Indie wrestling camera work.
 

I started marketing my camera work to indie wrestling promoters and I booked a few jobs. I have been watching since I was five, but this is my first time getting to film it. I'm trying to provide affordable coverage to promoters down here in Alabama. This is the main event of the show, any comments or critiques would be very helpful for my next wrestling shoot.

Again, I need your opinions based on the coverage, not the actual wrestling. Although, this was one of the better matches of the night. Sorry I can't seem to get it to embed. Thanks guys.

https://vimeo.com/60144038

Give it 10 mins before ur rep turns red.

Ouch, that harsh a crowd huh?

needs more instant replays

It's not that big a deal, I just wanted to get opinions from a wrestling source other than Facebook, i'll take it down if it's going to offend someone that bad. lol. I mostly come here just to read anyways.

He wanted IR, but didn't wanna pay for it unfortunately.

Unfortunatley I hate southern hicks so I can't watch this crap!!!

Good job man. :y:

I'm no expect when it comes to camera work, so I can't really say if you meet the demands of promoters etc, but you seemed to do a good job.

If you're looking for a steady income from something like this, you should look up Ocoee Championship Wrestling. I think they're after some crew members, and for an Indy fed, they pay pretty well.

nah it's ok. i assume it was you editing the 2 shots and/or using the handheld camera? it kind of reminds me of that ecw fan cam thing they had during house shows

Rammsteinmad, OCW only uses the finest equipment wal mart can provide, I could never dream to hit that level. But, it's surely a long term goal.

Razzmajazz, yeah pretty much. He also didn't wanna pay for a third cam, as much as I suggested it to him. A lot of these guys don't think in the long term as far as business, and it's extremely hard making them look good most times. It's leading into some cool stuff though, I may get to shoot the Steiners in April.

Too much headroom on the wideshot.

I did some editing for a local promotion once and their footage was absolutely terrible. They had no wide safety shot, and their camera guys were trying to do the WWE "snap zoom on impact" thing, except for the fact that they would ONLY zoom in, and at like every single punch. Dudes would be trading punches and the cameraman would rapidly zoom in closer with every punch.

Had to edit around a lot of garbage. I think it somehow became "ok" looking with great effort.

Also, I think one of the cameras wasn't white balanced the same as the other, so that was a pain as well.

Ugh, too much vanilla. You and those wrasslers should go back to your Taco Bell jobs.

Looks pretty DSLR. What are you shooting with, 7D's?

I think it looks good for what you're working with. Your handheld guy at ringside could use some practice steadying his shots and staying in focus.

Also, your wide shot facing the corner of the ring (a diagonal ring shot) is off-putting. WWE has imbedded into the wrestling fan's mind that the wide shot will be head-on with the ring, so when anyone who's ever watching wrestling sees your footage, they will immediately think "AMATEUR." If possible, I'd suggest setting up your wide shot at the same angle as the WWE has theirs.

Good on you for making this happen though. I've got a friend who works the FCW/NXT tapings at Full Sail University. I'm a video production major myself and I've always wanted to work a wrestling event.

I skipped around a bit like everyone else. Felt like you/they (no clue if you edited) relied on the wide shot way too much. But then again, this is a two camera shoot, so I guess that's expected. Didn't like the angled wide shot, felt like it was too far away from the ring and the angle felt weird.

One thing I noticed is that you are WAY too visible and obvious at times (I'm assuming you're shooting at ringside). Don't walk casually around the ring like that. It literally looked like you were looking for a good shot, so you stop and shoot it. At times you were just standing there. Try to hide yourself and stay low. If you need to, pop up when you have the shot, but then go right back low when you're done. Also, wearing bright orange didn't help anything.

Fox and Xero, wrote down everything you guys said and will be using your tips in the future. This is exacly what I needed to hear, thank you. Next month i'm shooting Chikara Grand Champion Eddie Kingston and five dollar wrestling Freight train, and im just brushing up a bit.

Lockjaw, I agree, but both were set to the same white balance, im not sure what was going on there. For films and what not I always custom WB, but since this was "wrasslin" I didn't take it that seriously, lol, so I tossed it on auto.

CSL, you're damn skippy, but he didn't want to pay for a third.

All in all, this is still more fun than shooting weddings for a living. I got out making 25 an hour for the job too, so im not complaining.

btw Fox, you nailed it exactly, a 7D and a 5D Mark II

Thank you guys again for taking the time to look, great tips for my next one.

Right. I shoot on the 60D, so I recognized it pretty quickly. $25.00/hr isn't bad, but how long are you actually working?

I thought the rasslin was ok at best. They needed an ERAG match. The camera work was ok but I think my iPhone would have better to tape on b/c iPhones rule! RIP Steve Jobber

The event was 3 hours, about 3 hours in post, then an hours drive.

Oh my god this match

I just watched all 36 goddamned minutes of that thing and I am personally offended by every aspect of it.

His job is to move around and get the shots. This is absurd advice.

My best advice is to take your name off this thing and pretend it never happened.

I was literally gasping at how bad it was.

Yeah, there's a lot of room for improvement, lol. Shooting stuff like this on those types of cameras is challenging, not really the best set up for sports of any kind. I know this is a VERY rough,trashy start, but its a foot in the door and a learning experience i'm glad I took.

Close the thread.