The Tools Behind FOOH Part III: Shooting and Capturing Footage

In the previous part of our tech blog series, we dived into the planning stage of Fake Out Of Home productions. Our advert has been carefully planned, taking into account all the foreseeable production issues and preparing for unforeseen problems.

Now it’s time to move from planning to execution. This chapter is all about how to capture high-quality footage for Fake Out-Of-Home productions – great tracking, seamless compositing, and believable integration all start here.

Camera Equipment for FOOH Production

There is a wide range of options available to capture high-quality footage, each offering unique advantages. From different camera types and lenses to mobile phones, the choice of tools can significantly impact the final result, allowing for a tailored approach to suit various production needs.

Mobile Phones vs Cameras

Most mid- and high-end mobile phones are equipped with small yet high-quality lenses and advanced image correction software. These features allow mobile phones to capture relatively high-quality videos.

FOOH productions are typically fast-paced, often requiring the camera operator to work solo while recording footage with autofocus lenses. Such a streamlined production could benefit from the mobile phone’s portability, ease of use, and quick access to editing tools.

Mirrorless or DSLR cameras, along with professional cinema cameras with interchangeable lenses, offer excellent video quality for top-tier Fake Out Of Home ads. Cinema cameras also provide better handling options through a large number of accessories.

DSLR, mirrorless, and cinema cameras have a key advantage over mobile phones: larger photo sensors that capture a higher dynamic range. This helps in post-production, offering more flexibility in adjusting footage.

Camera Lenses

In FOOH production, wide-angle lenses ranging from 12mm to 35mm are typically used, as the goal is to replicate the wide field of view that is common in mobile phone cameras. Some DOPs prefer prime lenses, while others prefer the flexibility of zoom lenses. The lens’s sharpness, its ability to correct distortions and its ease of handling should be considered.

Gimbals

A gimbal is highly beneficial for producing smooth, stable handheld shots by compensating for unwanted camera shakes and vibrations. It ensures professional-quality footage, allowing for fluid and dynamic movements without the need for a bulky tripod or steadicam system.

On-Set Best Practices for FOOH

While shot framing typically follows the direction established during the storyboarding phase in pre-production, it’s important to ensure that the captured footage remains easily readable when displayed on the relatively smaller screens of mobile phones.

For the FOOH advertising to be effective, the footage should look as if it was captured by an average mobile user encountering something surprising.

If actors or objects are involved, their movements and performances must be coordinated to align with the planned CGI elements. For example, actors may need to react to or even interact with invisible digital objects, requiring precise timing, direction, and placement.

Storyboards or previsualization created in advance can help ensure smoother collaboration among all parties, while physical markers or objects can guide both the actors and the camera.

It’s always helpful to capture a few shots without actors or focus objects, as these can be useful in post-production when clean plates are needed to remove unwanted or distracting elements.

Tip: Specialized mobile apps can leverage spatial capture technologies to simplify the process of digitally reconstructing scenes, enabling seamless integration of visual effects and distortion correction.

Resolution and Camera Settings

Using high-resolution cameras and the appropriate camera settings (e.g., frame rate, sensitivity, video recording settings) is critical to ensuring that the footage retains its clarity and quality, making it easier to integrate high-quality CGI elements without losing detail.

Ensuring the best image quality settings are used for the recorded footage is essential. Shooting in 4K (Ultra HD) resolution is crucial for high-quality tracking, visual effects integration, and the ability to crop within the shot frame.

Video Recording Formats

For Fake Out Of Home productions that require more control over the final output, RAW video formats and Log video formats capture a broader range of values, helping to preserve highlights and shadows more effectively. This provides greater flexibility in post-production compared to standard compressed video formats.

In contrast, SDR videos are designed for direct display on typical monitors, offering a ‘what you see is what you get’ experience without the need for extensive post-production adjustments.

RAW files, in particular, store unprocessed sensor data and allow for non-destructive editing, meaning adjustments can be made without losing the original data. This is especially helpful if changes need to be reverted or refined during the editing and integration process.

Mobile phones have increasingly advanced in their video recording capabilities, with many high-end smartphones now offering Log and RAW video formats, which are typically seen in professional-grade cameras.

Frame Rates

Most common mobile phones have displays with refresh rates of 60 Hz, 90 Hz, or 120 Hz. The footage should use either 30 frames per second or a multiple of 30 to ensure that motion in the resulting video appears natural on the screen. Fractional frame rates, like 24, 25 or 48 fps, will exhibit visually distracting motion jitter, as entire frames will be dropped during playback to maintain the video’s original speed on a display.

Camera Angles and Movement

Camera angles and movements should be planned carefully to match the size and dynamics of the CGI elements. This includes tracking shots, the camera’s placement related to the planned virtual elements, and the camera’s interaction with the scene to ensure continuity with digital elements.

Focusing on the Action

Although cinematographers on FOOH productions typically use wide-angle lenses with smaller apertures, which significantly reduce the issue of out-of-focus blurring, it’s still important to carefully consider the position of the focal point to ensure that the space of the action - whether live, virtual or both - remains in focus for optimal sharpness. This consideration is unavoidable when telephoto lenses are used.

Environment & Real-World Elements

The production team should leverage their creativity to effectively integrate visual effects added later, while avoiding unnecessary visual clutter, ensuring that the final advertisement is both impactful and believable.

The real-world environment needs to be considered for how it will interact with CGI elements. This includes reflections, shadows, and how the digital elements will interact with real-world lighting and surfaces. On set, visual clutter should be avoided especially at the center of the FOOH action for the advertisement to be easily digestible.

Recording the environment

Dealing with unwanted reflections, shadows in areas used for integration, recreating lifelike object surfaces that seamlessly integrate with the footage, and handling elements like foliage in front of computer-generated objects can be challenging in post-production.

Therefore, it is essential to capture as many reference images as possible, both from the camera’s position and from other angles, as these help streamline work-intensive tasks in post-production. Consistency in weather conditions should be maintained across both the footage and reference images.

Lighting

Proper lighting is essential to ensure that the product being advertised is presented effectively, making the final result desirable. In FOOH productions, lighting is usually determined by what is available, whether natural or artificial.

For outdoor shots, scouting during the pre-production phase must also consider how the lighting changes at different times of the day. Virtual scouting is possible with apps like Sunseeker and Shadowmap.

High Dynamic Range Images

To quickly reproduce the lighting and reflections as they were on location, HDRI spheres can be used. High dynamic range images are created by capturing multiple standard dynamic range photo frames in quick succession from a tripod or another fixed point, then blending them together based on their exposure values.

By using automatic panoramic stitching combined with an HDR blending solution, it’s possible to create spherical panoramas that replicate the lighting of a real-world environment. Compact 360 cameras like the Insta360 and the Ricoh Theta and mobile apps like HDReye can help streamlining the process of capturing such HDR spherical panoramas for FOOH productions.

Weather

Weather conditions can significantly impact video quality during fast-paced FOOH advertising productions, especially when shooting outdoors. Variations in light caused by cloud cover, direct sunlight, or changes in weather can lead to inconsistent exposure and color balance, making it challenging to maintain a uniform look across shots.

High humidity or smog, for example, can reduce visibility and impact the clarity of distant shots, creating a hazy effect that may affect the overall aesthetic. Additionally, elements like rain, wind, or humidity can affect camera equipment, lenses, and even the stability of shots, potentially introducing unwanted motion blur or lens fog.

Producers often have to quickly adapt by adjusting settings, or repositioning to mitigate these weather-related challenges and maintain high-quality footage under changing conditions.

Keep the action in the frame

Capturing high-quality footage for FOOH productions requires a blend of technical expertise, creativity, and an understanding of technical requirements for the integration of visual effects. By ensuring the footage follows the creative vision, carries enough detail, and has adequate lighting on location, filmmakers can ensure that their content not only meets but exceeds the standards for a seamless FOOH ad.

In the rapidly evolving world of digital advertising, staying ahead of trends and continuously refining techniques is essential for creating impactful and visually stunning experiences that resonate with audiences.