Sport Videography Tips - How to Film Sports Videos

In this video, we take a look at Sport Videography and How to Film Sports Videos. We cover camera and lens choice, settings and much more.

Sports Cinematography Tips

How to film a sport video

In this video, we're talking about some of my favourite tips to help you shoot better sports videos.

If you haven't filmed much sport before or fast-paced action, it can be intimidating when you're just getting started.

These tips should help you out!

Know the sport

This first one may or may not be obvious, but having a good understanding of the sport you are filming will help you to get much better results.

Knowing what the players will be doing, where they are positioned, how they score; it's things like this that are great to know in order for you to get the shots you need.

A good idea if you've never filmed or even seen a certain sport, would be to attend a training session or two. This should give you plenty of understanding of how the game fundamentals work and where you can be positioned during an actual game.

It's also a great opportunity to get to know the team you are filming if you haven't worked with them before. This helps you to build up a relationship and perhaps get better access to certain areas and possibly even more work.

It also wouldn't hurt to do a Google or Youtube search to give you the absolute basics if needed.

Know your gear

I can't stress this enough, this tip is vital for pretty much anything you are going to film, especially where things only happen once like sports, events and weddings.

The last thing you want is to miss a once in a lifetime shot because you were messing around with your settings.

Get to know your camera like the back of your hand. Understand what every button does, where everything is in the menus; know your camera so well that, you can switch frame rates or change aperture basically without looking.

This is easier if you are using your own equipment but if you are renting, it's worth getting everything at least a couple of days before, especially if you haven't used that make or model before.

The type of video you want to get will determine what equipment you will need.

If you want smooth slow-motion tracking shots, you may want to use a gimbal. If you want fast-paced, high-intensity cuts, you may want to shoot handheld or with an easy rig.

Whatever it is you do use, just make sure you know it well and understand how to use it effectively.

For me, I like to mix it up. So I will use a variety of equipment from handheld, monopod or tripod to gimbal.

I'm usually using lenses that cover the basic focal ranges from 24-70 and 70-200. This gives me plenty of options from wide to tight.

I don't personally own something longer like the 200-600 but that would be a great option, especially if you are limited to where you can be positioned during a game.

Get your settings right

This tip follows on from the previous one.

Getting your settings right is so important. Not all sports are the same, some are much faster paced than others and you will need to adjust your settings accordingly.

It also depends on what you need for the final edit.

Will you be shooting at 24 fps or a higher frame rate for slow motion?

Will you be filming in natural light or under stadium lights?

It's things like this you need to consider before the actual shoot day but knowing how to quickly change your settings if needed is essential.

Personally, when I'm filming sports, it's usually at 24fps 4K or 120fps FHD

Because of this, I have two custom dials set up on my camera so I can quickly switch between the two.

Shutter speed can have a big impact on the motion blur in your shots.

If you have a standard shutter of 180 degrees (/50 second) the motion blur may be too much for a fast-paced sport and your viewers may lose track of the action. I like to use a 90 degree or even a 45-degree shutter angle to reduce the motion blur in fast-paced action, this also helps to add more energy to shots as well. This is quite a common technique, famously used in the opening beach shots for "Saving Private Ryan". Less motion blur will mean the motion is more jarring so it all depends on how you want to final edit to turn out.

You won't have control of the lighting when filming real sports games and so personally I like to dial in my settings and use a Variable Neutral Density filter to adjust my exposure as needed. This is essential anyway when filming outside but it's likely your exposure will change over time. If you are filming inside, or under stadium lights, your exposure shouldn't change too much but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Stadium lights and old indoor fluorescent lighting can impact your image with flickering if you haven't got the right shutter dialled in. You may have to adjust your shutter as needed to compensate for the frequency of some lights, especially if you are shooting 120 fps.

Now let's talk about aperture.

Keeping players in focus is tricky when they are moving so fast, for this reason, it's better to have a higher aperture for example f 8 - 11 to give you an easier time keeping them sharp.

Using a longer lens helps to compensate for the higher aperature, as when you are zoomed in from 70-200, your image will be more compressed, bringing the background closer and still giving some depth to your image. If it's a slower sport, you can get away with opening up your aperture a bit.

Having said that, I do still like to shoot at 2.8 inside and outside with a variable ND to isolate certain players. This combined with 120 fps can get you some great results.

For ISO, I leave it at the native ISO indoors and outdoors, which is 800 for S-log2 on the a7iii. There are only certain venues with terrible lighting where I adjust this slightly.

I'm always shooting in a log profile, fortunately, a lot of sports are played outside and so it's only those poorly sit venues where I need to worry about light.

Something that you may overlook is white balance, make sure you get that locked in before you start shooting. Bring a grey card or x-rite passport if you have one.

Finally, for settings, let's talk about focus.

I've shot a lot of sports events using manual focus with my old 5D mark iii, however now I preffer to use the Sony's incredible auto foucs, it's much more reliable than my eyes, especially for fast-moving subjects.

I will switch between wide, zone and spot, depending on the shot.

If it's a wide shot I tend to be on wide, If i'm focusing on a single-player it will be zone or spot. Make sure you know how to switch between focus modes quickly, I like to have it as one of my custom buttons.

If you have it, face and eye detection is a great feature to turn on, although this can get lost if there are a lot of players running through your frame. Again, having a custom button or quick shortcut setup to quickly turn this on or off is a good idea.

Preparation is key

Be prepared as much as possible before game day.

Have all of your equipment ready: batteries charged, gimbal balanced, cards formatted, everything you may need for the day, get it sorted beforehand.

Check the weather if you're filming outside, I always bring some form of wet weather projection just in case.

Double-check the location of the game and match start time. You don't want to get caught out by any last-minute venue changes.

You'll want to make sure you arrive early, so you can set up and get some shots of the warm-up, huddle, team talk.

Make sure you have your shooting pass if needed or that your name will be on the gate so that you can actually get into the venue.

You can never be too prepared.

Look after yourself

Arguably most important, don't forget to look after yourself.

You may be shooting a couple of games in a day, or for long periods of time, bring food and drink if necessary.

Make sure you have sun and wet weather projection available as needed.

Bring any sort of support you may require, personally, I wear wrist support, especially if I know I'm going to be using a gimbal for long periods of time.

Put the camera down when possible and give your body a break. You may not realise it at the time but you will definitely feel it afterwards if you strain yourself too much.

You will only be able to do your best job if you take care of yourself first.