How to make professional "shakes"

[Stefan Hoefinger]

Hey!

Sometimes seen in music clips or series that the camera is pretty light shaked! How do they do those shakes or are there any shaking tricks that the footage looks professional?

Because if I shake with a professional camera it doesnt look pretty professional :D

Or is this all done in the editing on the computer?

Thanks

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

I think shakes done in post are not the same.
(Try wiggle in AE and see for yourself)

My bet would be the camera operators are just good, experienced and practiced enough to achieve the look they want.

If I'm wrong about anything or is there any technique I don't know, please join this discussion.

And not forgetting that most "pro" shootings are done with huge 35mm or digital cameras, so "shoulder mount shaky" is definitely different from "handheld consumer shaky".

[Josh Bass]

I think you'll have to better define these "shakes". . .there are any manner of jerky/floaty/drifty/shaky camera moves out there, so if you can better define what you're after, that might help.


I can tell you from my very limited experience, that on a low budget (still 35mm, though) rap music video I PA'd on several years ago, the DP and director agreed to make the camera shake on certain beats, for this one shot (it was pretty wide, if I recall). So they ran the music, starting rolling, and on whatever beat it was, the DP would hammer his fist on the tripod's pan arm and let it bounce off. The tilt was locked down, so the shot didn't really move except for the shake on each hit. I never saw the final result, so couldn't tell you what it looked like.

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVqI1M2yh98

I thought the OP was referring to "not so stabilized" footage like this.

[Stefan Hoefinger]

Originally Posted by Pietro Impagliazzo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVqI1M2yh98

I thought the OP was referring to "not so stabilized" footage like this.

Yeah that is exactly what I mean! The footage is shaked but it looks not bad!

Do anyone knows plugins for After Effects that let "shakes" look better?

THANKS

[Andrew McMillan]

The shake in that video really isn't shake it's more like float. That comes from a great camera operator. The shaking that is in the video looks different because an a large heavely camera shakes differently than a little, plus the editting, plus the syncronization to beat, plus the slo-mo. It all adds up.

On another rap music video they rented some machine that goes in front of the lens and shakes some primes or mirrors around or something. Don't know how it worked, but it could shake the image way faster than any cameraman hope to.

[Ray Bell]

Here you go.... its called twitch for After Effects

http://www.videocopilot.net/twitch/

[Josh Bass]

redundant reply. Delete.

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

Originally Posted by Andrew McMillan

The shake in that video really isn't shake it's more like float. That comes from a great camera operator. The shaking that is in the video looks different because an a large heavely camera shakes differently than a little, plus the editting, plus the syncronization to beat, plus the slo-mo. It all adds up.

If that clip is exactly what you asked OP, Andrew said it all.