Gimbals are slowly taking the place of many large, heavy dollies, sliders, and other cinematic tools. So we are going to show you 8 cinematic gimbal moves to use in your narrative or doc-style videos! The gimbal is a fast, simple, inexpensive tool for you to get a wide variety of different angles for your shots. We are using the Tilta Gravity G2 for our demo today along with the Nucleus-Nano Follow Focus system, which makes for a great cinematic tool. Special thanks to our model for today, Nicole Guibord (@nicoleguibord) for helping us out today!
#1: 360 Pan
A great way to introduce your character is using this 360 Pan around your subject. It allows you to use a shallow depth of field while circling an object. Additionally, it’s an effective way to show the surroundings in a scene as well and give you additional information without having too many separate cuts.
#2: Follow Shot
This shot was first done by Scorsese in Good Fellas, following the actor in and out of different scenes. It’s an engaging way of getting long, continuous shots of the character going from scene to scene to establish the scene.
#3 Leading Shot
Now this shot is different from a follow shot because it gives you an intimate look at who they are, what they are thinking, what they are facing. You can try this in slo-mo as well to create a more contemplative atmosphere as they face something head-on.
#4 Jib Shot
We are going from a low angle to a high angle. It’s a good way to show a full view of the character. When we start from view of her legs, we see the gun that concealed below the table. As we move up, we now see a completely different view of the whole restaurant.
#5 Slider Shot
Obviously, the gimbal isn’t a slider, but it can mimic the action of a slider shot pretty well if you practice it. We show a really nice slider move across the machine gun from right to left just to get a good feeling of the scene.
#6 Push In
To give a more dramatic feeling to a scene, you can use the gimbal to push in on your actor. In general, this move is used to amp up a scene like when an actor is shocked or scared in a suspenseful scene.
#7 Pull Out
Using the gimbal, you can do a quick but smooth pull out to shift focus onto an object or the gun in her hand! It’s similar to a handheld shot, but it’s a lot more fluid.
#8 Underslung Shot
Want to track your subject matter? This shot is the perfect solution to follow your subject’s feet as they’re walking or add mystery to a scene by hiding the character’s face. You can use this angle facing the side of your character as well to give a bit of motion to the shot.
Bonus: Parallax Shot
A parallax shot is being able to move the camera while seeing the background and foreground move at different paces. This allows the subject to stand out from the background and also creates depth of field.
Bonus #2: The Woodpecker
This shot is something pushes in really fast and pushes out equally fast. The movement would be similar to a woodpecker pecking on a tree! This move is great for adding some comic relief to the scene or just a great dramatic zip in and out of a scene.
Concluding Thoughts
What really makes this Tilta Gravity G2 Gimbal ideal for cinematic moves is when you have a follow focus on it with a very shallow depth of field. The Nucleus Nano makes it easy to change the focus from shot to shot. We didn’t even get into racking focus and pulling focus within a shot, so I would practice and play with the tools to see what style you like best. You can pull the follow focus off as well, so someone else can pull focus for you while you shoot.
Share your videography work with us online @theslantedlens. We’d love to see what kind of shots you are taking and how you are pushing the limits of your creativity!
