How I Made: Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Video

Today’s Post by Barry Staver

As good as the Panasonic Lumix GH-4 is for still photography, it’s even better for shooting video. I originally went with this system for stills, not intending to shoot video. As a lifelong documentary photographer, I believed there was no need to add motion or sound to an image. That’s one of the “never say never” moments that I’m reclaiming.

Video production is exciting, it’s challenging, it’s brought a sense of fun and inspiration back to my work. Conversely, it’s much harder to pull off than shooting stills. Therein lies the beauty of the GH-4, making the procedure easier.

This film, created for my yoga mentor and friend, Karen Quinn, will be used to attract students to her advanced yoga teacher training sessions. It was planned as a series of montage clips (short, non-sequential video clips – not true scenes) showing how she interacts with students in a class. There was no script, no interviewing, and no storyboard. It quickly became apparent to me that more would be needed to tell a better story.

It was shot with the GH-4, some tripod mounted and a lot hand-held (easier to do with this camera than anything larger). 17-years of yoga gave me the insight to keep the camera rolling as she instructed the class. Sound became critical during the edit, allowing multiple video clips to be inserted over the audio track.

Since we weren’t planning on capturing any narrative from her, she was not mic’ed. Audio was captured from an audio-technica AT875R shotgun mic mounted to the camera. The sound was processed thru a JuicedLink Preamp attached to the bottom of the camera.

The finished film has a documentary feel to it with interesting visuals that should keep the viewers interest.