Skip main navigation

New offer! Get 30% off your first 2 months of Unlimited Monthly. Start your subscription for just £29.99 £19.99. New subscribers only. T&Cs apply

Find out more

Guerrilla Diaries: Using the Jib

A post-apocalyptic scene shot in a car park. A jib crane shot allows you to create great parallax shots and make the most of your layered images.
22.9
[OUTSIDE BACKGROUND NOISES]
27.9
[INAUDIBLE]
36.4
[SPRAYING]
39.3
[MACHINERY NOISES]
44.8
Action.
59.2
Right. And another look to your right. And to your left, please. That’s good. You just need to watch your– a little bit of hair there. This might keep it easier.
290.7
Now if you don’t have access to a studio and these safety precautions which we have– and also the experience in shooting these kind of stop effects– then there are other places in which you can get these from.

Justin, our director of photography, knew we were working in 3D so he was free to use a camera move for the first time. He chose a vertical move, and used the Jib crane to make a shot that gives you the option to play around with depth and distance in your comp.

In filmmaking, a jib is like a boom mic, but on a see-saw pole, with a camera on one end and a counterweight on the other. Separate monitor and controls allow viewing and remote camera operation. It needs to be used sparingly, but in situations like this where Justin wanted to create parallax and a change in view, it provides us with many creative possibilities that we hope you’ll explore.

Parallax is the difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight. Put simply, things nearer us seem to move faster as we pass by than things in the distance. An example is the sort of effect you get looking out a train window.

Whereas in 2D layer compositing you might need to estimate how something in the foreground moves in relation to something further back, in 3D compositing it can be almost automatic. The elevation in Justin’s shot gives us something to work with.

As we said, crane shots tend to be used sparingly, usually to establish scenes or say something about the character in their landscape. Can you think of a way you could use this kind of shot in your own work?

Since what you’re doing with this week’s episode is essentially building set extensions, let’s see what the Blaine Brothers have to say on the subject next, and how they’ve used this effect.

This article is from the free online

Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers

Created by
FutureLearn - Learning For Life

Reach your personal and professional goals

Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.

Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.

Start Learning now