Editor’s note: This post on how to film a stream table was written by Mason Parrone’, Prototyper at Little River.
How to film a stream table
Many of our users may find filming their Emriver river model useful for a variety of reasons. Professors can livestream an online lab session. Teachers can have students film as part of a lesson. Others can create a quality polished video for a display or exhibition. Some may wish to show off what is happening to a larger audience than their model can accommodate.
To help with this process, we’d like to share some of our filming and lighting methods here at Little River. It is worth noting that our employees who do the majority of filming our models aren’t professional photographers/videographers. If you find a better way of doing something outlined below, please feel free to share it with us on social media; we are always looking for ways to improve the quality of our digital media. Also, if you have any great photos or videos of your Emriver stream table in action, please share those with us. We love to see how our models are used.
Lights
A good place to start with filming a river model is with lighting. If you’re filming outdoor during the day, there is a good chance you’ll have plenty of natural lighting, but you’ll want to take into consideration the camera settings. Passing clouds cause the exposure to need adjusting so the camera should be set to auto exposure. We also find it’s good to zoom in very close to the media and set autofocus. Once it gets focus, turn off that feature and zoom out. This prevents losing focus during filming.
Many times, you will be filming indoors. In this case, you’ll want to make sure you have nice full fill lighting, like overhead lights directly above the model. You also want to make sure this fill lighting isn’t too sharp, the last thing you want is bare light bulb reflection in the water. This can be really distracting and ruin the video. A light diffuser is helpful in this case. We use a plain white bed sheet suspended below our LED shop lighting. Just make sure it’s not too close so it doesn’t become a fire hazard. In addition to fill lighting, we do some stand lights around the model. These sidelights are kept as low as possible. These illuminate some areas but also create shadows in the texture of the media. Chiaroscuro is the Italian term for lights and shadows, and it is the filming technique used here to make the shot more interesting. Side lighting is especially useful for an overhead camera angle, one that we use frequently. It keeps the video from appearing one dimensional, and it reduces the likelihood of getting light reflections in the water. It should be noted that side lighting on stands can take a lot of setup and also reduce the usability of the model because you have to constantly work around them. In our shop, we use 4 for our Em3 and Em4 stream tables.
Video
For filming, it’s hard to beat a professional quality video camera. We use a Canon XA11. A tripod is a must-have for shooting angles up or downstream. Our video camera has an overhead carrying handle and video stabilization feature for filming handheld moving shots. What gets used more than our tripod is a ladder. To capture the entirety of the river model, we set up a 10-foot ladder next to the model. We have a 2×4 attached to the very top that hangs over one side and has a camera mount on it. This lets us position the camera directly over the center of the model and get everything in the frame. (And don’t forget to tie up the cords so they don’t get in frame).
Another thing we’ve been doing recently and has worked out well is livestreaming our river models. Our video camera has an audio/video output over mini HDMI port. We connect that to a computer using a 25 ft. cable and a USB 3.0 capture card. We use OBS to capture the video and livestream it to YouTube. You can just as easily stream to your preferred platform with the same setup.
In lieu of some of the more expensive video equipment mentioned, current-generation smartphones have incredible cameras and can excel at filming short videos and other demonstrations.
Here’s an example of a video we created recently—
Equipment Recommendations
Capture Card: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FXHN43Y
Video Camera: https://www.amazon.com/Canon-XA11-Professional-Camcorder/dp/B0773Y4HTC
Lights: Neewer Model Number JYLED-1000S
