are happy to host any quality videos for you (check sig) but the same with other people out there.
Only ever use putfile, youtube.etc as a last resort.
Outro
I've prolly left out a ****load of details, but you should get the drift of what I'm trying to say
I hope you all have gotten something out of this guide and I hope to see better bf2 movies in the future.
Cheers!
I happen to have a few years in the industry, I'm 16 now but made my first commercial production when I was 13. Anyway, I hope my age doesn't reflect your opinions on my knowledge and what's written below.
Planning
To make a succesful video, it ussually helps if you plan it before hand. Know exactly what you want to get out of the video, but more importantly, makesure you know atleast roughly what the end result will look like.
If you're creating a story based movie, this is ofcourse even more important. If you have a rough storyboard but no details on the in between, then whats going to happen is, you'll find your story will be inconsistant.
Also, before you start to create a movie, makesure you are well prepared and have everything set properly. You don't want to do all these hard stunts and find out the server wasn't recording demos or your demo quality was low or something like that. Makesure you do a test run first to makesure everything is setup properly.
Also, this applies to all types of movies. Before you make the movie, ask yourself, would I want to watch this movie. If people asked answered that question honestly, we should have 50% less videos on these forums and much better videos with the other 50%.
Quality over Quantity
It seems some people think if they make a long movie, it will automatically be considered a good one. If you think that, then you're totally wrong. Who wants to spend more time watching a boring movie when they could be spending less time watching a more entertaining and satisfying movie.
Quality content is a must, even if you are a uber editor, fancy **** want cover up crappy content. Also, makesure your movie has a unique touch to it, people don't want to watch something that they think they've already seen.
Also, if you make a shorter movie rather than a longer one, you can then distribute a higher resolution movie.
Show Less, Not More
I use to love an australian comedian called carl barren, I use to only see him rarely on a few shows a month. When he released a DVD, I couldn't help but hire it out. After watching that DVD, I got totally sick of him. Thats a perfect example of why you should show less and not more.
I see stunt movies which pause on every stunt or show a thousand different angles. Thats almost like watching a movie sitting on the left side of the cinema, then watching the same movie sitting on the other side.
You may say, yeah but thats different, which it is, but in many ways its the same. The movie is going to be alot more boring the second time even though your now sitting on the other side of the cinema.
So, maybe choose two of the best angles and play them at no less than 50% of their normal speed. Also, its good to keep the audience asking "How did he do that" or "what just happened then becuase that looked sweet".
Music Music Music
Every BF2 movie to date has music (as far as I know). Not that this is a bad thing becuase its actually a good thing, but you need the right music/sound in the right places with the right mood.
Choosing any old song isn't going to do justice in most cases, especially if you are making a storyline movie where music needs to tell the audience the mood of a scene. Another thing, if you've done the planning correctly, you should know what your aim is with the movie you're planning to make, so you should have a fairly good idea of what type of music you will need.
Look at the BF2 intro music, watch it a few times and listen to how the moods of the music change and how well it is blended in with the editing. Although most of you dont have the resources to get your very own soundtrack made up, this is still a really good example.
So, I suggest you select the music you want before you even start recording the demo within bf2. This way you can match your scenes with your music much better and will give the overall movie a much more intergrated feel if done correctly.
Camera Flexiblity (withing BF2)
Sadly, bf2 lacks camera feature, there is no zoom, no smooth panning and not even adjustable freecam speeds. Curruntly, the camera features are really abd in bf2 like you all know. This is a big problem, but there are ways you can improve all this during the editing process and during the capturing process. I'll focus on the capturing process in this chapter
When you're recording your camera movements, you want to be able to adjust freecam speeds and smooth out pans. Here's how to give you a little more flexibility with both of those things.
The only way you can adjust freecam speeds (that I know of) is by adjusting playback speeds. If you want to chase a jet in freecam, at normal speed you will find freecam isn't fast enough to keep up, well, make playback speed 50% and you'll be able to keep up just fine. Then, when you watch the cerma back at normal speed, the camera will be going twice as fast and will be keeping up with the jet.
Now, what if you want to slow down speeds, well, do the opposite. Make playback speed 200% or whatever and then your camera will roughly travel at the same speed infantry travel. Then when you playback your recorded camera at normal speed, it will appear as if the camera is moving alot slower.
To smooth out panning, do the exact same thing, increase playback speed while recording your camera movements, then when you play it back at normal speed, the panning will have a much smoother feel to it.
Camera Flexiblity (during editing)
Now, if you've done everything you can within bf2 to steady your shots and adjust your speeds, then you'll prolly find its not enough. Well, plenty more can be done during the editing process.
Its a good thing to always capture your footage at the highest possible resolution. Then you have so much more flexibility while editing. You can now zoom, steady shots, create shaky cam effects and do small digital pans.
Most you would use programs downloaded from torrents. The most commonly used would be premiere pro. Although downloading from torrents isn't the right thing to do, there isn't really any harm being done in this case as you are not making videos commercially.
So, I recommend premiere pro combined with after effects. With these two programs you can make a very professional production, its all up to you.
Cinematics
The final touches to a movie can make a huge difference to its look and feel. Effects (both presets and custom) can make a final production look really good if used in the right circumstances.
It's important not to make your effects look corny. With lightning effects, I dont think there is a why you can make them not look corny, so your best not using effects like that.
The effects I'm referring to are effects like motion blurr, shaky cam (say when a bomb explodes), Colour correction (to make it look more realistic), Grain (more realistic again). But, it is inredibly important to use them correctly or else they can make your production look even worse. Used corretly however and it can make your production look 200% better.
Another way to make your video look different to bf2 ingame is to edit your video in widescreen. This is really good as it takes what people ussually see (when playing bf2) and gives them something they only see on tv and in the cinema. It can work a real treat.
Compression and Distribution
When you complete your video, your going to have to export it for distribution over the net (or wherever). It's important to always save a high quality version first, most of you should be already doing this, but for those who dont, makesure you do.
Ok, first lets focus on compression. In most cases (especially if yours is a quality video) the audience will be happy to download a larger file for better quality. No one wants to watch something where they can barely make out what they're looking at.
Compression basically comes down to resolution with bitrate. Its always better to make the bitrate higher than the resolution than the opposite (to an extent). So, your best having an artifact free 320x240 video than a 50% artifact 640x480 video. Although the video files may use the same bitrate, the 320x240 will still look better at the same size as the 640x480. Multiple versions of a compressed video can be good as the audience can then decide what file size and quality they want to download.I'm not going to go into compression much, I just wanted to mention those few things asthey're left out in nearly all video compression guides.
Ok, now, you have your compressed video(s), where do you upload them. Well, ofcourse there are your ussual places such as putfile and youtube. But, Unless you want to **** your audience off with long waiting times, slow download speeds and required registration, those free file hosts aren't a very good option. Your best bet is getting your own shared host (servage.net are very good with heaps of bandwidth). You'll be surprised how cheap shared hosting is these days.
If you don't have the money for a webhost, then look for someone who can host your file for you. Many people dont mind hosting files on there servers or on their shared hosting accounts. I myself are happy to host any quality videos for you (check sig) but the same with other people out there.
Only ever use putfile, youtube.etc as a last resort.
Outro
I've prolly left out a ****load of details, but you should get the drift of what I'm trying to say
I hope you all have gotten something out of this guide and I hope to see better bf2 movies in the future.
Cheers!
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